A cruel story about Mary the elephant (3 photos). Vasilisa Yaviks is an intelligent search engine. tomorrow is already here! In popular culture

It's hard to say whether this photo is fake or real, but one way or another, Mary's story is very sad. Mary is the only elephant in the world that was hanged. Cruelty to animals is not uncommon in this world, but such stories raise the question: will it ever stop?

Mary's fate was sealed on a cold February day in 1916 when Charlie Spark's traveling circus arrived in the small town of Kingsport. The elephant was the main star of the circus - she could play 25 tunes on her horns using her trunk. She also knew how to play baseball. To advertise its show, the circus traveled down the city's main street. Riding on Mary was the tramp Walter Eldridge, who had just been hired to look after the elephant. In his hand he held a special stick with a sharp spear at the end, which is used to train elephants. The elephants are very afraid of her, since the spear pierces their skin, and they do everything the trainer asks. Mary was also taught with this stick. And Eldridge seemed to have good control of the elephant. But, unfortunately, it was on this day that Mary had a severe toothache, and when she stopped to chew a watermelon rind, Eldridge poked his spear right into the pain point in her jaw.

Everyone knows that elephants can instantly succumb to anger, especially when in pain, and this happened to Mary. She pulled Eldridge off her and trampled him for a long time. The crowd that was on the street was scared at first, but then they also became furious and began chanting “Kill the elephant!” Mary stood calmly, but they started shooting at her. The bullets did almost no harm to her, and the circus owner had to promise people that he himself would deal with the rebellious elephant.

Immediately, a variety of ideas began to pour in on how to end Mary’s life. Finally, they settled on one - the elephant should be hanged. For this they decided to use a multi-ton railway crane. When Mary, wrapped in a chain around her neck, was lifted into the air, the chain could not stand it, and the elephant fell to the ground, breaking her hip. And although the animal screamed in pain, the tormentors completed the job, and onlookers at this time photographed the process.

The photographs of Mary's painful death are most likely genuine, although many call them fakes. And they, as silent witnesses to human cruelty, captured this terrible incident forever.

The circus has arrived. Routine preparations for the upcoming shows began, workers laid out the area, raised a colorful tent, and the artists and animals began rehearsals. An Asian elephant named Big Mary was supposed to perform in one of the acts; they also decided to bring her into the arena so that she could refresh her memory of the main actions of the act.
To care for Big Mary, a young boy was taken into her trailer; he was working for the first time and had no experience in handling animals. Colleagues inadvertently advised him to use painful methods in case of disobedience of the animal, he, following their instructions when taking the elephant out of the carriage, at the moment when she hesitated, pierced her ear with a stick with a sharp metal lance. The wound turned out to be so painful that Big Mary howled angrily, the pain instantly enraged her, she grabbed her offender with her trunk, threw him to the ground and trampled him to death.

A fuss began among the circus performers, those who had weapons at hand began to shoot, but the bullets, causing further pain, only further incited rage and anger in the animal. In panic, people rushed around the circus territory; the elephant, apparently accidentally crushed several more people to death in this bustle. No one could catch the enraged animal, Mary left the territory occupied by the circus and headed to the city, only an hour later, when the pain subsided, the rage and panic passed, the Kingsport sheriff managed to lure Mary into a cage next to the city prison...
This story might not have happened if rumors about what had happened had not spread to cities neighboring Kingsport. After the incident, activists were immediately found in them, who began to whip up panic among the population there too. The authorities had to set a condition for the Sparks brothers that the circus would not be given permission to perform in these cities while the elephant responsible for the human deaths was alive. The Sparks brothers had no choice but to decide, under public pressure, to take the elephant's life.

History is silent about who came up with the idea of public execution; apparently, the morals of that time did not allow people to accept the death of an animal in absentia and using more humane methods.
Without trial or investigation, the authorities demanded the elephant's death by public hanging. For many who came, it was just another show, which, according to various sources, gathered from 2000 to 5000 spectators. For the lynching, the most powerful crane available in those places was prepared, and a port chain was used as a rope. When the animal was raised, Mary, still alive, suddenly fell, the chain could not withstand the 5-ton weight, and the elephant broke her hip in the fall. The chain was replaced and the animal was hanged again, this time the chain held - Big Mary died.
She was buried near the place of execution. Circus tours were no longer under threat, the public was happy, and there were no elephants in the Spark Brothers circus acts for a long time...

Execution of an elephant named "Big Mary", USA, 1916.

This story still shocks with its cruelty, injustice and outrages the morals of America at the beginning of the 20th century.

