In 1976, during filming at a Long Beach amusement park for The Six Million Dollar Man, a crew member attempted to adjust what looked like a glow-in-the-dark mannequin hanging from a noose. As he tugged it, the arm snapped off, revealing a real human bone.
The dummy turned out to be no dummy. It was the mummified remains of Elmer McCurdy, an early 20th-century American outlaw who had been dead for 65 years. In that moment, McCurdy’s bizarre second act came to an end and his enduring legend began.
An Early Life of Secrets and Setbacks
McCurdy was born in 1880 in Washington, Maine, and raised by his aunt and uncle. He learned his aunt and uncle weren't his actual parents during his teenage years, possibly contributing to a life of discontent. For a time, McCurdy lived with his grandfather, apprenticed as a plumber and reconnected with his mother. But in 1898, he lost his job in the economic crash, and in 1900 both his mother and grandfather passed away.
McCurdy headed west, drifting through Kansas and Missouri. In 1907, he joined the U.S. Army, learning explosives skills crucial to his later crimes. Honorably discharged in 1910, he quickly to a life of crime.
The Explosive Career of an Outlaw
Only weeks after leaving the military, authorities arrested McCurdy and another soldier for possession of burglary paraphernalia, including nitroglycerin. They convinced a jury they were just building a foot-powered machine gun. McCurdy then traveled to Oklahoma where he joined a gang of small-time outlaws.
“The Pinkerton Detective Agency published a pamphlet in 1904 about a group known as ‘yegs’,” says Michael Williams, site director of the Oklahoma Territorial Museum and Carnegie Library. “They were an element that grew out of the hobo community. While most hobos traveled to find work, yegs traveled to commit crimes.”
In March 1911, McCurdy’s group robbed an Iron Mountain-Missouri Pacific train. The heist went according to plan until McCurdy placed a large amount of nitroglycerin on the safe's door. The charge melted most of the silver inside.
“They [yegs] often used a large amount of explosive[s] to blow open a safe and they’d end up destroying parts of a building,” says Williams. “When people say McCurdy was incompetent, that’s not really accurate. What he was doing wasn’t unusual for the time. It was just a messy and imprecise method.”
McCurdy’s luck worsened. A September 1911 bank heist netted just $150. On October 4, 1911, he robbed the wrong train, making off with $46 and a jug of whiskey instead of $400,000.