The Sad Odyssey of Elmer McCurdy – Part 2

 

In Part 1 of this post I chronicled the early life and criminal career of Elmer J. McCurdy who also went by at least three aliases.  I also told you about his arguably untimely death at the hands of a posse of sheriffs.

But that’s where his adventure really began to get interesting.

Oh, and he managed to acquire some more aliases too.

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After his death, Elmer’s body was taken to the Johnson Funeral home in Pawhuska, Oklahoma where it was kept for next-of-kin to pick-up and to pay the bill.  The corpse went unclaimed so owner and operator, Joseph L. Johnson, embalmed the body.  Johnson shaved McCurdy’s beard, dressed him in a suit, and moved him to the back of the mortuary for storage.

No one showed up to claim next-of-kinship and pay for his services, so Johnson refused to bury or release the body.

Yeah.  Things were different in those days.

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Wanting to recoup his expenses, Joseph decided to exhibit McCurdy.  People would be willing to pay a reasonable fee to view the defunct bandit, right?

Ri-i-i-ight.

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Johnson dressed the dead robber in street clothes, placed a rifle in his hands, and stood him up in a corner of the funeral home.  For a nickel visitors could see “The Bandit Who Wouldn’t Give Up” or, as he was called at other times, “The Mystery Man of Many Aliases”, “The Oklahoma Outlaw”, and “The Embalmed Bandit”).

“The Bandit” was such a popular attraction that some carnival promoters took notice.  Several times Johnson received offers to buy the mummified crook but he passed on all of them.

It seemed Elmer had found a permanent home.  In this case permanent turned out to be temporary as it lasted only five years.

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On October 6, 1916, a man named Aver, claiming to be McCurdy’s brother from California, walked into the funeral home.  He had already contacted the Osage County, Oklahoma sheriff and a local attorney for permission to take custody of the body, which he said he wanted to ship to San Francisco for proper burial.

Aver, along with a man named Wayne, showed up the next day to pick up their brother.

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I’ve never heard of a freight train making a U-turn but, instead of San Francisco, the train bearing McCurdy’s corpse ended up in Arkansas City, Kansas.  Aver and Wayne really were brothers, just not Elmer’s brothers.  They were actually James and Charles Patterson.  James owned The Great Patterson Carnival Shows.

Yup, a traveling carnival.

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The purloined thief remained with the carnival for six years, and was billed as, “The Outlaw Who Would Never Be Captured Alive”.  When Patterson sold his carnival to Louis Sonney, Elmer went along…

As if he had a choice.

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Sonney was owner of a traveling “Museum of Crime” which featured wax replicas of Jesse James and other famous outlaws.  While part of the wax museum, McCurdy’s corpse was part of the official sideshow that accompanied the Trans-American Footrace in 1928.

When director Dwain Esper was filming the exploitation movie, Narcotic!  He loaned the, by this time, mummified body to theaters which propped it up in their lobbies and displayed it as, alleging it to be a “dead dope fiend” who had killed himself when surrounded by police after he had robbed a drug store.  Esper claimed that the shrunken and shriveled body was the result of long-time drug abuse.

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After Sonney’s passing in 1949, McCurdy’s body was stored in a Los Angeles warehouse until 1964.  Sonney’s son, Dan, then lent the body to filmmaker David F. Friedman, who used it for a brief appearance in his 1967 movie, She Freak.

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Dan Sonney sold Elmer’s body along with several wax replicas to Spoony Singh for $10,000 in 1964.  Singh owned the Hollywood Wax Museum.  He had bought the figures for two Canadian entrepreneurs who wanted to exhibit them at a show near Mount Rushmore.

The defunct bandit didn’t look too bad for a man who had been dead for more than half a century, but he started to look even less human when a windstorm struck.  Afterwards it was found that Elmer’s body was missing the tips of his ears as well as some fingers and toes.

The Canadians returned the mummy to Singh who decided that it looked “too gruesome” and not lifelike enough for exhibition, so he sold it to Ed Liersch, partner in The Nu-Pike, in Long Beach California.  Once at the amusement zone, McCurdy just hung around.  By 1976 it was exhibited in the “Laff In the Dark” funhouse as a bank robber who had been hung for his crime.

Yes, McCurdy’s corpse was hanging from a gallows by a noose around the neck.

You see, somewhere along the line someone had forgotten to pass along the fact that the body was human…

…that Elmer was human.

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In December of 1976 The Six Million Dollar Man was a popular television series.  They were filming scenes for an episode named, “Carnival of Spies” at The Pike.  When a prop man was rearranging the set, he grabbed what he thought was a neon orange wax mannequin.  The arm broke off.  Since wax figures don’t normally have human bones, the authorities were notified.

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Dr. Joseph Choi conducted an autopsy on December 9 and concluded that the corpse was that of a human male who had died of a gunshot wound to the chest.

But you already knew that, didn’t you.  You also have a good idea why the mummified man was covered with layers of wax and phosphorescent paint.  Amusement parks tend to do that to their mannequins.

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By this time, McCurdy weighed only about 50 pounds and was 5’3” tall.  His missing toes, fingers, and the tips of his ears, along with other medical issues were revealed during the autopsy, as well as arsenic, which was used for McCurdy’s original embalming.  The new autopsy also discovered injuries and diseases the bandit had acquired during his life.

Like an episode of NCIS or CSI, medical professionals tracked down the evidence and concluded that the poor mummy was Elmer McCurdy.

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Also during the examination, doctors found a 1924 penny and ticket stubs from  Louis Sonney’s Museum of Crime as well as The Pike, on Long Island.  Some viewers had stuck them in McCurdy’s mouth at different times.  All jokes aside about putting your money where your mouth is, the finds also helped verify the man’s identity and helped document his long journey after death.

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On April 22, 1977, Elmer McCurdy’s body was interred in the Boot Hill section of the Summit View Cemetery in Guthrie, Oklahoma.  An estimated 300 people attended the graveside service as Elmer was laid to rest beside Bill Doolin, another outlaw of his era.

Two feet of concrete were poured over Elmer’s casket.  They said it was to prevent theft, but I suspect it was to ensure that McCurdy’s adventure was truly over.

 

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