WEBVTT - The Wild West 12: Outlaws 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:08.280 When you were a kid, did you ever pretend to 0:00:08.320 --> 0:00:10.960 be a cowboy or a cowgirl? Did you play the 0:00:11.000 --> 0:00:14.200 part of an infamous outlaw? If you did, chances are 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:17.680 these fantasies were inspired by a lot of fiction. The 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:20.880 wild West as we think of it today was very different. 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:23.919 In the nineteen fifties, of the whole generation fell in 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:27.120 love with the Hollywood version of Buffalo Bill Cody, but 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:29.880 these films weren't biopics. When it comes to movies, the 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:33.040 more entertaining right, and the box office responds to that, 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:34.879 and there's no better way to do that than to 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:38.440 embellish a few things. The real William Cody was born 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:41.120 in eighteen forty six. When he was just eight, his 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:44.080 father was brutally attacked, and as he watched his father 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:46.239 dying in bed, he declared that he wished to be 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:48.320 all grown up so that he could kill the men 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:51.840 who attacked his father. Most historians today believe that Cody 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:54.520 was a good storyteller, but what we do know is 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:56.800 that as an adult during the Civil War, he was 0:00:56.880 --> 0:00:59.680 a Union scout, and then in eighteen sixty six he 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:03.120 married Luisa Frederici, and in eighteen sixty seven he earned 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:06.640 the nickname Buffalo Bill while hunting buffalo for the Kansas 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:10.000 Pacific Railroad, where he bragged that he killed forty eight 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:13.640 of the animals in just thirty minutes. Cody's antics eventually 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:16.600 caught the attention of General Phillip Sheridan, who wanted a 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:20.360 positive public relations spin for the US Army. He joined 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:24.000 Cody on buffalo hunts, and the media just couldn't get enough. 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:27.839 Pulp fiction magazines were already in the business of romanticizing 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:30.000 stories about life in the West, and it didn't take 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:33.000 long before a writer convinced Cody to take his stories 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:36.760 on tour. Within a year, Cody created his Scouts of 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:39.440 the Prairie show. It was such a success that he 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:41.640 ended up traveling the country with it for the better 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:44.840 part of a decade. By eighteen eighty three, though, the 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:47.160 show had evolved to something that was so large it 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:51.160 could only be staged outdoors. Now called Buffalo Bill's Wild 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:55.919 West Show, he hired cowboys, cowgirls, mountain men, and Mexican voccaros. 0:01:56.320 --> 0:01:59.400 He brought an elk, bison, and even bear. At an 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:03.240 eighteen eighty five Annie Oakley joined, impressing crowds with her 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:06.880 shooting skills. By the time of the World's Columbian Exposition 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:10.040 in Chicago in eighteen ninety three, roughly six hundred and 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:13.760 fifty people worked on his show. The stage was functionally 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:17.040 fifteen acres of land, the grand stands had room for 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:21.320 more than eighteen thousand people. And at that very same exposition, 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:25.480 historian Frederick Jackson Turner remember him from our first episode 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:28.280 this season, was giving a speech about life on the 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:32.079 American Frontier. To him, the preceding few decades had been 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:35.400 more formative to American identity than any other before it. 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:39.480 As he understood it, American settlers had experienced the frontier, 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:42.760 and in turn, the Frontier had left an indelible mark 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:46.320 on the character of America. This is what Hollywood would 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:48.760 eventually pick up on. Today, when we think of the 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:51.639 Wild West, we're not thinking about the time and place 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:54.560 as it was, but the idea as it has been 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:58.119 formed in our imagination. But one thing's for certain. Our 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:01.560 image of the Wild West is almost always about people 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:06.800 and their stories, which is why they're still so interesting today. 