Halloween hangings

This post is not about the perennial stories this time of year about decorations that are too reminiscent of African American lynching victims. Rather, it is about the rare stories in which a Halloween decoration turns out to be the real thing:

FREDERICA, Delaware 2005 — Rush hour traffic passed by a body suspended from a tree about 15' from the ground, but none of the drivers reported it because it was thought to be a holiday decoration. When police were finally called to the scene 3 hours later, they found the remains of a 42-year-old woman who had hanged herself that morning or the night before.

MARINA DEL REY, California 2009 — Neighbors at an apartment building saw what they thought was a Halloween dummy slumped over the balcony. It was 4 days before anyone realized that it was the body of a 75-year-old man who had taken his own life by shooting himself in the head.

I authenticated these stories on Snopes.com, which also documents the unfortunate accidental demise of 2 teenagers (in 1990 and 2001) who were staging gallows scenes at Halloween events. But the most extraordinary story* occurred decades ago at a California funhouse, where "every day is Halloween":

LONG BEACH, California 1976 — When a crew member knocked off the arm of a prop at the Nu-Pike Amusement Park while filming an episode of "The Six Million Dollar Man", the break revealed a real bone inside. Famous Los Angeles coroner Thomas Noguchi determined that the "hanged man" at the funhouse was the authentic mummified body of train robber Elmer McCurdy, shot and killed by an Oklahoma posse in 1911!

*Told in detail in my book Modern Mummies.