Speaker 1: When you were a kid, did you ever pretend to
Speaker 1: be a cowboy or a cowgirl? Did you play the
Speaker 1: part of an infamous outlaw? If you did, chances are
Speaker 1: these fantasies were inspired by a lot of fiction. The
Speaker 1: wild West as we think of it today was very different.
Speaker 1: In the nineteen fifties, of the whole generation fell in
Speaker 1: love with the Hollywood version of Buffalo Bill Cody, but
Speaker 1: these films weren't biopics. When it comes to movies, the
Speaker 1: more entertaining right, and the box office responds to that,
Speaker 1: and there's no better way to do that than to
Speaker 1: embellish a few things. The real William Cody was born
Speaker 1: in eighteen forty six. When he was just eight, his
Speaker 1: father was brutally attacked, and as he watched his father
Speaker 1: dying in bed, he declared that he wished to be
Speaker 1: all grown up so that he could kill the men
Speaker 1: who attacked his father. Most historians today believe that Cody
Speaker 1: was a good storyteller, but what we do know is
Speaker 1: that as an adult during the Civil War, he was
Speaker 1: a Union scout, and then in eighteen sixty six he
Speaker 1: married Luisa Frederici, and in eighteen sixty seven he earned
Speaker 1: the nickname Buffalo Bill while hunting buffalo for the Kansas
Speaker 1: Pacific Railroad, where he bragged that he killed forty eight
Speaker 1: of the animals in just thirty minutes. Cody's antics eventually
Speaker 1: caught the attention of General Phillip Sheridan, who wanted a
Speaker 1: positive public relations spin for the US Army. He joined
Speaker 1: Cody on buffalo hunts, and the media just couldn't get enough.
Speaker 1: Pulp fiction magazines were already in the business of romanticizing
Speaker 1: stories about life in the West, and it didn't take
Speaker 1: long before a writer convinced Cody to take his stories
Speaker 1: on tour. Within a year, Cody created his Scouts of
Speaker 1: the Prairie show. It was such a success that he
Speaker 1: ended up traveling the country with it for the better
Speaker 1: part of a decade. By eighteen eighty three, though, the
Speaker 1: show had evolved to something that was so large it
Speaker 1: could only be staged outdoors. Now called Buffalo Bill's Wild
Speaker 1: West Show, he hired cowboys, cowgirls, mountain men, and Mexican voccaros.
Speaker 1: He brought an elk, bison, and even bear. At an
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty five Annie Oakley joined, impressing crowds with her
Speaker 1: shooting skills. By the time of the World's Columbian Exposition
Speaker 1: in Chicago in eighteen ninety three, roughly six hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty people worked on his show. The stage was functionally
Speaker 1: fifteen acres of land, the grand stands had room for
Speaker 1: more than eighteen thousand people. And at that very same exposition,
Speaker 1: historian Frederick Jackson Turner remember him from our first episode
Speaker 1: this season, was giving a speech about life on the
Speaker 1: American Frontier. To him, the preceding few decades had been
Speaker 1: more formative to American identity than any other before it.
Speaker 1: As he understood it, American settlers had experienced the frontier,
Speaker 1: and in turn, the Frontier had left an indelible mark
Speaker 1: on the character of America. This is what Hollywood would
Speaker 1: eventually pick up on. Today, when we think of the
Speaker 1: Wild West, we're not thinking about the time and place
Speaker 1: as it was, but the idea as it has been
Speaker 1: formed in our imagination. But one thing's for certain. Our
Speaker 1: image of the Wild West is almost always about people
Speaker 1: and their stories, which is why they're still so interesting today.
Speaker 1: I'm Aaron Mankee, and welcome to the wild West. Tumbleweeds,
Speaker 1: dusty trails, cowboys, and of course outlaws and one rugged
Speaker 1: gunslinger with his black hat and horse, has always captured
Speaker 1: imaginations with his lawlessness and daring exploits. Billy the Kid
Speaker 1: is a name that we all know. Born in eighteen
Speaker 1: fifty nine, Billy first found trouble at just fifteen years old.