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:19.600 I'm Aaron Mankee, and welcome to the wild West. Tumbleweeds, 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:24.480 dusty trails, cowboys, and of course outlaws and one rugged 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:27.640 gunslinger with his black hat and horse, has always captured 0:03:27.639 --> 0:03:32.120 imaginations with his lawlessness and daring exploits. Billy the Kid 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:34.680 is a name that we all know. Born in eighteen 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:38.360 fifty nine, Billy first found trouble at just fifteen years old. 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:41.080 It seemed that he helped a man play a prank 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:44.480 by hiding clothes from a launderer. The sheriff didn't find 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:47.760 the joke funny and arrested Billy. Not one to be contained, 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:51.480 Billy escaped through a jailhouse chimney. While working as a 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:55.000 civilian teamster at the Camp Grant Army Post, Billy was 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:58.360 bullied daily until he reached the breaking point and shot 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:03.200 his tormentor. He was arrested and again escaped. At this point, though, 0:04:03.240 --> 0:04:05.760 honest work was no longer an option for him, so 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:08.760 Billy joined forces with Jesse Evans and his gang known 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:13.080 as the Boys. Eventually, Billy found work in eighteen seventy 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:15.920 seven with a guy named John Tunstall protecting him and 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:19.320 his cattle. So when Tunstall was murdered during the Lincoln 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:23.200 County War, Billy swore vengeance and joined the Regulators, another 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:26.840 infamous outlaw gang. He then took on those who wronged 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:30.159 Tunstall in a series of gunfights, earning Billy a reputation 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:34.800 as a skilled gunslinger. Again, Billy was arrested, but in 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.800 a plea deal for a pardon, he testified against others 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:41.440 who participated in the Lincoln County War. Sadly, the district 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:43.800 attorney didn't hold up his end of the bargain and 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:47.080 Billy was locked up anyway, But Billy did what Billy 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:50.000 always did. He escaped, going on to form his own 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:53.960 gang called the Rustlers. In late eighteen eighty he was 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:57.560 captured yet again and jailed again. Convicted of murder, the 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:00.960 judge sentenced him to hang, and once again you guessed it, 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:04.080 he escaped, but in July of eighteen eighty one he 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:06.880 would finally run out of chances when he was shot 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:10.440 and killed by a sheriff. His story was dramatic, and 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:13.719 drama always gives wings to the tales we tell. So 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:16.120 as the stories about Laws and their gang spread, the 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:19.159 line between fact and fiction started to become more and 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:22.680 more blurry. Some of these characters are remembered as Robin 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:25.440 Hood's stealing from the rich and giving back to the poor. 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:29.120 Others earned sympathy by fighting against a system that had 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:32.720 somehow wronged them. One famous outlaw that became larger than 0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:36.320 life is, of course, Jesse James. Born on September fifth 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:40.160 of eighteen forty seven. James grew up in Clay County, Missouri, 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:43.559 although his father, Robert sadly passed away just three years later, 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:47.000 leaving Jesse's mother, Zirelda, and his older brother Frank to 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:50.560 carry on. During the Civil War, the division between pro 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:54.719 Union and pro Confederate sentiments in Missouri escalated to violence. 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:59.200 Groups of anti Union bushwhackers, including Jesse's older brother Frank, 0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:03.560 launched brutal attacks on anti slavery Union towns, and when 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:08.040 Jesse turned sixteen, he followed in his brother's footsteps. After 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:10.680 the Civil War, Jesse rose to lead a gang of 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:14.839 bank and train robbers. His legend grew with each daring exploit, 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:18.599 partly thanks to an ex Confederate soldier and newspaper editor 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:22.000 who crafted a myth of James as a heroic Southern 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:25.159 robin hood, and he played the part well, maintaining a 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:29.000 respectable public image. The gang's luck changed, however, when they 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:32.599 attempted to rob the First National Bank of Northfield Minnesota. 