Elmer McCurdy: The Misadventures in Life and Afterlife of an American Outlaw.By Mark Svenvold. (New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of : Basic Books, c. 2002. Pp. [viii], 312. Paper, $15.95, ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 0-465-08349-8.) Born in 1880 in Maine, Elmer McCurdy Elmer McCurdy (January, 1880 in Washington, Maine – October 7, 1911) was an Oklahoma outlaw whose mummified body was discovered in the Nu-Pike amusement park in Long Beach, California in December 1976. worked as a plumber in Iola, Kansas, mined zinc in Missouri, and learned about explosives in the U.S. Army before embarking on a largely unsuccessful career as a robber of banks and trains in 1911. He was shot to death by a posse in Oklahoma in October 1911. There the story should end, except that McCurdy's body began an epic journey that would not end until his burial in Guthrie, Oklahoma, in April 1977. Along the way, a funeral parlor owner, carnival sideshows, a wax museum, a maker of exploitation films, and finally the owners of an amusement park in Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city located in southern Los Angeles County, California, USA, on the Pacific coast. It borders Orange County on its southeast edge. It is about 20 miles (30 km) south of downtown Los Angeles. , profited by exhibiting McCurdy's preserved corpse. Mark Svenvold's boisterous prose engulfs the reader and conveys an exceptional amount of information about the cultural history of twentieth-century America. |
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