Speaker 1: It seemed that he helped a man play a prank
Speaker 1: by hiding clothes from a launderer. The sheriff didn't find
Speaker 1: the joke funny and arrested Billy. Not one to be contained,
Speaker 1: Billy escaped through a jailhouse chimney. While working as a
Speaker 1: civilian teamster at the Camp Grant Army Post, Billy was
Speaker 1: bullied daily until he reached the breaking point and shot
Speaker 1: his tormentor. He was arrested and again escaped. At this point, though,
Speaker 1: honest work was no longer an option for him, so
Speaker 1: Billy joined forces with Jesse Evans and his gang known
Speaker 1: as the Boys. Eventually, Billy found work in eighteen seventy
Speaker 1: seven with a guy named John Tunstall protecting him and
Speaker 1: his cattle. So when Tunstall was murdered during the Lincoln
Speaker 1: County War, Billy swore vengeance and joined the Regulators, another
Speaker 1: infamous outlaw gang. He then took on those who wronged
Speaker 1: Tunstall in a series of gunfights, earning Billy a reputation
Speaker 1: as a skilled gunslinger. Again, Billy was arrested, but in
Speaker 1: a plea deal for a pardon, he testified against others
Speaker 1: who participated in the Lincoln County War. Sadly, the district
Speaker 1: attorney didn't hold up his end of the bargain and
Speaker 1: Billy was locked up anyway, But Billy did what Billy
Speaker 1: always did. He escaped, going on to form his own
Speaker 1: gang called the Rustlers. In late eighteen eighty he was
Speaker 1: captured yet again and jailed again. Convicted of murder, the
Speaker 1: judge sentenced him to hang, and once again you guessed it,
Speaker 1: he escaped, but in July of eighteen eighty one he
Speaker 1: would finally run out of chances when he was shot
Speaker 1: and killed by a sheriff. His story was dramatic, and
Speaker 1: drama always gives wings to the tales we tell. So
Speaker 1: as the stories about Laws and their gang spread, the
Speaker 1: line between fact and fiction started to become more and
Speaker 1: more blurry. Some of these characters are remembered as Robin
Speaker 1: Hood's stealing from the rich and giving back to the poor.
Speaker 1: Others earned sympathy by fighting against a system that had
Speaker 1: somehow wronged them. One famous outlaw that became larger than
Speaker 1: life is, of course, Jesse James. Born on September fifth
Speaker 1: of eighteen forty seven. James grew up in Clay County, Missouri,
Speaker 1: although his father, Robert sadly passed away just three years later,
Speaker 1: leaving Jesse's mother, Zirelda, and his older brother Frank to
Speaker 1: carry on. During the Civil War, the division between pro
Speaker 1: Union and pro Confederate sentiments in Missouri escalated to violence.
Speaker 1: Groups of anti Union bushwhackers, including Jesse's older brother Frank,
Speaker 1: launched brutal attacks on anti slavery Union towns, and when
Speaker 1: Jesse turned sixteen, he followed in his brother's footsteps. After
Speaker 1: the Civil War, Jesse rose to lead a gang of
Speaker 1: bank and train robbers. His legend grew with each daring exploit,
Speaker 1: partly thanks to an ex Confederate soldier and newspaper editor
Speaker 1: who crafted a myth of James as a heroic Southern
Speaker 1: robin hood, and he played the part well, maintaining a
Speaker 1: respectable public image. The gang's luck changed, however, when they
Speaker 1: attempted to rob the First National Bank of Northfield Minnesota.
