In Episode 428, Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger travel to Washington, Maine, to see where outlaw Elmer J. McCurdy got his start on January 1, 1880. The troubled youth became a drifter, made his way out to the heartland of America, then turned to an unsuccessful life of crime. After his death, and no one claiming his body, his embalmed and mummified corpse began to tour with carnivals. He was passed around for decades until folks didn’t even know he was ever a living human being.
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CREDITS:
Produced and hosted by: Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger
Edited by: Ray Auger
Theme Music by: John Judd
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
*A note on the text: Please forgive punctuation, spelling, and grammar mistakes. Like us, the transcripts ain’t perfect.
RAY: We’re walking through the small town of Washington, Maine.
JEFF: We are. It’s a really small town, too. Population is just over 1500 as of the last census.
RAY: We’re in the area of Stickney Corner, which is as close to a downtown as we’re going to find here in Washington. There’s a gas station and convenience store, a few spaced out houses, a small used car dealership, and not much else.
JEFF: Still, this is our starting point.
RAY: So we’ll end up somewhere else on this one?
JEFF: We’re going to have to travel out of New England to see how this one plays out. But it will be worth it, I promise. However, this is where it all started. We’re searching for a legendary Maine outlaw named Elmer J. McCurdy.
RAY: Hmmm… I don’t think I’ve heard of him.
JEFF: Well, he to be fair, he wasn’t the best outlaw, plus, he made more of a name for himself in death than he did in life. Ray, we’ve come to the town of Washington, to see the origins of Maine’s Outlaw Mummy.
[INTRO]
JEFF: Hello, I’m Jeff Belanger. Welcome to Episode 428 of the New England Legends podcast!
RAY: And I’m Ray Auger. Thanks for joining us on our mission to chronicle every strange legend in New England one story at a time. If you’ve heard a legend about a ghost, monster, UFO, odd eccentric, or roadside oddity you think we might like, reach out to us anytime through our website.
JEFF: Big announcement! Ray and I are throwing our annual bash for charity on Saturday, February 14, 2026 at the Doubel Tree Hotel in Milford, Massachusetts. Formerly called the Zombie Prom, this year we’re renaming it the Freak Formal in an effort to cast a wider net. Come dressed as any weird thing you want! We know it’s Valentine’s Day, but no need to bring a date if you don’t want to. Come with friends or solo. We’ll have a cash bar, raffles, games, and a DJ for dancing. This is always such a fun event. Check our website or the show notes for a link. All proceeds go to benefit Project Just because—they provide food, clothing, and even school supplies to people in need. Some come hang out and party with us for a great cause!
We’ll go searching for the Maine’s Outlaw Mummy right after these words from our sponsor.
SPONSOR
RAY: When I think of mummies, I usually think of ancient Egypt.
JEFF: Me too.
RAY: OR Middlebury, Vermont. Way back in Episode 71 we went searching for the grave of Prince Amun Her Khepesh Ef
PRONOUNCED: Amun Air Kep-ish F
JEFF: That’s right! The remains of a young ancient Egyptian prince were buried a long way from home. Crazy story!
RAY: So Maine has its own mummy?
JEFF: It does. An old outlaw named Elmer J. McCurdy, who was born here in Washington, Maine, January 1, 1880.
RAY: New Years Day!
JEFF: That’s right.
RAY: 1880… BC?
JEFF: No. A.D. You know… about a century and a half ago.
RAY: Got it.
JEFF: So here’s a little more background on Elmer McCurdy. He had a rough start to his childhood. His mom was 17-year-old Sadie McCurdy, who was not married when he was born. His actual father is unknown, but there’s speculation that his dad was Sadie’s cousin, Charles Smith. Sadie’s older brother George and his wife, Helen, adopted Elmer to save what was left of Sadie’s social standing. Elmer’s adoptive father, George died from TB in 1890, and that’s when Elmer’s birth mother Sadie, and his adoptive mother, Helen, moved to Bangor, Maine. That’s when Elmer was told about his real parents.
RAY: Elmer did NOT take the news well. This was a time when being born out of wedlock could haunt a person the rest of their days. Elmer started drinking heavily as a teenager—a problem that would follow him the rest of his life.
