How the corpse of a bandit from the Wild West worked as a scarecrow in a modern amusement park

Even children know that skeletons, zombies and monsters in the fear room are not real. But it turns out there are exceptions. In 1976, a real body was accidentally found among the fake corpses in the California amusement park "Pike". Yes, not just some random corpse, but the remains of one of the most famous bandits of the Wild West.

This story looks so strange that it can be used as a ready-made movie script. It began, by the way, with the filming of the picture. In the early winter of 1976, an ABC film crew arrived at the Pike Amusement Park. The team was busy filming the science fiction television series "The Six Million Dollar Man."

In the episode that was supposed to be filmed in the park, the main character had to drive through a tunnel with dummy zombies. Some of them turned out to be real and attacked the guy. To shoot a scene in the "tunnel of horror", it was necessary to prepare it a little. Therefore, the workers went with lanterns to its dark corners and began to move the models of the dead and arrange them as the director intended.

When the workers tried to move the dummy of the hanged man with an unnaturally orange complexion, his arm fell off. This happens with dummies, so no one attached any importance to it at first. But when the light fell on the figure, all those present were seized with horror. From the sleeve of the jacket stretched over the hangman, in the place where the arm came off, a real bone peeked out.

The police were immediately called to the scene and experts confirmed that the corpse was the real one. However, this man died a long time ago and he was even embalmed before his death. The things on the dead man were old, probably belonging to him during his lifetime.

When the body was delivered to the pathologists for examination, they made several more discoveries. The guy had a hole in his chest from a .38 caliber revolver bullet. Immediately after death, the body was opened and then embalmed using an ancient and very risky technology. The corpse was soaked in a solution of arsenic. Someone put a 5-cent coin in the mouth of the deceased.

Who is this guy, how did he die and why did he receive such attention after his death? And most importantly - how did he "get a job" in an amusement park? Having picked up accounting documents, the cops quickly found the people who sold the "dummy" to the park. But it didn't do anything, because they, in turn, bought the body from another seller. It turned out that the corpse had been "walking around" for at least 10 years, changing owners and cities.

He visited exhibitions of curiosities, served as props in several circuses and was even an exhibit of a serious museum. Once upon a time, at the beginning of their ordeal, people knew that they were dealing with a corpse. But over time, they forgot about it and began to simply sell it as a dummy. At the same time, the price of the corpse has dropped significantly. To make the product presentable, one of the owners painted it with orange paint.

But a months-long investigation still yielded results, and the identity of the dead was found out. It turned out that during the life of the deceased, his name was Elmer McCurdy. He was born in 1881, and left this world in 1911, not without outside help. In addition, he was not so simple and even left a mark in history, however, very dubious.

McCurdy was a bank robber, a safe-cracker, and an amazing loser. Historian Drew Comber said of this guy: "As a criminal, Elmer McCurdy was an idiot of the highest standard." He was born in a very dysfunctional family and at the age of 12 already suffered from alcoholism.

Young McCurdy from birth did not shine with intelligence, but cheap whiskey by 16 completely finished off his brain. Elmer tried to find himself in various fields, but he was too stupid for everything. Once he even joined the US Army, but he didn't stay there for very long. However, he got some benefit from it. Military experts taught McCurdy how to handle explosives, but it would be better if they did not.

After leaving the slender ranks of the military, Elmer McCurdy decided to join the safecrackers. He tried to work with several gangs, but few people wanted to deal with him. A stupid head and hands shaking from drunkenness, combined with dynamite and nitroglycerin, were more dangerous for burglars than for safes.

However, McCurdy did pull off a few things. One day he put so much explosives under the safe that the paper bills turned to dust. Silver ingots from the same safe were soldered into a huge shapeless pancake. Alas, it turned out to be also unaffordable. It all happened because the bomber Elmer messed up something with the dosage of the components of the charge.

Another time he miscalculated again and the explosion failed to tear down the door in the bank vault. Because of this, the robbery did not take place, and the gang was forced to flee empty-handed. Soon, in the western states, McCurdy had such a reputation that only idiots or scumbags agreed to deal with him.

One day, having gathered a gang of losers like him, McCurdy robbed a train. As always, he messed up something and instead of a mail train with a wagon of money, the robbers attacked the usual one, and even with almost no passengers. At that time, the loot of Elmer and his accomplices was $ 46, a few hours and two bottles of whiskey. Needless to say, the leader drank whiskey immediately, right at the scene of the robbery.

Despite the complete lack of luck and extreme lack of professionalism, McCurdy annoyed everyone a lot. He was often raided, but, as often happens, fools and drunks are lucky. On October 7, 1911, one of the sheriffs of Oklahoma with a group of deputies tracked down Elmer. They surrounded the barn where the bandit was immersed in a binge and ordered him to surrender.

McCurdy didn't listen and started shooting back, while continuing to sip from the bottle. The shootout lasted for an hour, but the bullet still found the drunken robber. Someone hit him right in the chest, putting him down with one shot. The participants of the operation shared a prize of $ 2,000, assigned for the head of McCurdy. For them, this story is over. For them, but not for dead Elmer.

Ironically, McCurdy became more famous after his death than during his lifetime. By the way, he also earned much more money in a dead form. His body was sent to the nearest funeral home after examination. But since during his lifetime the bandit did not bother to save money for his burial, they were in no hurry to bury him. The inconsolable relatives, whom McCurdy simply did not have, did not come for the corpse either.

As a result, the owner of the office embalmed the dead man and put him in his best coffin in the window, as an attraction. Let's leave aside the arguments about the ethics of this act — such were the times and mores outside the United States. The cunning undertaker advertised Elmer as a famous robber. To get a closer look at him, you had to throw a 5-cent coin into his half-open mouth.

The provincials, not spoiled by the spectacles, went to see the bandit in droves. Elmer regularly brought income to the funeral home until they came for him. One day two guys said they were the McCurdy brothers and demanded to give them the corpse of a relative. Of course, they were scammers, but the body was given to them.

After that, Elmer McCurdy's body was dragged around the fairgrounds for more than half a century. In the 40s, the dried corpse already looked extremely unimportant and was sold as a low-quality dummy. It is known that once they tried to sell it as a mummy, but the buyer said that he would not pay a cent for such a crude fake. From that moment on, McCurdy was no longer considered a body.

In the early 70s, the "dummy" of a dead man got into the Pike Park, where his arm was accidentally torn off, bringing this creepy story to life. But it still has a good ending. After several months of investigations and examinations, McCurdy's body was humanly buried.

On his tombstone there is an inscription, not quite clear to the uninitiated: "Shot by a police detachment in the Osage Hills on October 7, 1911... returned to Oklahoma for burial on April 22, 1977."