Speaker 1: This time, the townsfolk fought back, killing two gang members
Speaker 1: and kicking off a search for the rest. Jesse and
Speaker 1: his brother Frank barely escaped and ended up moving to
Speaker 1: Tennessee under false identities. But death comes for us all,
Speaker 1: doesn't it, and legendary outlaws are no exception. In eighteen
Speaker 1: eighty two, while Jesse was dusting a picture on the wall,
Speaker 1: he was shot in the back of the head, and
Speaker 1: so ended the colorful life of one of America's most
Speaker 1: rugged Wild West sweethearts. By the late eighteen hundreds, the
Speaker 1: thirty year period of the Wild West was coming to
Speaker 1: an end. The eighteen ninety census showed that the once
Speaker 1: clear frontier line that divided the settled areas from the
Speaker 1: wild ones had become too blurry. The wild part of
Speaker 1: the Wild West, at least according to the US government,
Speaker 1: had been tamed. You could see it everywhere you went, too.
Speaker 1: Streets had been laid, and the foundations for public projects
Speaker 1: had been created. Jails, schoolhouses, and businesses began dotting the
Speaker 1: landscape in a tidy fashion. Americans were becoming less interested
Speaker 1: in expanding outward and more drawn to growing roots. The
Speaker 1: Wild West was shrinking but it hadn't failed to sunset
Speaker 1: just yet. That's where Elmer enters the picture. He was
Speaker 1: born up in Maine in eighteen eighty to a teenage
Speaker 1: girl named Sadie, and as you might expect, his early
Speaker 1: life was full of hardship. So Elmer was raised by
Speaker 1: his aunt and uncle, Helen and George, and his parentage
Speaker 1: was kept a secret from him to shield Sadie from embarrassment. However,
Speaker 1: after his uncle George died in eighteen ninety, Elmer discovered
Speaker 1: the truth. According to some, it was that that left
Speaker 1: him feeling betrayed, driving him to become rebellious as a teen.
Speaker 1: His grandfather found him an apprenticeship as a plumber, but
Speaker 1: just as life was looking up, a recession struck in
Speaker 1: eighteen ninety eight. His aunt Helen and mother, Sadie both
Speaker 1: lost their jobs, and then in August of nineteen hundred,
Speaker 1: his mother passed away. That was when Elmer decided to
Speaker 1: head west for a fresh start. Little did he know
Speaker 1: that his journey would lead him down a path with
Speaker 1: other Wild West legends in the most unusual of ways.
Speaker 1: It began with the daring leap onto a freight train.
Speaker 1: Every moment on those rattling trains was a dance with fate,
Speaker 1: avoiding the prying eyes of company detectives. But after days
Speaker 1: of heart pounding travel, he arrived in Niola, Kansas in
Speaker 1: nineteen oh three. This bustling town was at the heart
Speaker 1: of an industrial boom. The town had seventeen miles of
Speaker 1: paved roads, indoor plumbing, electricity, and a public library. If
Speaker 1: On arriving, Elmer adopted the alias of Frank Curtis and
Speaker 1: took up a plumbing job at the Eagle Cornice Works
Speaker 1: and Plumbing Shop. He worked hard, too, often ten or
Speaker 1: twelve hour shifts just to meet the demand of the
Speaker 1: growing town. He even joined the volunteer fire department, always
Speaker 1: ready to battle the flames and earn a few bucks
Speaker 1: for his bravery. Embracing the spirit of community, he became
Speaker 1: a member of the local trade union and attended town meetings,
Speaker 1: taking part in shaping the town's future. The local newspaper
Speaker 1: sang his praises, calling him an industrious young man, rubbing
Speaker 1: shoulders with the town's elite, and even catching the eye
Speaker 1: of a merchant's daughter. It seemed Elmer had finally found
Speaker 1: a place to call home. One fateful night, However, under
Speaker 1: the influence of alcohol, he spilled the truth about his
Speaker 1: alias and a supposed barroom murder. Whether or not it
Speaker 1: was a tall tail fueled by booze remains a mystery,
Speaker 1: but whatever the case, William Root, his boss, couldn't take
Speaker 1: the risk and unceremoniously fired him, leaving Elmer feeling trade.
