Elmer McCurdy – The Embalmed Bandit

Not that long ago, people paid money to catch a glimpse of fat ladies, dog-faced boys & siamese twins. If you had a freak, an audience, and a story, you could sell tickets. People even paid to see skeletons and supposed “dead bodies” that were most likely fake but hyped up with a fantastic back story.

But what if one of the fake dead bodies turned out to be real? That’s exactly what happened when a 1970s TV show crew discovered the gruesome truth while filming an episode.

The Corpse, Elmer McCurdy (1880-1911)

Elmer McCurdy was born in Washington, Maine Jan 1, 1880 to an unmarried 17 year old named Sadie McCurdy. Elmer never knew who his real father was. To save young Sadie from social embarassment as a single mother, her brother George and his wife adopted baby Elmer and moved to Bangor. When Elmer found out in his teens that his parents weren’t his real parents, he didn’t take the news well and started drinking heavily and getting into trouble – a pattern that would follow him throughout his short life.

Elmer worked for a while as a plumber, lost his job, his mother and grandfather died, and he left Maine. He drifted his way westward, getting jobs as a plumber and a miner. He typically lost them because of his drinking. He spent time in Kansas and Missouri, and then joined the Army in 1907. While stationed at Fort Leavenworth, Elmer trained for a bit in demolitions – a skill he would try to leverage later in his life as a crook.

Let’s Try Crime

After getting honorably discharged from the Army in November 1910, Elmer began his life as a crook with an Army buddy. Using his questionable knowledge of explosives, he conned his way into teams and started robbing banks and trains. His life of crime spanned but 9 months, but it was full of lowlights.

The main problem is that Elmer just wasn’t very good at his job. He routinely botched the robberies because he really didn’t know how to use explosives. He either used not enough or way too much which meant that he either failed to open the safe, or he blew up both the safe and any money that was actually in the safe. It’s hard to make a profit when the gold is fused to the inside of the exploded safe.

After a number of bank and train robberies of varied success, Elmer made his way to Oklahoma. He slept in a friend’s hay shed while drinking and scheming about his next big score.

His Last Robbery

On October 4, 1911, Elmer and crew attempted to rob yet another train. The target was a “Katy Train” carrying $400,000 in cash that was heading to the Osage Nation as a payment. But in typical Elmer fashion, he screwed up. They robbed the wrong train – a regular passenger train. They slunk away with just $46 that they took from the mail clerk, a little whiskey, a revolver, a coat, and a watch. Newspaper reports said it was one of the smallest hauls in the history of train robberies. Poor Elmer.

Whiskey, You’re the Devil

A few days later, Elmer made his way back to his friend’s house, drinking the stolen train whiskey as he rode. He got to the hayshed and continued to drink until he passed out. Unbeknownst to him, he had been identified as one of the robbers and a $2,000 reward had been issued. The local authorities began looking for him.

Elmer’s Last Stand

On October 7th, three deputy sheriffs tracked Elmer to the hayshed with the help of bloodhounds – and the empty whiskey jugs that they found on the trail. Shortly after sunrise, just as the sheriffs were about to move in, Elmer started shooting at them. They ducked for cover and returned fire. Eventually, one of them shot Elmer in the chest and he died on the spot.

Arsenic

Elmer’s body was taken to Pawhuska, Oklahoma to an undertaker named Joseph Johnson. Because there were no known next-of-kin, Johnson embalmed the body with arsenic so that it could be preserved for a long time. He shaved Elmer’s face, dressed him in a suit, and put him in the back of the funeral home hoping someone would claim the body and pay him for his services.

Might as Well Make a Buck

Realizing that nobody was going to take the body, he decided to make some easy cash. He propped Elmer up in a corner of the funeral home, put a rifle in his hands, and charged a nickel to see “The Bandit who Wouldn’t Give Up.” People came.

The Elmer exhibit brought some attention and the undertaker got offers from carnivals for the body which he refused. On October 6th, two men showed up with papers saying that one was Elmer’s long lost brother from California. The body was released to him and Elmer left Oklahoma.

