After lifting a measly $46 and two bottles of whiskey later that year, McCurdy was finally gunned down by a sheriff’s posse in Oklahoma.

His sordid tale might have ended there, if not for one enterprising undertaker. After preserving McCurdy’s unclaimed body in arsenic, the mortician opened his parlor to the public. Spectators were charged a nickel each to see the exquisite corpse. They actually slid their coins through McCurdy’s parted lips – like a ghastly piggy bank.

The funeral home made a pretty penny with their star attraction. Then, in 1916, a visitor appeared claiming to be McCurdy’s brother. He wished to give his sibling a proper funeral. The mortician obliged.

Alas, a sucker is born every minute. The mystery man was actually a carnie from a traveling circus. Within weeks, McCurdy’s embalmed body was center stage at the freak show.