Bev & Jerry, can you settle my mind about something? I'm originally from California but left it in 1967 and have lived in England & Ireland for decades, so this is one of those deeply buried "memories" that I'm not sure ever really happened. It's about Placerville. When I was very little (which as I mentioned in my post above is some time ago) my grandparents took me there on a day's outing, and I could swear that the restauarant where we went for lunch had a life-sized dummy dressed as a cowboy, hanging by its neck over the outside door and gently swaying in the breeze as we ate our burgers (I could see him all through lunch because I was sitting right next to the window). I was only about four and had never heard of "hanging" before, and stared at the thing in fascination, wondering WHY anyone would want to do such a strange thing to someone. My question is: WAS (or is) there such a place in Placerville, or has my mind embroidered the truth in the intervening years?

Also, is there any factual basis to the rumour (or muddled memory) that this dummy was actually Ed McCurdy (not sure there's a "Mc" in his surname) whose unburied corpse was preserved in arsenic and became so leathery that after awhile people didn't realise he was real? I heard somewhere that he was in Placerville for awhile (as well as being used elsewhere as a movie/funfair prop) but I'm not sure I've got it right. If it's true, can anyone who has info to share please start a new "BS:McCurdy" thread so we don't hi-jack this one? I may just have these two things fused in my mind because of this early exposure to hanging.

I should probably get out more...