Speaker 1: Once again, seeking new horizons, he left the town he
Speaker 1: loved and headed to Missouri, where he worked in the
Speaker 1: dangerous depths of a zinc mine. From there, he enlisted
Speaker 1: in the US Army, where he excelled as part of
Speaker 1: a machine gun detachment. When that military journey came to
Speaker 1: an end, he was honorably discharged with praises for his
Speaker 1: excellent and faithful service. Armed with those discharge papers, he
Speaker 1: set his sights on Saint Joseph, Missouri. Unfortunately, luck wasn't
Speaker 1: on his side, and after just a week of job hunting,
Speaker 1: he found himself penniless. In his desperation, Elmer turned to
Speaker 1: a former army buddy named Walter Schopplery. Walter took a
Speaker 1: week's leave and rushed to his friend's aid. Almost immediately,
Speaker 1: three police officers arrived and arrested the pair, accusing them
Speaker 1: of possessing burglary tools. Headlines about the sensational arrest were
Speaker 1: splashed all over the local newspapers. The officers claimed that
Speaker 1: they had confiscated not just tools used by burglars, but
Speaker 1: also a device for pulling safe combinations and a funnel
Speaker 1: used for nitroglyphs. Elmer and Walter faced serious charges, but
Speaker 1: Elmer decided to put his army inventiveness to use. He
Speaker 1: spent a story that the tools were part of a
Speaker 1: new machine gun tripod and the supposed nitroglycerin funnel was
Speaker 1: just a funnel that he had made for Walter. The
Speaker 1: trial was intense, but Elmer demonstrated his tripod invention in
Speaker 1: front of the court, convincing the jury to return a
Speaker 1: not guilty verdict. It wouldn't be his last encounter with crime, though,
Speaker 1: After meeting the notorious Walter Jarrett in Saint Joseph's jail,
Speaker 1: Elmer was lured into the world of outlaws and bank robbers.
Speaker 1: For good. Jarrett's fascination with the outlaw Jesse James only
Speaker 1: fueled their ambitions. With their sights set on robbing the
Speaker 1: Iron Mountain Train, Elmer, Jarretts and the rest of their
Speaker 1: gang planned to make history, but the heist quickly turned
Speaker 1: into a chaotic mess. The safe was harder to crack
Speaker 1: than they anticipated, and their inept use of explosives caused
Speaker 1: most of the silver inside to melt and fuse to
Speaker 1: the walls of the safe. Despite their failed attempt, word
Speaker 1: of their crime spread like wildfire. Undeterred, the gang set
Speaker 1: their sights on a new target, a bank in Chautauqua, Oklahoma,
Speaker 1: but their plan to tunnel through the brick wall and
Speaker 1: blast the vault door also backfired spectacularly no pun intended,
Speaker 1: I swear the explosion they set off ended up wrecking
Speaker 1: the bank, and they barely managed to steal a few
Speaker 1: hundred dollars. Unwilling to give up, they plotted their next
Speaker 1: move robbing a train that carried royalty payments to the
Speaker 1: Osage Nation, but instead they mistakenly robbed a local passenger train,
Speaker 1: netting them a mere forty dollars in cash, plus a
Speaker 1: pocket watch, one coat, and roughly two gallons of whiskey.
Speaker 1: Despite their lack of success, though law enforcement was hot
Speaker 1: on their trail. Determined to bring these wannabe outlaws to justice,
Speaker 1: they used bloodhounds to track them down. At first, the
Speaker 1: man hunt looked promising as the dogs picked up the
Speaker 1: outlaws trail into the nearby woods, but heavy rains began
Speaker 1: to fall, washing away footprints and the scent. The media
Speaker 1: dubbed the gang the Bartlesville Posse and reported on their
Speaker 1: ambitious plans, describing the explosives and fuses that they found
Speaker 1: near the crime scene. And alcohol would once again play
Speaker 1: into Elmer's downfall. In the following days, he hit out
Speaker 1: at a local ranch where he indulged in stolen whisky
Speaker 1: while bragging to a ranch hand that he had come
Speaker 1: from a train that had been held up. Eventually, Elmer
Speaker 1: passed out, but the lesson here for everyone at home
Speaker 1: is pretty clear. Don't get drunk if you've got a
Speaker 1: crime to hide. Right as dawn broke the next day,
Speaker 1: on October seventh of nineteen eleven, the authorities caught up
Speaker 1: with Elmer. The men took up stations outside the barn
Speaker 1: where he was sleeping off the whiskey in a bed
Speaker 1: of hay. Around seven am, the men surprised Elmer as
Speaker 1: he stumbled out of the barn, perhaps still a bit
Speaker 1: drunk from the night before. Caught off guard, he fired
Speaker 1: wildly at them and then ran back in side the barn.