This tragic event occurred almost 100 years ago in the city of Kingsport, Tennessee, USA. In 1916, on September 12, a caravan of trailers and wagons with circus performers, animals and props entered the city; it was the traveling circus “Spark Brothers” (Sparks World Famous Shows). The small town of Kingsport, like many similar places, for the Spark brothers was just another settlement where they were to give another circus performance, then no one could have imagined what tragic event would happen here.
The circus has arrived. Routine preparations for the upcoming shows began, workers laid out the area, raised a colorful tent, and the artists and animals began rehearsals. A 30-year-old Asian elephant named Big Mary was supposed to perform in one of the acts; they also decided to bring her into the arena so that she could refresh her memory of the main actions of the act. To care for Big Mary, a young boy, Red Eldridge, was taken into her trailer; he was working for the first time and had no experience in handling animals. Colleagues inadvertently advised him to use painful methods in case of disobedience of the animal, he, following their instructions when taking the elephant out of the carriage, at the moment when she hesitated, pierced her ear with a stick with a sharp metal lance. The wound turned out to be so painful that Big Mary howled angrily, the pain instantly enraged her, she grabbed her offender with her trunk, threw him to the ground and trampled him to death.

A fuss began among the circus performers, those who had weapons at hand began to shoot, however, the medium caliber of bullets did not kill her. But the bullets, causing further pain, only further incited rage and anger in the animal. In panic, people rushed around the circus territory; the elephant, apparently accidentally crushed several more people to death in this bustle. No one could catch the enraged animal, Mary left the territory occupied by the circus and headed to the city, only an hour later, when the pain subsided, the rage and panic passed, the Kingsport sheriff managed to lure Mary into a cage next to the city prison...

This story might not have happened if rumors about what had happened had not spread to cities neighboring Kingsport. After the incident, activists were immediately found in them, who began to whip up panic among the population there too. The authorities had to set a condition for the Sparks brothers that the circus would not be given permission to perform in these cities while the elephant responsible for the human deaths was alive. The Sparks brothers had no choice but to decide, under public pressure, to take the elephant's life.

History is silent about who came up with the idea of public execution; apparently, the morals of that time did not allow people to accept the death of an animal in absentia and using more humane methods. Without trial or investigation, the authorities demanded the elephant's death by public hanging. For many who came, it was just another show, which, according to various sources, gathered from 2000 to 5000 spectators. For the lynching, the most powerful crane available in those places was prepared, and a port chain was used as a rope. When the animal was raised, Mary, still alive, suddenly fell, the chain could not withstand the 5-ton weight, and the elephant broke her hip in the fall. The chain was replaced and the animal was hanged again, this time the chain held - Big Mary died. She was buried near the place of execution. Circus tours were no longer under threat, the public was happy, and there were no elephants in the Spark Brothers circus acts for a long time...

Execution of the elephant Topsy.

In 1875, Topsy the elephant was brought to New York. For 28 years she took part in performances and entertained the audience. True, by 1903 her character was gradually changing and not for the better. Perhaps it was the fault of the park staff, perhaps simply a lack of communication, warmth and love, but she accounted for three killed. One of them, by the way, was a trainer who tried to treat Topsy with a lit cigarette.

As a result, the elephant was convicted and sentenced to death. Hanging was initially planned, but animal rights activists considered it inhumane. Then Edison suggested killing her with electricity.
At that time, there was an active discussion between Tesla and Edison about the prospects of using direct and alternating current.
Edison saw in such a spectacular event as the execution of an elephant an opportunity to advertise his beliefs and demonstrate the capabilities of alternating current.

On January 4, 1903, Topsy on Coney Island came into the possession of Edison, who was trying to demonstrate the lethality of alternating current. About 15 thousand people tried to get to the execution, but only 2 thousand agreed to pay for the pleasure of personally observing the process.

Topsy was given a cyanide-laced carrot, put on copper shoes, and passed an alternating current through the attached electrodes. The current voltage was 6600 Volts, Topsy's death occurred within 10 seconds. The execution of an elephant - Edison captured it on film in the film.

January 8th, 2014

A cruel and tragic topic, so the impressionable should consider reading it...

Until the 1920s, court-ordered executions of animals in the United States were commonplace. As a rule, dogs and horses were killed when their actions led to the death of people.

But elephants also suffered several executions. The elephant Topsy is considered to be the first to be executed.

The history of elephant execution in the United States is closely connected with the history of the invention of the electric chair. Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse fought to ensure that their current systems were not used in the invention of the electric chair, otherwise their names would be associated with death. Thomas Edison advocated that his direct current system be used for lighting cities, not for executions. In turn, Westinghouse did not want his AC system to be associated with death. This would have hurt their companies, both inventors believed. The execution of the elephant took place after the introduction of the electric chair as a method of execution.