JEFF: So Elmer soon moved in with his grandfather where he learned how to be a plumber. The job suited him well enough until the economy took a downturn in 1898 and work became hard to come by. At that point, 18-year-old Elmer became a drifter, moving around the east coast finding work as a lead miner and a plumber. Eventually he made his way out to Kansas. In 1905 he was arrested for being drunk in public. Just when it looked like he might live out his days as a vagrant drunk, Elmer found the U.S. Army in 1907 where he learned how to operate a machine gun, and how to use nitroglycerin for demolition. He was honorably discharged in 1910.
RAY: Okay, got it. Sounds like he was starting to get his life back together thanks to the Army.
JEFF: It does indeed. To find out the rest, we’re going to have travel not only back in time, but out of New England. So let’s head back to the year 1910.
[TRANSITION]
[OLD WEST MUSIC SLOWLY FADES]
RAY: It’s early November of 1910, and we’re standing in the small town of St. Joseph, Kansas, about 40 miles northwest of Abilene. President Taft is in the White House, and thanks to booming industry, the Gilded Age lives on for the very wealthy. However, the wealth gap between the rich and poor is getting wide. That’s leading to desperation and an increase in crime. Though the days of the wild west are mostly behind us, here in Kansas, it still feels a little like the frontier.
JEFF: That it does. In this world, it takes money to make money. Suddenly the idea of working hard and getting ahead feels out of reach for a lot of folks. One of those people is Elmer McCurdy. After getting out of the army, Elmer and one of his army buddies make a plan to start robbing banks using all of their know-how. They gather up supplies.
[METAL TOOLS RUSTLING / SAWING]
JEFF: They’re gathering up hacksaws, chisels, sacks for money, gunpowder, and funnels for nitroglycerin. The plan is to blast their way into a bank vault, and make a quick escape…
[HORSES GALLOPING IN]
RAY: Oh man, it’s the sheriff. Someone must have tipped off the law, saying these guys looked suspicious.
[POUNDING ON THE DOOR]
RAY: Elmer is nervous, but at the same time they haven’t exactly committed any crimes… I mean… not yet.
[HANDCUFFS LATCHING]
RAY: Still, the sheriff places Elmer and his friend under arrest for stockpiling burglary instruments.
[GAVEL BANGS THREE TIMES]
JEFF: In court, Elmer and his Army buddy stand accused of stockpiling materials to perform a robbery.
RAY: That’s when Elmer explains that in the Army, he was a munitions and demolition expert, and that the pair had those materials because they were developing a new kind of machine gun with a foot pedal. Something they could sell to the U.S. Army to help defend our country.
(LONG PAUSE)
[GAVEL BANGS THREE TIMES]
RAY: The crazy thing is the jury bought the story. The pair are free to go.
JEFF: And that is how Elmer McCurdy’s life of crime begins. The pair know they need to get out of Dodge. Any explosive burglary happening anytime soon in this part of Kansas will bring the heat down on them immediately.
(PAUSE)
JEFF: It’s March of 1911, when the pair roll into Lenapah, Oklahoma, about 250 miles to the southeast of St. Joseph, Kansas. The plan is to target trains and banks.
[NIGHT SOUNDS]
RAY: (WHISPERING) It’s pretty late… everyone in town is asleep. Elmer and his partner are getting ready to blow a hole through the outer wall in a small local bank on the outskirts of town.
JEFF: I can see him pouring some nitroglycerin through a funnel… okay he’s setting the charge.
[BOOM!]
JEFF/RAY: Woah! That was a massive explosion. There’s bricks and debris everywhere.
RAY: Lights are going on at the various houses all around the area.
JEFF: I can see some people stepping outside with shotguns!
[RUNNING ON STREET]
JEFF: Elmer and his partner are running for it. They got nothing from the vault.
RAY: They messed that up pretty good. It looks like they used way too much explosives.
JEFF: Yeah they did. They were lucky not to get shot or caught.
(PAUSE)
[STEAM TRAIN CHUGGING FADING IN]
RAY: Elmer is undeterred. His next target is the Iron Mountain-Missouri Pacific Number 104 train. Elmer has taken on three other partner for this caper. The plan is to stop the train, locate the safe, blow it open with nitroglycerin, take the thousands of dollars in cash stashed inside, and make a getaway.