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:35.880 This time, the townsfolk fought back, killing two gang members 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:38.599 and kicking off a search for the rest. Jesse and 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:41.279 his brother Frank barely escaped and ended up moving to 0:06:41.279 --> 0:06:45.200 Tennessee under false identities. But death comes for us all, 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:48.680 doesn't it, and legendary outlaws are no exception. In eighteen 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:51.559 eighty two, while Jesse was dusting a picture on the wall, 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:53.880 he was shot in the back of the head, and 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:57.200 so ended the colorful life of one of America's most 0:06:57.279 --> 0:07:07.640 rugged Wild West sweethearts. By the late eighteen hundreds, the 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:10.200 thirty year period of the Wild West was coming to 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:12.920 an end. The eighteen ninety census showed that the once 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:15.920 clear frontier line that divided the settled areas from the 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:19.280 wild ones had become too blurry. The wild part of 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:21.760 the Wild West, at least according to the US government, 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:25.000 had been tamed. You could see it everywhere you went, too. 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:28.360 Streets had been laid, and the foundations for public projects 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:32.720 had been created. Jails, schoolhouses, and businesses began dotting the 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:36.440 landscape in a tidy fashion. Americans were becoming less interested 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:40.040 in expanding outward and more drawn to growing roots. The 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:43.560 Wild West was shrinking but it hadn't failed to sunset 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:47.160 just yet. That's where Elmer enters the picture. He was 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:49.640 born up in Maine in eighteen eighty to a teenage 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:52.560 girl named Sadie, and as you might expect, his early 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:55.760 life was full of hardship. So Elmer was raised by 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:58.760 his aunt and uncle, Helen and George, and his parentage 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:02.760 was kept a secret from him to shield Sadie from embarrassment. However, 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:06.200 after his uncle George died in eighteen ninety, Elmer discovered 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:08.640 the truth. According to some, it was that that left 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:11.920 him feeling betrayed, driving him to become rebellious as a teen. 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:15.920 His grandfather found him an apprenticeship as a plumber, but 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:18.800 just as life was looking up, a recession struck in 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:21.920 eighteen ninety eight. His aunt Helen and mother, Sadie both 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:24.560 lost their jobs, and then in August of nineteen hundred, 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:27.920 his mother passed away. That was when Elmer decided to 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:30.680 head west for a fresh start. Little did he know 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:32.440 that his journey would lead him down a path with 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:35.960 other Wild West legends in the most unusual of ways. 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:38.760 It began with the daring leap onto a freight train. 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:41.959 Every moment on those rattling trains was a dance with fate, 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:45.720 avoiding the prying eyes of company detectives. But after days 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:48.959 of heart pounding travel, he arrived in Niola, Kansas in 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:52.040 nineteen oh three. This bustling town was at the heart 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:55.320 of an industrial boom. The town had seventeen miles of 0:08:55.360 --> 0:09:00.080 paved roads, indoor plumbing, electricity, and a public library. If 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:03.440 On arriving, Elmer adopted the alias of Frank Curtis and 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:06.120 took up a plumbing job at the Eagle Cornice Works 0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:09.360 and Plumbing Shop. He worked hard, too, often ten or 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:12.000 twelve hour shifts just to meet the demand of the 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:15.880 growing town. He even joined the volunteer fire department, always 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:18.120 ready to battle the flames and earn a few bucks 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:21.600 for his bravery. Embracing the spirit of community, he became 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:24.840 a member of the local trade union and attended town meetings, 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:28.880 taking part in shaping the town's future. The local newspaper 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:32.680 sang his praises, calling him an industrious young man, rubbing 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:35.520 shoulders with the town's elite, and even catching the eye 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:38.760 of a merchant's daughter. It seemed Elmer had finally found 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:42.600 a place to call home. One fateful night, However, under 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:45.680 the influence of alcohol, he spilled the truth about his 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:49.760 alias and a supposed barroom murder. Whether or not it 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:52.800 was a tall tail fueled by booze remains a mystery, 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:56.000 but whatever the case, William Root, his boss, couldn't take 0:09:56.040 --> 0:10:00.480 the risk and unceremoniously fired him, leaving Elmer feeling trade. 