29 Facts About Elmer McCurdy

Elmer J McCurdy was an American outlaw who was killed in a shoot-out with police after robbing a train in Oklahoma in October 1911.

Elmer McCurdy is the subject of the musical Dead Outlaw, which premiered off-Broadway in 2024.

Elmer McCurdy was born in Washington, Maine, on January 1,1880.

Elmer McCurdy was the son of 17-year-old Sadie McCurdy, who was unmarried at the time of his birth.

The identity of Elmer McCurdy's father is unknown; one possibility is Sadie's cousin, Charles Smith.

Elmer McCurdy eventually moved in with his grandfather and became an apprentice plumber.

Elmer McCurdy was a competent worker and lived comfortably until an economic downturn in 1898.

Elmer McCurdy lost his job and, in 1900, his mother died of a ruptured ulcer and his grandfather died of Bright's disease within the span of two months.

Shortly after his grandfather's death, Elmer McCurdy left Maine and began drifting around the eastern United States, as a lead miner and plumber.

Elmer McCurdy was unable to hold a job for an extended period due to his alcoholism.

Elmer McCurdy eventually made his way to Kansas, where he worked as a plumber in Cherryvale.

Elmer McCurdy then moved to Iola, Kansas, where, in 1905, he was arrested for public intoxication.

Elmer McCurdy was honorably discharged from the Quartermaster Corps on November 7,1910.

Elmer McCurdy decided to incorporate his training with nitroglycerin into his robberies, targeting banks and trains.

Elmer McCurdy then put nitroglycerin on the safe's door to open it, but used too much.

Elmer McCurdy then tried to blow the safe door open, but the charge failed to ignite.

Elmer McCurdy stayed in a hayshed on the property for the next few weeks and drank heavily.

Elmer McCurdy had a mild case of pneumonia and trichinosis.

Elmer McCurdy stayed up drinking with some of the ranch hands before going to sleep in the hay loft the following morning.

Unbeknownst to Elmer McCurdy, he had been implicated in the robbery and a $2,000 reward for his capture was issued.

Elmer McCurdy kept shooting at all of us for about an hour.

Elmer McCurdy was pretty drunk when he rode up to the ranch last night.

Elmer McCurdy was killed by a single gunshot wound to the chest which he sustained while lying down.

Elmer McCurdy's body was taken to the undertaker in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, where it went unclaimed.

Elmer McCurdy then shaved the face, dressed the body in a suit and stored it in the back of his funeral home.

Elmer McCurdy dressed the corpse in street clothes, placed a rifle in the hands and stood it up in the corner of the funeral home.

The men who claimed to be Elmer McCurdy's siblings were in fact James and Charles Patterson, the former of whom was the owner of the Great Patterson Carnival Shows, a traveling carnival.

Tests revealed tuberculosis in the lung, as well as bunions and scars that Elmer McCurdy was documented to have had.

Dr Snow took radiographs of the skull and placed them over a photo of Elmer McCurdy taken at the time of his death in a process called superimposition.