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Wild West Fact: Elmer McCurdy
Outlaw Elmer McCurdy’s
life may not have been too appealing when he was alive, but as a dead man his
corpse did lots of fascinating traveling. It was in 1911 when Elmer held up a passenger
train he thought had lots of money but only came away with $46. Soon afterwards, the law caught up with the thief
and he was shot dead. His body was
preserved in arsenic and sold to a traveling carnival where he was put on
display as a sideshow oddity. Around 60
years Elmer’s body was bought and sold by several different people and traveled
all over the place. It ended up in an
amusement park funhouse where a finger was accidently broken off revealing that
the figure everyone thought was wax wasn't wax at all, but human. 66 years after Elmer died he was finally
buried in the Boot Hill cemetery in Dodge City, Kansas.
I wonder what it was about this particular man that made them think, "Huh, let's dip him in arsenic and sell him to the carnies!"
ReplyDeleteAlso, I hope that same bright idea isn't said of my corpse one day.
Haha, I have no idea why him, but I thought the story was bizarre. I hope I don't end up in a carnival sideshow either.
ReplyDeleteHow weird! I'm curious as to how anyone could think a corpse was a wax figure? Arsenic could really keep a body that fresh or wax-like? I've actually never thought of arsenic as a body preserver.
ReplyDelete