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:04.040 Once again, seeking new horizons, he left the town he 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:06.240 loved and headed to Missouri, where he worked in the 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:09.199 dangerous depths of a zinc mine. From there, he enlisted 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:11.800 in the US Army, where he excelled as part of 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:15.360 a machine gun detachment. When that military journey came to 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:18.320 an end, he was honorably discharged with praises for his 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:22.120 excellent and faithful service. Armed with those discharge papers, he 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:26.079 set his sights on Saint Joseph, Missouri. Unfortunately, luck wasn't 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:28.720 on his side, and after just a week of job hunting, 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:33.000 he found himself penniless. In his desperation, Elmer turned to 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:37.120 a former army buddy named Walter Schopplery. Walter took a 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:40.600 week's leave and rushed to his friend's aid. Almost immediately, 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:44.559 three police officers arrived and arrested the pair, accusing them 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:49.280 of possessing burglary tools. Headlines about the sensational arrest were 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:52.679 splashed all over the local newspapers. The officers claimed that 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:55.240 they had confiscated not just tools used by burglars, but 0:10:55.520 --> 0:10:58.920 also a device for pulling safe combinations and a funnel 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:03.720 used for nitroglyphs. Elmer and Walter faced serious charges, but 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:07.160 Elmer decided to put his army inventiveness to use. He 0:11:07.200 --> 0:11:09.200 spent a story that the tools were part of a 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:13.520 new machine gun tripod and the supposed nitroglycerin funnel was 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:15.880 just a funnel that he had made for Walter. The 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:20.480 trial was intense, but Elmer demonstrated his tripod invention in 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:23.560 front of the court, convincing the jury to return a 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:28.080 not guilty verdict. It wouldn't be his last encounter with crime, though, 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:31.960 After meeting the notorious Walter Jarrett in Saint Joseph's jail, 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:35.360 Elmer was lured into the world of outlaws and bank robbers. 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:39.240 For good. Jarrett's fascination with the outlaw Jesse James only 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:42.600 fueled their ambitions. With their sights set on robbing the 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:45.760 Iron Mountain Train, Elmer, Jarretts and the rest of their 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:48.800 gang planned to make history, but the heist quickly turned 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:51.880 into a chaotic mess. The safe was harder to crack 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:55.840 than they anticipated, and their inept use of explosives caused 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:58.840 most of the silver inside to melt and fuse to 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:02.520 the walls of the safe. Despite their failed attempt, word 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:06.040 of their crime spread like wildfire. Undeterred, the gang set 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:10.320 their sights on a new target, a bank in Chautauqua, Oklahoma, 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:13.160 but their plan to tunnel through the brick wall and 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:17.959 blast the vault door also backfired spectacularly no pun intended, 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:20.920 I swear the explosion they set off ended up wrecking 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:23.480 the bank, and they barely managed to steal a few 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:27.079 hundred dollars. Unwilling to give up, they plotted their next 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:30.120 move robbing a train that carried royalty payments to the 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:34.680 Osage Nation, but instead they mistakenly robbed a local passenger train, 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:37.760 netting them a mere forty dollars in cash, plus a 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:41.640 pocket watch, one coat, and roughly two gallons of whiskey. 