Thus, the confrontation between the two inventors continued for many years.

Thomas Alva Edison. GEORGE WESTINGHOUSE

Topsy, an elephant from India, was 10 feet tall, 19 feet and 11 inches long. Topsy was brought in for the circus 28 years before her execution, and was taken to shows all over the country, working on the construction of a park in Coney Island, New York. 2 years before the event described, Topsy changed, became more aggressive and sometimes uncontrollable. Several times both spectators and circus staff had to run away from an angry elephant. Finally, at one performance in New York, she crushed 3 people to death, and for this she was sentenced to death by hanging.

On Sunday, January 4, 1903, an elephant was executed in Luna Park, Coney Island. One and a half thousand people watched the experiment.

This was a great opportunity for Edison to demonstrate the dangers of alternating current, which could be fatal even to an elephant. A cable was tied around the elephant's neck, one end of which was attached to a donkey engine and the other to a pole.

Attached to her feet were wooden sandals lined with copper. These were electrodes. They were connected via copper wire to a generator at one of Edison's power stations. A current of 6600 volts was applied! The elephant died 22 seconds after the current began, without making a sound.

Spectators were disappointed by such a speedy execution, and suspected that the elephant was given a cyanide solution a few minutes before the shock was applied (one of the police actually gave the elephant something to drink before the execution).

Edison and Brown's experiments impressed New York society forensic medicine, which was responsible for developing recommendations for the use of a new method of execution. The experiments were carried out in the presence of the press. Messages about the painlessness of death filled the pages of newspapers. The New York Times wrote: "Alternating current will certainly put the executioner out of work."

Although Thomas Edison emerged victorious from this confrontation, both inventors are the main characters in the history of the invention of the electric chair.

And a monument was erected to the elephant Topsy next to the place where she was executed.

Here's a video by the way:

This 1903 film by Thomas Edison records the lethal execution of elephant Topsy.

One of the most notorious cases of elephant executions in US history is the execution that occurred in Tennessee on September thirteen, 1916.
On September 12, 1916, the Sparks Brothers circus group came to perform in Kingsport, Tennessee. They brought with them a 30-year-old elephant, Mary, who was watched during breaks between performances by a certain Red Eldridge, who had just been adopted and had no experience in handling animals. At that time, the elephant was a curiosity, few people had even seen it in a picture, but here it was so huge, and besides, it could play 25 melodies on musical horns.

Before one of the performances, Eldridge pierced her sensitive ear with a hook - in this way he tried to take her on stage. Mary was furious. She grabbed him with her trunk, threw him to the ground and began to trample him, beating him to death.

Panic ensued. They opened fire on the elephant, but medium-caliber bullets were useless. Then Sheriff Hickman “arrested” Mary and locked her in a cage next to the city jail so that everyone could see how true Charlie Sparks’ assurances were that the animal would not harm anyone. Residents of neighboring towns said they would not accept the circus as long as the deadly elephant was alive. It is unknown how many people she is responsible for the death of (according to some sources, 3, according to others, 8).

It is said that the condemned elephant was shot 5 times with a .32 caliber rifle (12.40-13.10 mm bullet diameter), but could not be killed. It was also proposed to tear the elephant into pieces by tying it to two locomotives. Then, in order not to torture the animal, it was proposed to kill the elephant with an electric shock. A kind of electric chair for an elephant. But under public pressure, the Sparks brothers made a terrible decision - the next day Mary was hanged from a crane in front of a crowd of spectators.

About 5,000 people gathered. However, the execution did not go as planned. The chain by which the elephant was hanged could not bear the weight and broke. Mary fell and broke her hip.

But she was hanged again, this time successfully. Mary was buried near the place of execution.

And later, the name of Charlie Spark, despite the events of September 13, 1916, adorned the circus corridor of fame and is still the hallmark of the circus.

On June 28, 1970, a year before I was born, the elephant Vova ran away from the Yerevan Zoo: first he came out of the enclosure and a group of zoo workers tried to bring him back, and then a real drama unfolded. And even today, many years later, it is not known for certain what caused it.

