The problem was how to kill a five ton elephant without risking the lives of those trying to kill her. There were no elephant sanctuaries at that time, as there are today for such elephants, so Sparks conceded and decided to have the elephant put to death. More to the point, for Sparks, she was worth $20,000 (about $400,000 today), but it seemed likely that many a town would refuse to let his circus come if he had an elephant known to have killed a man in the performance.Īs to the present town his traveling show was in, the townspeople called for the execution of poor Mary. 400 during her baseball performances over her lifetime). She could play 25 different songs on the musical horns and could play baseball (both pitch and hit, supposedly hitting around. Mary was billed as “The Largest Living Land Animal on Earth”. In the 20 years since, she had helped make his circus into a major traveling show. She was his prize elephant- the first one he’d ever owned from back when his traveling show was a small time “horse and wagon” show. The circus owner, Charlie Sparks, was loath to kill her as he and his wife, Addie, were animal lovers and particularly had a soft spot for Mary. Now the question was what to do with the elephant. 45 into her, but again, this didn’t really faze the poor elephant, though I’m sure she’d have much preferred not to be shot at. They even tried shooting her, with one man, Hench Cox, emptying his. The small crowd of onlookers didn’t take kindly to Mary murdering the man, and quickly formed a mob, which was nonetheless powerless to kill the elephant. Needless to say, the last thing that probably went through Eldrige’s mind, besides Mary’s foot, was that maybe he should have asked for a little training before taking a job as a handler of a 5 ton animal. when he hit the ground the elephant just walked over and set foot on his head… and blood and brains and stuff just squirted all over the street. He pulled away from ’em (the watermelon), and he just blowed real big, and when he did, he took him right around the waist… and throwed him against the side of the drink stand and he just knocked the whole side out of it…. There was a big ditch at that time, run up through Center Street, …And they’d sent these boys to ride the elephants… There was, oh, I don’t know now, seven or eight elephants… and they went down to water them and on the way back each boy had a little stick-like, that was a spear or a hook in the end of it… And this big old elephant reach over to get her a watermelon rind, about half a watermelon somebody eat and just laid it down there… The boy give a jerk (grabbed Mary by the ear with the bull hook). But there was an eye witness account given shortly after the incident which is probably fairly accurate, at least it doesn’t seem sensationalized, as many of the accounts are. Paul as a janitor.Įxactly how or why Mary killed Eldridge is somewhat up for debate as the story has progressively become more exaggerated over the years in the retellings. This worker was Red Eldridge, who before getting the gig generally was a drifter and most immediately before being hired as an assistant elephant trainer worked at the Riverside Hotel in St. Her downfall began with the hiring of an assistant elephant trainer who had no experience working with elephants and possibly no professional experience even working with animals. “Murderous” Mary was a 5 ton Asian Elephant in the Sparks World Famous Shows Circus. It was submitted to Argosy Magazine shortly after the execution. It is unknown whether this is a real or fake image of the hanging.
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