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:45.520 Despite their lack of success, though law enforcement was hot 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:58.040 on their trail. Determined to bring these wannabe outlaws to justice, 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:02.440 they used bloodhounds to track them down. At first, the 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:04.839 man hunt looked promising as the dogs picked up the 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:08.280 outlaws trail into the nearby woods, but heavy rains began 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:11.640 to fall, washing away footprints and the scent. The media 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:14.840 dubbed the gang the Bartlesville Posse and reported on their 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:18.800 ambitious plans, describing the explosives and fuses that they found 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:22.200 near the crime scene. And alcohol would once again play 0:13:22.200 --> 0:13:25.200 into Elmer's downfall. In the following days, he hit out 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:28.280 at a local ranch where he indulged in stolen whisky 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:30.640 while bragging to a ranch hand that he had come 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:33.520 from a train that had been held up. Eventually, Elmer 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:35.920 passed out, but the lesson here for everyone at home 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:38.040 is pretty clear. Don't get drunk if you've got a 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:40.679 crime to hide. Right as dawn broke the next day, 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:43.920 on October seventh of nineteen eleven, the authorities caught up 0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:46.680 with Elmer. The men took up stations outside the barn 0:13:46.679 --> 0:13:48.760 where he was sleeping off the whiskey in a bed 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:52.199 of hay. Around seven am, the men surprised Elmer as 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:55.120 he stumbled out of the barn, perhaps still a bit 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:58.080 drunk from the night before. Caught off guard, he fired 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:00.640 wildly at them and then ran back in side the barn. 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:04.199 Elmer and the men exchanged gunfire for nearly an hour, 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:06.840 but at some point they realized that he was no 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:10.320 longer firing back, so they convinced a brave ranch hand 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:12.880 to go inside and check on the situation, which is 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:15.880 how they found Elmer dead on the floor, his body 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:19.760 riddled with bullet holes. Now I need to be honest 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:23.040 here that these circumstances surrounding his final days are shrouded 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:26.320 in a bit of uncertainty. Reports on the events before 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:30.400 the shootout at the barn are inconsistent and contradictory, leaving 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:34.520 the truth behind his death forever unknown. Some have suggested 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:37.040 that the shootout never even occurred, and that Elmer wasn't 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:39.920 present when the train was robbed. Instead, they wondered if 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:42.520 the posse just happened to come across Elmer sleeping off 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:45.640 whiskey in the barn and shot him by mistake. A 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:47.840 few have even suggested that one of his own gang 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:51.520 was the one who killed him. Whatever happened, though, Elmer's 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:54.040 end was just the beginning. While his life as an 0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:56.800 outlaw may have paled in comparison to Jesse James or 0:14:56.840 --> 0:14:59.800 Billy the Kid. What set him apart was what came 0:14:59.800 --> 0:15:02.680 next next. It began with the embalming process at the 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:06.560 Johnson Funeral Home in Pulhuska, Oklahoma. His body was treated 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:10.600 with arsenic, turning it into an unexpectedly well preserved corpse. 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:13.600 But with no one coming forward to claim the body, 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:17.200 the undertaker came up with an idea. He dressed McCurdy's 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:20.320 body and bannedit attire, armed it with the rifle, and 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:23.760 then put it on display, charging visitors to view the 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:27.360 macab exhibit. You see. Back then, laws related to corpses 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:30.360 were a lot more lenient, and displays like this were 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:34.600 not uncommon. Several years went by until some carnival owners 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:38.920 approached the undertaker, eager to purchase Elmer's body. He refused, 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:42.080 so they concocted a story posing as the dead outlaws 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:45.720 relatives and tricked the undertaker into handing over the corpse. 