Speaker 1: Elmer and the men exchanged gunfire for nearly an hour,
Speaker 1: but at some point they realized that he was no
Speaker 1: longer firing back, so they convinced a brave ranch hand
Speaker 1: to go inside and check on the situation, which is
Speaker 1: how they found Elmer dead on the floor, his body
Speaker 1: riddled with bullet holes. Now I need to be honest
Speaker 1: here that these circumstances surrounding his final days are shrouded
Speaker 1: in a bit of uncertainty. Reports on the events before
Speaker 1: the shootout at the barn are inconsistent and contradictory, leaving
Speaker 1: the truth behind his death forever unknown. Some have suggested
Speaker 1: that the shootout never even occurred, and that Elmer wasn't
Speaker 1: present when the train was robbed. Instead, they wondered if
Speaker 1: the posse just happened to come across Elmer sleeping off
Speaker 1: whiskey in the barn and shot him by mistake. A
Speaker 1: few have even suggested that one of his own gang
Speaker 1: was the one who killed him. Whatever happened, though, Elmer's
Speaker 1: end was just the beginning. While his life as an
Speaker 1: outlaw may have paled in comparison to Jesse James or
Speaker 1: Billy the Kid. What set him apart was what came
Speaker 1: next next. It began with the embalming process at the
Speaker 1: Johnson Funeral Home in Pulhuska, Oklahoma. His body was treated
Speaker 1: with arsenic, turning it into an unexpectedly well preserved corpse.
Speaker 1: But with no one coming forward to claim the body,
Speaker 1: the undertaker came up with an idea. He dressed McCurdy's
Speaker 1: body and bannedit attire, armed it with the rifle, and
Speaker 1: then put it on display, charging visitors to view the
Speaker 1: macab exhibit. You see. Back then, laws related to corpses
Speaker 1: were a lot more lenient, and displays like this were
Speaker 1: not uncommon. Several years went by until some carnival owners
Speaker 1: approached the undertaker, eager to purchase Elmer's body. He refused,
Speaker 1: so they concocted a story posing as the dead outlaws
Speaker 1: relatives and tricked the undertaker into handing over the corpse.
Speaker 1: After that, Elmer's well preserved remains were featured in various
Speaker 1: carnivals and sideshows all over. Then, in nineteen twenty two,
Speaker 1: a guy named Lewis Sonny, the head of an entertainment company,
Speaker 1: acquired the body. And placed it in his traveling show
Speaker 1: The Museum of Crime. After that, Elmer's corpse became a
Speaker 1: prop in a couple of movies, after which it was
Speaker 1: stored in a warehouse in Los Angeles. And at this
Speaker 1: point most everyone had forgotten that this prop was actually
Speaker 1: a human corpse, which is why in the mid nineteen seventies,
Speaker 1: Elmer's body could be found hanging from a fake gallows
Speaker 1: in the Laugh in the Dark Funhouse at the New
Speaker 1: Point Amusement Park in Long Beach, California. Strange, right, But
Speaker 1: hold on, because it only gets worse. When the hit
Speaker 1: TV show The Six Million Dollar Man came to the
Speaker 1: amusement park to film and episode, the production crew mistook
Speaker 1: the corpse for a mannequin and accidentally broke its hand off,
Speaker 1: revealing real human bones inside. As you might imagine, everyone
Speaker 1: pretty much freaked out, so the police were called and
Speaker 1: the coroner's office examined the body, finding a copper jacketed
Speaker 1: bullet and early nineteen hundreds embalming fluid. Eventually, with the
Speaker 1: help of Oklahoma historians, they identified the remains as Elmer McCurdy,
Speaker 1: noting that his mouth was stuffed with carnival ticket stubs,
Speaker 1: and there you have it. Clearly, in life he was
Speaker 1: nowhere near as infamous or successful as other outlaws like
Speaker 1: Jesse James or Billy the Kid. But in death his
Speaker 1: ability to stick around eclipsed all of them quite literally.
