Elmer
McCurdy: The Misadventures in Life and Afterlife of an American
Outlaw by Mark
Svenvold is a first-rate detective story about one
of the most famous American mummies, incompetent train robber, and
Wild West outlaw (not!): Elmer McCurdy.
I have to admit
that I approached the book hesitantly, fearing that it would
be more fluff than substance. After all, what information
could a researcher dig up on a man who died almost 100 years
ago? The answer is: much more than you might think--and all of
it is fascinating.
In twelve
chapters, Svenvold tells McCurdy's story and, to a lesser
degree, his own story as a researcher. The book begins at its
most dramatic point: the 1976 discovery of McCurdy's mummified
body at the Nu-Pike Amusement Park in Long Beach, California.
An autopsy reveals his identity--and then the real fun begins:
the book travels back in time to fill in the details of
McCurdy's life and afterlife (who was he anyway and how did he
end up as a carnival mummy?).
Svenvold tells all: Born
in 1880, to an unmarried 17-year-old girl, McCurdy (aka Frank
Curtis) was raised by the girl's older brother and his wife in
Bangor, Maine. Around the age of ten, when his father/uncle died,
his birth mother took over parental duties and informed him of his
true parentage. This news apparently came as quite a shock and seems
to have begun McCurdy's downfall. He became "unruly and
rebellious," began to drink, fought in bars. Eventually, he
became a plumber. When he was twenty, his mother died and McCurdy
took off and headed west. He got as far as Kansas, where he mined
zinc for awhile, then joined the army and was stationed at Fort
Leavenworth.
Upon his discharge, he
turned to crime--or tried to. He was arrested before he ever began;
he simply looked suspicious (of course, he happened to be carrying
the parts to a machine gun in his bag). From there, he robbed a
train (poorly--it took McCurdy four attempts to blow the safe), a
bank (two tries to blow open the safe netted only $150), and a final
ill-fated train robbery (he robbed the wrong train).
His afterlife as a mummy
was strictly American entrepreneurship at its best--and worst. When
he is finally discovered in 1976, McCurdy's body was painted orange
and displayed as a scary dummy in an amusement park ride (by
operators who don't even know that he once was human).
An excellent work about
an unusual American mummy, this book will enthrall anyone interested
in unusual mummies and/or the history of the Wild West. Seventeen
b&w photos, notes, 261 pages. The only thing missing is an
index. Highly, highly recommended!