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:49.440 After that, Elmer's well preserved remains were featured in various 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:54.040 carnivals and sideshows all over. Then, in nineteen twenty two, 0:15:54.280 --> 0:15:57.040 a guy named Lewis Sonny, the head of an entertainment company, 0:15:57.160 --> 0:15:59.800 acquired the body. And placed it in his traveling show 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:03.880 The Museum of Crime. After that, Elmer's corpse became a 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:06.520 prop in a couple of movies, after which it was 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:09.600 stored in a warehouse in Los Angeles. And at this 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:12.920 point most everyone had forgotten that this prop was actually 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:16.440 a human corpse, which is why in the mid nineteen seventies, 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:19.600 Elmer's body could be found hanging from a fake gallows 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:22.280 in the Laugh in the Dark Funhouse at the New 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:27.280 Point Amusement Park in Long Beach, California. Strange, right, But 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:30.440 hold on, because it only gets worse. When the hit 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:33.200 TV show The Six Million Dollar Man came to the 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:36.920 amusement park to film and episode, the production crew mistook 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:40.520 the corpse for a mannequin and accidentally broke its hand off, 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:45.040 revealing real human bones inside. As you might imagine, everyone 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:48.160 pretty much freaked out, so the police were called and 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:51.840 the coroner's office examined the body, finding a copper jacketed 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:55.880 bullet and early nineteen hundreds embalming fluid. Eventually, with the 0:16:55.880 --> 0:17:00.560 help of Oklahoma historians, they identified the remains as Elmer McCurdy, 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:04.080 noting that his mouth was stuffed with carnival ticket stubs, 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:07.040 and there you have it. Clearly, in life he was 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:10.720 nowhere near as infamous or successful as other outlaws like 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:14.040 Jesse James or Billy the Kid. But in death his 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:17.920 ability to stick around eclipsed all of them quite literally. 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:21.600 Oh and one more thing. Billy the Kid's final resting 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:24.879 place might be a mystery, but Elmer mccurty's sure isn't. 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:28.760 In the spring of nineteen seventy seven, someone kindly offered 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:31.719 up a free plot in the legendary boothill section of 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:35.560 some View Cemetery in Guthrie, Oklahoma. It was a chance 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:38.760 to give him a proper burial, although a pretty delayed one, 0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:42.200 to be honest. When the day finally arrived for Elmer 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:45.159 mccurty's final journey, it was a horse drawn hearst that 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:49.200 solemnly carried him toward boot Hill. Inside a plain pine 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:52.040 coffin held the well traveled body, ready to lay him 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:55.840 to rest sixty six years after his death, and the 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:59.440 cemetery that day was filled with hundreds of people, all 0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:03.399 gathered to bid farewell to the failed outlaw who unintentionally 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:15.440 became a legend ever since. Historian Frederick Jackson Turner gave 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:18.639 his famous speech at the World's Columbian Exposition in eighteen 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:21.679 ninety three. The notion of the West, at least the 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:24.600 one that folks like Buffalo Bill Cody, Jesse James, and 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:28.359 all the rest painted for us, has embodied the American spirit. 0:18:29.000 --> 0:18:32.600 This belief lived on from generation to generation, becoming woven 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:36.200 into American identity. In the end, whether fact or fiction, 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:40.200 the American Frontier's myth continued to shape a nation's soul, 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:44.080 inspiring its people to dream, explore, and believe in the 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:48.320 power of the untamed, uncharted future ahead. As the West's 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:52.480 physical landscape changed, the Wild West simply relocated from the 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:55.520 wide open plains to the minds and hearts of Americans, 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:58.960 where it remains to this very day. For many of 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:01.600 our cowboys and out laws, the stories that fed their 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:05.600 folklore were deeds done in life. But Elmer McCurdy's legend 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:09.000 was formed post mortem, and he finally got something that 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:11.719 he could only have dreamed of in life, a spot 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:15.080 on Boot Hill, a famous burial ground for gunfighters who, 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:18.800 as they say, died with their boots on. As his 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:22.200 coffin was lowered into the earth. That day, authorities poured 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:25.320 ample amounts of concrete on top of it, ensuring that 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:28.840 mccurty's days of macab travel were at an end. It 