Cowboy Outlaw performance comes to Jax State with unexpected family connection

08/20/2025

By Brett Buckner  

Every family has its dubious characters. However, Jax State Vice Provost, Dr. Staci Stone, has a distant relative named Elmer McCurdy, a bank robber and train robber, so notorious, his life – and afterlife - has been the subject of numerous songs, movies, comic books, documentaries, even a Tony-nominated Broadway musical. 

McCurdy’s exploits are once again being repurposed, this time by puppeteer Blair Thomas, founder and artistic director of The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival. On Monday, August 25, in Mason Hall 350 from 6:30-7:30 p.m., Thomas will perform two short-form puppetry pieces as part of the Jax State’s Kaleidoscope: A Festival of the Arts. The first is titled “Cowboy Outlaw,” which Thomas describes as being, “built around” the ballad, “Cowboy Outlaw,” by Brian Dewan. Admission is free. 

“I can't wait to see this adaptation on campus, and those sponsoring this event had no idea of my connection,” Dr. Stone said. “Small world."  

Dr. Stone learned that McCurdy was a long-lost relative from her grandmother’s genealogical work published in The McCurdy Family: Early Settlers of DeKalb County, Alabama by Hershellene Peek McCurdy and Howard McCurdy. “We talked about Elmer when my grandparents were alive because his story is so fascinating - and unbelievable,” she said.   

Monday's performance won't be Dr. Stone's first exposure to the legend of Elmer McCurdy. She and her daughter recently attended the musical based on his life performed on Broadway and even visited his gravesite in Oklahoma. "I'm fortunate that my daughter and I were able to travel to NYC to see the show," she said, "which was a strange, fun musical about our Dead Outlaw relative."  

The outlaw mummy 

Nicknamed "The Outlaw Who Wouldn't Give Up," Elmer McCurdy was killed following a train robbery in Oklahoma in October 1911. According to reports, police surrounded the barn where he was hiding out. McCurdy shot at the police, who returned fire. When the gun smoke cleared, McCurdy was found dead in the hayloft. 

Death was just the beginning of the outlaw's strange journey. Embalmed so well it could stand upright on its own, the local undertaker dressed McCurdy in street clothes, gave him a rifle, and charged visitors five cents to see "The Embalmed Bandit," slipping coins through the dead outlaw's parted lips.  

McCurdy's mummified remains travel with various sideshows and for more than 60 years, appearing in crime exhibits, drug awareness campaigns, haunted houses, and low-budget films, having lost fingers, toes, and ears due to neglect. 

By 1976, McCurdy, then painted bright red, was hanging in a Long Beach, Calif., funhouse. Members of the production crew for The Six Million Dollar Man were filming a scene nearby when a prop master knocked off McCurdy's arm, revealing a human bone.     

Ticket stubs to Louis Sonney's Museum of Crime and a 1924 penny helped medical examiners identify the body. On April 22, 1977, a horse-drawn hearse brought McCurdy to the Boot Hill section of Summit View Cemetery in Guthrie, Oklahoma. More than 300 people attended his funeral. According to legend, two feet of concrete was poured over the casket, ensuring – this time - McCurdy stayed put.