Speaker 1: Oh and one more thing. Billy the Kid's final resting
Speaker 1: place might be a mystery, but Elmer mccurty's sure isn't.
Speaker 1: In the spring of nineteen seventy seven, someone kindly offered
Speaker 1: up a free plot in the legendary boothill section of
Speaker 1: some View Cemetery in Guthrie, Oklahoma. It was a chance
Speaker 1: to give him a proper burial, although a pretty delayed one,
Speaker 1: to be honest. When the day finally arrived for Elmer
Speaker 1: mccurty's final journey, it was a horse drawn hearst that
Speaker 1: solemnly carried him toward boot Hill. Inside a plain pine
Speaker 1: coffin held the well traveled body, ready to lay him
Speaker 1: to rest sixty six years after his death, and the
Speaker 1: cemetery that day was filled with hundreds of people, all
Speaker 1: gathered to bid farewell to the failed outlaw who unintentionally
Speaker 1: became a legend ever since. Historian Frederick Jackson Turner gave
Speaker 1: his famous speech at the World's Columbian Exposition in eighteen
Speaker 1: ninety three. The notion of the West, at least the
Speaker 1: one that folks like Buffalo Bill Cody, Jesse James, and
Speaker 1: all the rest painted for us, has embodied the American spirit.
Speaker 1: This belief lived on from generation to generation, becoming woven
Speaker 1: into American identity. In the end, whether fact or fiction,
Speaker 1: the American Frontier's myth continued to shape a nation's soul,
Speaker 1: inspiring its people to dream, explore, and believe in the
Speaker 1: power of the untamed, uncharted future ahead. As the West's
Speaker 1: physical landscape changed, the Wild West simply relocated from the
Speaker 1: wide open plains to the minds and hearts of Americans,
Speaker 1: where it remains to this very day. For many of
Speaker 1: our cowboys and out laws, the stories that fed their
Speaker 1: folklore were deeds done in life. But Elmer McCurdy's legend
Speaker 1: was formed post mortem, and he finally got something that
Speaker 1: he could only have dreamed of in life, a spot
Speaker 1: on Boot Hill, a famous burial ground for gunfighters who,
Speaker 1: as they say, died with their boots on. As his
Speaker 1: coffin was lowered into the earth. That day, authorities poured
Speaker 1: ample amounts of concrete on top of it, ensuring that
Speaker 1: mccurty's days of macab travel were at an end. It
Speaker 1: seems that he had finally earned his spot alongside the
Speaker 1: outlaws of old and a place in our imaginations. The
Speaker 1: Wild West has always been a real life cinematic universe,
Speaker 1: full of textured characters and major events. It's neat and
Speaker 1: tidy that way, but hopefully today's exploration of some of
Speaker 1: the more colorful characters helped you spot a favorite or
Speaker 1: two amongst the bunch. And if Elmer McCurdy's prop store
Speaker 1: core was the one that caught your fancy, you're in
Speaker 1: for a treat. We've got one more grizzly tale of
Speaker 1: life after death in the wild West to share with you,
Speaker 1: and if you stick around through this brief sponsor break,
Speaker 1: my teammates Ali Steed will tell you all about it.
Speaker 2: George's good luck continued from there. When the train was
Speaker 2: stopped at Carvin County, a mob of people, furious at
Speaker 2: the murder of the lawmen, dragged George off the train
Speaker 2: and prepared to hang him. George pleaded for his life,
Speaker 2: and for whatever reason, the crowd let him go. Not free,
Speaker 2: mind you, they just put him back on the train
Speaker 2: so somebody else could hang him. He was tried and
Speaker 2: found guilty on December fifteenth, eighteen eighty, and in the
Speaker 2: spring of eighteen eighty one, the judge sentenced him to hang.
