Shocking Discovery by Cult Series Crew During Amusement Park Shoot!

Colonel Steve Austin, a seasoned American astronaut who had walked on the moon, returned to his role as a test pilot for NASA. While piloting an experimental aircraft, he suffered a critical failure that forced a catastrophic crash landing. Severely injured, he was rebuilt with bionic limbs that gave him extraordinary strength, eagle-eyed vision, and incredible speed. He now works for the OSI (Office of Scientific Intelligence), a government organization that handles various complex cases.

Older audiences will likely recall the synopsis of the cult classic series “The Six Million Dollar Man,” created by Richard Irving and aired on ABC from 1973 to 1978. In France, viewers first witnessed the exploits of its star, Lee Majors, in January 1975. Ultimately, the series captivated audiences for six seasons, totaling 99 episodes and six television movies.

A Grim Discovery on Set

On December 8, 1976, during what would be the 18th episode of the fourth season titled Carnival of Spies, the crew made a bizarre and gruesome discovery. Scheduled to be partially shot at the historic Nu-Pike amusement park in Long Beach, California, dating back to 1902, a cameraman got the shock of his life.

While setting up a scene at the carnival, he moved what he thought was a prop of a hanging body from one of the attractions, only to have one of its arms come loose. Upon closer inspection of what he assumed was a fake arm, he found a human bone. It turned out not to be a prop at all, but a real deceased man…

This triggered a look back into the incredible journey of this literally mummified body. It was that of Elmer McCurdy, an infamous train robber who had stolen $46, two bottles of whiskey, a revolver, a coat, and a watch from a train in Oklahoma on October 4, 1911.

He had told his pursuers he would not be taken alive, living up to his nickname: The Bandit Who Wouldn’t Give Up. He was right; three days after his crime, he was found and killed in a shootout, fatally shot in the chest.

Since no one claimed his body, the undertaker, Joseph L. Johnson, embalmed him, dressed him up, and placed his body on display in a coffin in the back room of his funeral parlor. He refused to part with the body until he had been paid for his services. Eventually, he decided to make a profit by displaying it more prominently in his shop, enticing customers to pay to see the macabre setup.

The Body Displayed in Traveling Fairs

The embalmed corpse eventually caught the attention of two men, James and Charles Patterson, in 1916. Pretending to be relatives of the deceased, they deceived the funeral home manager. In reality, they were owners of a traveling carnival, wanting to feature Elmer McCurdy’s body in their attractions, billed as “the bandit who would never be captured alive.”

The embalmed body changed hands several times, always featuring in traveling fairs across the country, until the mid-1930s. In 1949, it was placed in a warehouse in Los Angeles by its owner and largely forgotten.

Nonetheless, it was sold again in 1968 to the founder of the Hollywood Wax Museum, who bought it on behalf of two Canadians. They displayed it in their amusement park near Mount Rushmore, but the embalmed body had significantly deteriorated over time. They eventually returned the remains of Elmer McCurdy to the Wax Museum owner, deeming it too damaged.

One Last Journey 66 Years After Death

Too damaged to be displayed, the body was then sold to a shareholder of the Nu-Pike amusement park in Long Beach, California, where it was hung as a fake hanged man in one of the attractions. It remained there until its discovery by the production team of “The Six Million Dollar Man” four years later.

Only after an autopsy performed by the Los Angeles coroner on December 9, 1976, was the extraordinary—and sad—history of Elmer McCurdy’s remains fully reconstructed. He finally found a dignified resting place.

On April 22, 1977, Elmer McCurdy made his final journey to be buried at the Summit View Cemetery in Guthrie, Oklahoma. To ensure that his remains would not be stolen again, the state coroner poured two cubic meters of cement over the coffin before the grave was closed.