JEFF: They find a long straightaway on the tracks and managed to block the tracks. The train conductor has plenty of time to see it far ahead.
[TRAIN STOPS]
JEFF: With the train stopped, the bandits climb abord with guns drawn.
RAY: They quickly make their way through the train until they locate the car with the safe.
(PAUSE)
RAY: Okay, Elmer is setting his charge on the door of the safe… we should back up.
[BOOM!]
JEFF/RAY: Wow! That was a huge blast!
JEFF: The safe was blown to bits!
RAY: And look… so was the money. It’s burnt up.
JEFF: The bandits manage to scrape up a couple hundred dollars worth of melted silver coins that had fused to the safe walls in the blast.
[RUNNING AWAY]
JEFF: The group escape with their meager silver.
[HAMMERING ON ROCK FADES IN]
RAY: It’s now September 21st. It’s been six months since the botched train vault heist. And now Elmer McCurdy is trying again. This time it’s the Citizens Bank in Chautauqua, Kansas.
PRONOUNCED: shuh-TAH-kwah
RAY: Elmer and his partner have spent hours chiseling through the bank’s outer wall.
JEFF: it looks like they’re finally through!
RAY: Okay, Elmer is placing the nitroglycerin charge on the bank’s outer vault door… stand back.
[BOOM!]
RAY/JEFF: (COUGHING)
RAY: The bank vault is in ruins. There’s wood and bricks everywhere. But… huh… look at that.
JEFF: The actual vault is intact. The blast didn’t get through!
RAY: Elmer is getting another charge ready for the vault door…
JEFF: (INTERRUPTING) Look! Elmer’s lookout man is running off.
[GATHERING METAL COINS]
JEFF: Elmer grabs some of the silver coins in the vault room tray. It’s not much.
[RUNNING OFF]
JEFF: In the end, Elmer makes of with about $150 dollars worth of coins.
RAY: He’s just not good at this, is he?
JEFF: Not really. Elmer heads out to see a friend in Oklahoma where he hides out for a few weeks.
(PAUSE)
[STEAM TRAIN CHUGGING FADING IN]
JEFF: It’s October 4th now. And Elmer is ready to make a huge score. He’s in Okesa, Oklahoma, and has gathered a team to stop a Katy Train that will be carrying over $400,000 dollars in payment to a Native American group in the region. If they can pull this off, they’ll be set for life. This robbery will be a record-breaker!
[STEAM TRAIN STOPS]
RAY: Once again, Elmer and his crew are able to stop the train. They quickly climb aboard with guns drawn.
JEFF: Wait… this looks like a passenger train.
RAY: Huh… it IS a passenger train. I don’t see a vault in any of these cars.
JEFF: Thinking quick, Elmer robs the mail clerk, grabs a few more items, and they make a quick exit. It’s clear they robbed the wrong train.
RAY: He’s not very good at this, is he?
JEFF: No, he’s not.
RAY: In the end, Elmer made off with $46 dollars stollen from the mail clerk, two jugs of whiskey, a revolver, a coat, and the conductor’s watch.
JEFF: This WAS a record-breaking train robbery. But not the kind of record Elmer wanted. The newspapers called it the smallest prize in the history of train robbing.
RAY: He’s not very good at this.
JEFF: Elmer returns to his Oklahoma hideout. He’s sick with tuberculosis, he’s got pneumonia, trichinosis, and now he’s going on a drinking bender with some farm hands with his stolen whiskey.
RAY: What Elmer doesn’t know is that someone knew him on the train, and there’s now a $2000 dollar bounty for his capture.
[HORSES GALLOPING]
RAY: It’s the early morning hours of October 7th. The sun is barely up. Three deputy sheriffs have tracked Elmer to his hay shed hideout.
ELMER! YOU COME ON OUT OF THERE!
RAY: Elmer had been drinking all night long. He doesn’t intend to give himself up.
[THREE PISTOL SHOTS]
JEFF: The deputies take cover.
[GUNFIRE IN BACKGROUND]
JEFF: They fire back into the shed when bullets aren’t flying out. No one knows if anyone inside has been hit. Dozens of shots are fired.
RAY: Look! Someone is running out the back of the hay shed!