The Carnival Beckons

The men who claimed the body were actually the Patterson brothers who were also the owners of Great Patterson Carnival Shows. For the next 11 years, Elmer was featured as “The Outlaw Who Would Never Be Captured Alive” in the traveling carnival. The Pattersons sold Elmer’s body to Louis Sonney who included Elmer in his own traveling “Museum of Crime” that featured wax replicas of famous criminals like Jesse James. It was also included in a 1928 traveling exhibition related to the Trans-America Footrace, a 3,000 mile race across the US which became known as the “Bunion Derby.”

It is unclear when the truth about Elmer was lost. But at some point, the owners of Elmer’s mummified body no longer knew it was a real body and assumed it was just a wax-covered dummy.

Movie Prop

In 1933, the body was sold to Director Dwain Esper and was part of the promotion for his drug exploitation film Narcotic. Esper put Elmer’s body in the lobby of theaters and claimed that Elmer was actually a dope fiend who had killed himself instead of getting caught by police after a robbery to support his drug habit. IMDB describes the movie as “This exploitation film follows the downward spiral of an idealistic medical student whose fall from grace leads him to opium dens, a carnival freakshow, swanky drug parties, dingy brothels, and finally the barrel of his own revolver.”

After Esper died, Elmer’s body was put in storage in a warehouse in Los Angeles. Esper’s son loaned the body for an appearance in another movie. This one was the 1967 movie She Freak which was a low-budget exploitation movie about a traveling carnival sideshow. The movie poster proclaimed:

“Behind the tents and tinsel of a monster midway, something barbaric occurs on the alley of nightmares”

California Fun House

In 1968, the body was sold along with some other wax figures and was exhibited at Mount Rushmore of all places. After getting further damaged in a windstorm, the body was deemed too poor to exhibit and eventually was sold to the owner of an amusement park called “The Pike” in Long Beach, California. Elmer was hanging from the ceiling in the “Laff in the Dark” Funhouse, certainly giving visitors a scare.

Elmer Versus the Six Million Dollar Man

On December 8, 1976, the production crew of the hit show “The Six Million Dollar Man” (starring Lee Majors) was filming scenes for an episode at The Pike. One of the prop men went to move the hanging mannequin and was shocked when the arm fell off exposing actual bone.

The police were promptly called and an autopsy was performed. The report stated that the body was fully petrified, weighed 50 pounds, had a single bullet wound, and was covered in wax and paint.

A Penny for The Truth

In the corpse’s mouth, they found some clues: a 1924 penny and and ticket stubs to Louis Sonney’s Museum of Crime. They contacted the still-kicking Sonney who told them that they were in possession of the body of one Elmer McCurdy, below-average outlaw. A forensic anthropologist was brought in to verify this, and he declared that the skull he examined matched the original photo of Elmer after he was embalmed.

Elmer’s story hit the newspapers and a few funeral homes offered to bury Elmer for free.

Elmer Finally Gets some Rest

No descendents came forward to claim the body. Then a group of “Western history enthusiasts” called the Indian Territory Posse of Oklahoma Westerns offered to bury him in Oklahoma on their dime.

Elmer’s desecrated remains were finally put to rest April 22, 1977 in Summit View Cemetery in Guthrie, Oklahoma. There was a procession and 300 people attended the burial. To deter any potential future grave robbers, 2 feet of solid concrete were poured over the casket.

His tombstone reads:

Elmer McCurdy, Shot by Sheriff’s Posse in Osage Hills on Oct. 7, 1911. Returned to Guthrie, Okla., from Los Angeles County, Calif for Burial April 22, 1977

Elmer on Broadway

2024 saw the debut of a musical called “Dead Outlaw” based on Elmer’s life with with music and lyrics by David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna. In May 2025, it even got a 10 week run on Broadway at the Longacre Theater. The off-broadway version won some Drama Desk awards and the Broadway run was actually nominated for 7 Tony Awards (but did not win).

Billboard described the musical as “equal parts noir western, dark comedy, and folk requiem.” The plot more or less follows Elmer’s sad story with some artistic embellishment. Songs from the musical include “Somethin’ ‘Bout a Mummy” and “Nobody Knows your Name.”

Elmer Museum

In August of 2025, the Elmer Museum opened in the West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Along with exhibits about Elmer and a full body effigy, there are exhibits about other side show freaks. Admission is free by reservation.