2. The Clues Found Inside of McCurdy’s Body Led to His Identity
No one is sure when or how McCurdy lost his identity. Right after he was embalmed, McCurdy became “the Bandit who Wouldn’t Give up” so McCurdy’s identity could have been lost quickly. However, we do know that for the first few years people knew the attraction was a corpse what we do not know is when McCurdy went from being a corpse to a prop. However, it happened at some point during McCurdy’s 65 years of traveling after death, and because of this, the authorities had trouble identifying McCurdy.
In fact, if it wasn’t for the few items found in McCurdy’s body, he might have never been identified. Because McCurdy’s fingers were damaged, law enforcement could not pull his fingerprints. Therefore, to determine the corpse, the coroner’s office took x-rays of his teeth and measured his bones. After that, they also realized McCurdy had been embalmed before. Other clues that led to McCurdy’s identity were items which were found inside of him.
These items included a bullet, a Sonney Amusement Museum of Crime ticket, a newspaper article, and a 1924 penny.