Speaker 2: George had no intention of being executed. In March, George
Speaker 2: attempted to escape. He succeeded in brutally subduing his jailer,
Speaker 2: but not his jailer's wife, who forced him back to
Speaker 2: his cell. Incensed over the attack on the jailer, residents
Speaker 2: stormed the jail and dragged George outside, where they intended
Speaker 2: to string him up from a telephone pole. The first
Speaker 2: two attempts were gruesome failures, but as they say, third
Speaker 2: time's the charm. Can you believe that's only the beginning
Speaker 2: of our story? George's corpse wasn't exactly laid to rest.
Speaker 2: With no family to claim the body, it fell into
Speaker 2: the hands of doctors Thomas McGee and John Osborne. Curiosity
Speaker 2: at the criminal condition led them to examine his brain,
Speaker 2: but all they found was that George's brain was no
Speaker 2: different from a normal one. Doctor Osborne molded a death
Speaker 2: mask of George's face, and, in a gruesome twist removed
Speaker 2: the skin from his thighs and chest. He then sent
Speaker 2: the skin to a tannery to make a pair of
Speaker 2: shoes and a medicine bag. Yes, you heard that right,
Speaker 2: shoes and a medicine bag made from the skin of
Speaker 2: an outlaw. After receiving his new duds, Doctor Osborne entered
Speaker 2: the political arena, becoming the first Democratic governor of Wyoming.
Speaker 2: It said that he even wore the infamous shoes to
Speaker 2: his inaugural ball in eighteen ninety three. Later, he climbed
Speaker 2: the political ladder further, becoming the Assistant Secretary of State
Speaker 2: under President Wilson. Meanwhile, his young assistant, Lillian Heath, held
Speaker 2: on to Big Nose George's skull cap. She went on
Speaker 2: to become the first female doctor in Wyoming, an incredible
Speaker 2: trailblazer in her own right. Big Nose George seemed lost
Speaker 2: to history until one day in nineteen fifty, workers at
Speaker 2: a construction site found a whiskey barrel filled with human
Speaker 2: bones and a sowd off skull in Wallin's Wyoming. The
Speaker 2: shocking discovery sparked curiosity and speculation. A crowd gathered to
Speaker 2: witness the grizzly remains, and some remembered that Lilian Heath
Speaker 2: might actually have a piece of the puzzle. Eighty years later,
Speaker 2: Lillian confirmed the match between the skull caps she had
Speaker 2: kept as an ash tray and the skull found in
Speaker 2: the barrel. DNA testing later verified the results and the
Speaker 2: mystery was solved. These were indeed the remains of Big
Speaker 2: Nose George. Today you can see the death mask, skull
Speaker 2: and infamous skin shoes displayed at the Carbon County Museum
Speaker 2: in Rollins. The museum attracts visitors from far and wide,
Speaker 2: eager to get a glimpse of the wild West's most
Speaker 2: bizarre outlaw. Outlaws might have been rough and tough characters,
Speaker 2: but in poor George's case, the vigilantes really kicked it
Speaker 2: up a notch.
Speaker 1: Grim and Maud Presents The Wild West was executive produced
Speaker 1: by me Aaron Manky and hosted by Aaron Manky and
Speaker 1: Alexander Steed. Writing for this season was provided by Michelle Mudo,
Speaker 1: with research by Alexander Dristide, Sam Alberty, Cassandra de Alba,
Speaker 1: and Harry Marx. Fact checking was performed by Jamie Vargas,
Speaker 1: with sensitivity reading by Stacy Parshall Jensen. Production assistance was
Speaker 1: provided by Josh Stain, Jesse Funk, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.
Speaker 1: To learn more about this and other shows from Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild and iHeartRadio, visit Grimandmild dot com