This was the story I was looking for all along. I heard this from Orson Welles himself. Magician famous for dying on stage attempting the bullet catch trick.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chung_Ling_Soo
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/morbid-monday-chung-ling-soo-the-bullet-trick-that-went-horribly-wrong
16:28 is where the story begins.
