What happens to our bodies when we die?
Some are buried with grandeur in oakwood caskets, some cremated on holy pyres of amber flames.
Who was Elmer McCurdy?
A Career of Infamy in Death
Elmer was as alone in death as in life.
No kin stood up to claim his body.
The corpse lay unattended, until the funeral director Joseph L Johnson decided to take charge.
Fate had been hard on Elmer, but destinys betrayal was nothing compared to the incompassion of fellow men.
Five cents a visit, and Johnson was on an entrepreneurial roll.
Soon imposters were trying to take over the business, and a few finally succeeded.
How Elmer Mccurdy was stood up on his two feet for the public to see.
They were a group of carnival men who reached the mortuary in 1916 disguised as Elmers brothers.
His final dalliance with the show business at a Long Beach amusement park called Laf in the Dark.
The hanging corpse of Elmer McCurdy was discovered in the haunted house then.
The revelation that a real manonce alive and breathinghung here, caused the crew to make the discovery public.
The corpse was buried under a layer of concrete with a gravestone marking his year of death and burial.
References#Npr.org#New York Times#Elmer McCurdy by Mark Svenvold