[RIFLE FIRE]
JEFF: And that was it. Elmer McCurdy was no more. The deputies dragged his body to town and collected their reward. Elmer’s corpse was taken to the undertaker Joseph Johnson who embalmed the body using arsenic as a preservative. He shaved McCurdy’s face, and dressed him in clothes, then set him in his coffin in the back of his shop waiting for next of kin to claim him.
RAY: Days turned to weeks, and no one has any interest in claiming the body of Elmer McCurdy. Locals suggested they just bury him, but Johnson wouldn’t hear it. Not until he’d been paid for his services, the casket, and the clothes.
JEFF: Since no one wanted to pay him, Johnson gets an idea. He begins charging people a nickel to see the body of the Bandit Who Wouldn’t Give Up. Elmer had also been called the Mystery Man of Many Aliases, The Oklahoma Outlaw, and the Embalmed Bandit.
RAY: Pretty soon, this attraction becomes popular, drawing many people to Johnson’s funeral parlor and earning him more money than selling his services and the casket ever could have. Carnival promoters try to buy Elmer’s body, but Johnson won’t sell his attraction.
(PAUSE)
JEFF: Years go by. It’s now October of 1916 and a man calling himself Aver arrives at Johnson’s funeral parlor claiming to be Elmer McCurdy’s long-lost brother from California. He had already contacted the sheriff for permission to claim Elmer’s body and bring it back to San Francisco for a proper burial. Johnson shrugs, and releases his funeral parlor’s main attraction.
RAY: What Johnson didn’t know was that Elmer’s body wasn’t bound for San Francisco. Instead, it was shipped to Arkansas City, Kansas, where the Great Patterson Carnival show puts the body on display complete with a rifle in the corpse’s hand.
JEFF: For the next six years, Elmer’s body tours as part of the carnival. In 1922, the corpse is sold to Louis Sonney’s traveling Museum of Crime. In 1933, Elmer’s body was then acquired by a filmmaker to promote a movie. By now, Elmer’s skin had become hard and mummified. After Sonney’s death in 1949, Elmer’s corpse found its way to a Los Angeles warehouse where it sat until 1964 when it was lent to a filmmaker who used Elmer as a prop in the movie She Freak. In 1968, Elmer was sold to the Hollywood Wax Museum. It was then sold to a spooky fun house in Long Beach, California called Laff in the Dark.
RAY: This is gruesome! But by this point, I don’t think people realize this was a human being anymore. Just a prop.
JEFF: You’re exactly right. Then on December 8, 1976, the production crew for the hit TV show The Six Million Dollar Man was filming in the area and was using Elmer’s body as a prop hanging from the gallows. When the arm of what they thought was a mannequin broke off, the producers saw human bone and muscle tissue. The police were called, an autopsy was performed, and the coroner found a body that was petrified, covered in layers of wax and paint, and weighed about 50 pounds.
RAY: At this point, Elmer’s story was making national news. The police began to trace back ownership through the prop houses, carnivals, and eventually back to Oklahoma. It was agreed Elmer should be buried in the Sooner State. So Elmer’s body was transported back. On April 22, 1977, exactly 23,939 days after Elmer McCurdy had been shot and killed, he was buried in Summit View Cemetery in Guthrie, Oklahoma. And that brings us back to today.
[TRANSITION]
JEFF: That’s a long way to go from a troubled upbringing in Washington, Maine.
RAY: Elmer McCurdy will forever be known as the Mummy from Maine. The Embalmed Bandit.
JEFF: Clearly he made a better mummy than a thief.
[OUTTRO]
RAY: That’s true, and that brings us to After the Legend where we dig deeper into this week’s story and sometimes veer off course.
JEFF: After the Legend is brought to you by our Patreon patrons! This group is simply the best. Looking for a New Year’s Resolution? How about supporting your favorite podcast! We work for you and depend on you. Our patrons help with all of the growing costs associated with bringing you two podcasts each week. All we’re asking for is $3 bucks per month, and for that you get early ad-free access to new episodes plus bonus episodes and content that no one else gets to hear. Just head over to patreon.com/newenglandlegends to sign up.
To see some pictures of Elmer McCurdy’s body on display, click on the link in our episode description, or go to our website and click on Episode 428.
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We’d like to thank our sponsors, thank you to our patreon patrons, and our theme music is by John Judd.
Until next time, stay legendary.