logo
episode-header-image
Jun 16
57m 25s

Episode 681: Elmer McCurdy: The Outlaw M...

Morbid Network | Wondery
About this episode

In early December 1976, a film crew was shooting an episode of a popular television show at The Pike, a boardwalk amusement park in Long Beach, California. In order to prepare for the scene, the prop master moved what he believed to be a wax mannequin hanging from funhouse gallows; however, when he grabbed the mannequin by the arm, the limb broke off, revealing human bone and muscle tissue.

After removing the body to the coroner’s office to be autopsied, it was revealed that what had long thought to have been a wax museum dummy was in fact the body of a man who’d died from a gunshot wound more than six decades before his body was discovered in Long Beach. After some basic detective work, investigators learned that the mummified corpse was that of Elmer McCurdy, an early twentieth-century bank robber who was shot and killed by a sheriff’s posse in Oklahoma in 1911.

Removing the body from the funhouse and identifying the body allowed authorities to arrange for a proper burial, but it did little to answer the question on the minds of so many: How did the mummified body of a long-dead outlaw end up on display in a wax museum funhouse?

Thank you to the Incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research and Writing support!

References

Cohen, Jerry. 1976. "Mummy identified as bandit slain in 1911." Los Angeles Times, December 11: 1.

Harvey, Steve. 1979. "Bungler Elmer McCurdy... RIP... gets more attention in death than in life." Los Angeles Times, December 31: 21.

Himmel, Nieson. 1976. "'Dummy' found to be a corpse." Los Angeles Times, December 9: 3.

Los Angeles Times. 1976. "Mummy was Oklahoma bandit killed in 1912." Los Angeles Times, December 10: 8.

Reuters. 1977. "'Wax model' identified as Oklahoma bandit." New York Times, April 15: 14.

Smith, Robert Barr. 1999. "Western Lore." Wild West. 

Svenvold, Mark. 2002. Elmer McCurdy: The Misadventures in Life and Afterlife of an American Outlaw. New York, NY: Harper.

Stay in the know - wondery.fm/morbid-wondery.


See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Up next
Aug 21
Episode 700: Randy Kraft: The Scorecard Killer (Part 3)
Throughout the 1970s, Southern California residents were held in the grip of terror as multiple serial killers stalked the streets, preying on victims from every walk of life, including the area’s gay community. From 1971 to 1983, Randy Kraft kidnapped, tortured, and murdered at ... Show More
1h 23m
Aug 18
Episode 699: Randy Kraft: The Scorecard Killer (Part 2)
Throughout the 1970s, Southern California residents were held in the grip of terror as multiple serial killers stalked the streets, preying on victims from every walk of life, including the area’s gay community. From 1971 to 1983, Randy Kraft kidnapped, tortured, and murdered at ... Show More
1h 14m
Aug 14
Episode 698: Randy Kraft: The Scorecard Killer (Part 1)
Throughout the 1970s, Southern California residents were held in the grip of terror as multiple serial killers stalked the streets, preying on victims from every walk of life, including the area’s gay community. From 1971 to 1983, Randy Kraft kidnapped, tortured, and murdered at ... Show More
1h 5m
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2024
Introducing: The Execution of Bonny Lee Bakley
On May 4, 2001, Bonny Lee Bakley was found fatally shot in a car on a dark North Hollywood street. The prime suspect was her husband, famed actor Robert Blake. But Bonny, a longtime con artist, had plenty of enemies. She left behind a trail of men she’d scammed, and she had a vol ... Show More
2m 22s
Apr 2025
The Swanson Motel Murders
On November 16th, 1981, 53-year-old Priscilla Dinkel and her 7-year-old granddaughter Danelle Lietz were murdered at The Swanson Motel in Dickinson, North Dakota. The case went cold until 1991, when local law enforcement utilized an FBI profile to identify the killer. Join Mike a ... Show More
59m 11s
Jun 2024
Side Stories: Killdozer 20th Anniversary
Henry & Eddie bring you this week's weirdest stories and true-crime news but first the boys recap their weekend adventures at the world's largest UFO Convention "Contact in the Desert", the 20th Anniversary of Marvin Heemeyer's "Killdozer" rampage, Chad Daybell sentenced to DEATH ... Show More
1h 5m
Jul 3
The Murders of Kathy Perry and Rhonda Travers (Rhode Island)
In a nine-month span between 1986 and 1987, two women were found brutally slain in the same Rhode Island city. Investigators believed that the first was abducted from the side of the road on her way home from work in the middle of the night, while the second appeared to get into ... Show More
37m 11s
Dec 2024
The Afterlife (Part 2)
When a beautiful co-ed is brutally murdered on a popular hiking trail in Prescott National Forest in the summer of 1987, authorities are stumped on who the killer could be. The investigation drags on for decades until finally advances in DNA technology link a serial predator to m ... Show More
28m 35s
Aug 2024
A Conversation with Danny R. Smith of Netflix’s “Homicide: Los Angeles” on Phil Spector, Crime Scene Chaos, and the Toll of Working Murder Cases
The Murder Sheet recently interviewed retired homicide detective Danny R. Smith. Smith appeared in several episodes of the new season of Netflix's docu-series Homicide. Homicide: Los Angeles follows several investigators as they navigate cases like the murder of Lana Clarkson by ... Show More
58m 22s
Jan 2022
Episode 178: The Gainesville Ripper Part 2
Florida investigators are working around the clock to track down and apprehend the Gainesville Ripper, who brutally murdered five college students over the course of four days. After a few months, investigators find the Ripper…in jail. As investigators get a closer look into the ... Show More
44m 20s
Jul 2024
Ep. 164: TEXAS - There Is An Active Serial Killer In AUSTIN, TEXAS
In today's episode, we speak to the family members of victims and dive deep into the story of the recent drowning deaths in Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas. Is there an active serial killer in Austin, Texas? How many more people will die before the police finally start to acknowl ... Show More
1h 24m