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:31.840 seems that he had finally earned his spot alongside the 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:43.639 outlaws of old and a place in our imaginations. The 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:47.040 Wild West has always been a real life cinematic universe, 0:19:47.080 --> 0:19:50.720 full of textured characters and major events. It's neat and 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:54.000 tidy that way, but hopefully today's exploration of some of 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:56.600 the more colorful characters helped you spot a favorite or 0:19:56.600 --> 0:19:59.760 two amongst the bunch. And if Elmer McCurdy's prop store 0:19:59.800 --> 0:20:02.159 core was the one that caught your fancy, you're in 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:04.879 for a treat. We've got one more grizzly tale of 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:07.239 life after death in the wild West to share with you, 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:09.840 and if you stick around through this brief sponsor break, 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:13.160 my teammates Ali Steed will tell you all about it. 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:23.399 George's good luck continued from there. When the train was 0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:26.879 stopped at Carvin County, a mob of people, furious at 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:29.440 the murder of the lawmen, dragged George off the train 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:32.919 and prepared to hang him. George pleaded for his life, 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:38.000 and for whatever reason, the crowd let him go. Not free, 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:39.600 mind you, they just put him back on the train 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:42.240 so somebody else could hang him. He was tried and 0:20:42.280 --> 0:20:45.480 found guilty on December fifteenth, eighteen eighty, and in the 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:48.480 spring of eighteen eighty one, the judge sentenced him to hang. 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:54.240 George had no intention of being executed. In March, George 0:20:54.280 --> 0:20:58.920 attempted to escape. He succeeded in brutally subduing his jailer, 0:20:59.080 --> 0:21:02.439 but not his jailer's wife, who forced him back to 0:21:02.480 --> 0:21:06.400 his cell. Incensed over the attack on the jailer, residents 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:09.440 stormed the jail and dragged George outside, where they intended 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:12.200 to string him up from a telephone pole. The first 0:21:12.200 --> 0:21:16.840 two attempts were gruesome failures, but as they say, third 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:20.280 time's the charm. Can you believe that's only the beginning 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:24.680 of our story? George's corpse wasn't exactly laid to rest. 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:27.520 With no family to claim the body, it fell into 0:21:27.520 --> 0:21:32.800 the hands of doctors Thomas McGee and John Osborne. Curiosity 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:35.520 at the criminal condition led them to examine his brain, 0:21:36.080 --> 0:21:39.000 but all they found was that George's brain was no 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:43.400 different from a normal one. Doctor Osborne molded a death 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:48.240 mask of George's face, and, in a gruesome twist removed 0:21:48.400 --> 0:21:51.920 the skin from his thighs and chest. He then sent 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:54.159 the skin to a tannery to make a pair of 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:58.280 shoes and a medicine bag. Yes, you heard that right, 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:01.800 shoes and a medicine bag made from the skin of 0:22:01.840 --> 0:22:07.440 an outlaw. After receiving his new duds, Doctor Osborne entered 0:22:07.440 --> 0:22:10.960 the political arena, becoming the first Democratic governor of Wyoming. 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:14.679 It said that he even wore the infamous shoes to 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:19.240 his inaugural ball in eighteen ninety three. Later, he climbed 0:22:19.280 --> 0:22:22.800 the political ladder further, becoming the Assistant Secretary of State 0:22:22.920 --> 0:22:28.240 under President Wilson. Meanwhile, his young assistant, Lillian Heath, held 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:31.199 on to Big Nose George's skull cap. She went on 0:22:31.280 --> 0:22:35.040 to become the first female doctor in Wyoming, an incredible 0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:39.399 trailblazer in her own right. Big Nose George seemed lost 0:22:39.440 --> 0:22:44.399 to history until one day in nineteen fifty, workers at 0:22:44.400 --> 0:22:47.639 a construction site found a whiskey barrel filled with human 0:22:47.680 --> 0:22:52.199 bones and a sowd off skull in Wallin's Wyoming. The 0:22:52.240 --> 0:22:57.600 shocking discovery sparked curiosity and speculation. A crowd gathered to 0:22:57.640 --> 0:23:02.000 witness the grizzly remains, and some remembered that Lilian Heath 0:23:02.480 --> 0:23:06.359 might actually have a piece of the puzzle. Eighty years later, 0:23:06.600 --> 0:23:09.639 Lillian confirmed the match between the skull caps she had 0:23:09.760 --> 0:23:12.919 kept as an ash tray and the skull found in 0:23:12.960 --> 0:23:16.800 the barrel. DNA testing later verified the results and the 0:23:16.840 --> 0:23:20.359 mystery was solved. These were indeed the remains of Big 0:23:20.400 --> 0:23:25.320 Nose George. Today you can see the death mask, skull 0:23:25.640 --> 0:23:29.520 and infamous skin shoes displayed at the Carbon County Museum 0:23:29.600 --> 0:23:33.359 in Rollins. The museum attracts visitors from far and wide, 0:23:34.040 --> 0:23:36.879 eager to get a glimpse of the wild West's most 0:23:37.040 --> 0:23:41.679 bizarre outlaw. Outlaws might have been rough and tough characters, 0:23:41.800 --> 0:23:45.840