‘Dummy’ was a real corpse

Press, 11 December 1976, Page 1

‘Dummy’ was a real corpse

NZPA Los Angeles A small old man whose embalmed body had been for years on display in an amusement park fun house — where everyone thought it was a dummy — had been killed by a gunshot wound in the chest, a county coroner announced yesterday. The fatal bullet was still in the corpse, the county chief medical examiner and coroner (Mr Thomas Ni Woguchi) said — but the identity of the man remained unknown. The body was examined by surgeons after technicians fixing up the fun house at nearby Long Beach for use as background in the television show “Six Million Dollar Man” accidentally discovered the supposed dummy was a real corpse. It had been acquired by the fun house in 1971 from a now-defunct war museum, where it had been billed as “The 5000-year-old man.”

The Coroner’s Office said that X-ray photographs of the corpose had now been taken and bone measurements made in an attempt to solve the mystery of the man’s identity — plus minute examination of teeth for dental work which might provide a clue. Fingers were lacking, and so no prints were available for possible identification. “The corpse shows signs of post-mortem medical examination and has been embalmed,” said a Coroner’s Office spokesman. “It is the desiccated body of a man about sft Sin, now weighing about 1501 b.” Discovery of the fact the man had been shot to death came late in the day. “The bullet appears to be a .32 to .20 calibre of the type manufactured be» tween the 1930 s and stopped before World War II,” Mr Noguchi said. “The body was professionally

embalmed, having two external embalming incisions. “The cavity contains embalming hardening compound which was used in the early 1900 s. Evidence inside the cavity indicates that there was an examination conducted on internal organs. The copper jacket of the bullet was still in the cavity.” Discovery that the body

— which had been called a mummy and painted with a fluorescent material to make it shine as part of the fun house display — was that of a human being was made when a television technician pulled an arm off as he moved it. The technician was about to glue the arm back on when he saw a bone exposed.