The elephant Vova was brought to the USSR from India at the age of one: he lived in Russia, and then in one of the zoos in Ukraine. Here he even took part in circus performances and went on tour with his trainer Ivan Shcherban. When did the Great Patriotic War, the animals were urgently evacuated. Only Vova remained in Ukraine: transporting such a giant required an equally enormous vehicle, which was in short supply during the outbreak of war. And even before animals, when the enemy was invading the territory of our homeland deeper and deeper every day? The trainer and the elephant walked south. Together they experienced many hungry and cold days and sleepless nights. At one of the stations they even came under fire from the Messers, and Elephant covered Ivan with his body. Years later, Ivan told one of the Russian prose writers about this incident, and he included this story in his memoirs. But I think that the plot of the old Soviet film “The Soldier and the Elephant” with Frunzik Mkrtchyan was copied specifically from Vova and Ivan, and only then remade in a more ideologically necessary way. In the fall of 1941, the trainer and the elephant reached Yerevan, and Vova was placed in a zoo that was just under construction.

Soon Ivan was sent to the front, but before he could reach Rostov, he was called back: the elephant refused to obey anyone else. Ivan returned, and since then they have never been apart. The elephant calmly walked around the zoo, followed its owner everywhere and was very nervous when he disappeared from his field of vision. Vova helped with the housework when his new enclosure was being built, helping the workers drag building materials. He also looked after Ivan’s daughters, and put children from the surrounding area on his back and carried them around the zoo. But when the war ended and the zoo was opened to visitors, Vova was locked in an enclosure. He lived in the Yerevan Zoo for 30 years: over the years he grew even more, and his food needs also increased. But the maintenance standards and daily diet of the elephant remained the same. Once, getting hungry, the Elephant tore down one of the borders of the enclosure, climbed out and climbed the mountainside, and began to greedily eat the grass. Zoo workers realized that he was living from hand to mouth, but there was no way to increase the ration - the zoo was supplied with a strictly limited amount of food. And then, by unspoken agreement, they decided not to restore the border of the enclosure so that the animal could sometimes go free.

But on June 28, 1970, Vova again destroyed the enclosure and headed towards the exit of the zoo. They say that when Vova was still allowed to walk freely around the territory, he developed a favorite pastime: pushing stalled cars. We have a very steep climb there and cars driving along the highway often stopped near the zoo. So, like Vova, he learned to help them. Sometimes he spent the whole day pushing Willys and Studebakers with his forehead, regardless of whether there was a need for it or not. So that day, leaving the zoo, he began to run up to cars, which caused people to panic.

I don’t really believe in this, because if people knew that the Elephant has the ability to push cars, why did they panic when he jumped out again? I don’t know... My father was there and said that the Elephant attacked the trolleybus and began to push it: the people sitting in the cabin were screaming in fear. Fortunately, the driver suddenly pulled away and drove away. Vova then switched to passenger cars and damaged his tusk. He was in great pain and became even more furious.

The Yerevan City Council began to take emergency measures - blocking the streets, and the elephant, surrounded by a huge crowd, ran down Myasnikyan Avenue. The authorities called in soldiers and military equipment, but they refused to shoot at everyone’s favorite. Ivan, to whom the elephant no longer obeyed, could not help. Then an order came from Moscow and the soldiers opened fire: a couple of bullets hit the elephant in the head, which made him even more brutal. But the bullets also hit rocks and could ricochet into people, so the shooting was stopped almost immediately.

Now it was possible to return Vova to the zoo only with the help of a tank.

Seeing the approaching car, the elephant ran towards the zoo. It seemed that there was hope that everything would be resolved well. But having reached the gate, the elephant refused to enter it. They tried to push the wounded animal into the zoo territory with a tank, and then the machine began to knock him down and iron him. As my father said, his most terrible memory is of a still breathing elephant, onto which a tank had climbed, which was moving rhythmically in time with the last rhythms of the elephant’s life. As other sources already testify, Ivan also fell unconscious there, and then lay in the hospital for a long time, experiencing shock. A year later, he brought a new elephant from Brest to Yerevan for the zoo. But several years after the events described, he killed Ivan in a fit of rage... Disputes about why Vova went mad continue to this day. They say that after an autopsy it turned out that the elephant had stones in its kidneys, which that day made themselves felt and caused terrible pain. According to another version, and my dad insists on it, the elephant was worried about the death of his girlfriend Tikki, with whom he lived for 15 years. By the way, he always relives this story when he tells it. Maybe also because he is the namesake of an elephant?

Finally, I will say that the next day after the tragedy, our central newspapers reported that the elephant that had escaped from the zoo was safely returned to its enclosure. The country's leadership and Moscow could not allow information to get out that in the USSR its army was shooting at everyone's favorite, even if he was enraged. But this real story has become one of the legends of Yerevan, which its residents have been retelling to their children and grandchildren for decades. Each time with new details. But one thing was and remains unchanged in these stories - a touching love for the elephant and the feeling of guilt that never left us that this happened in our city.

I can also show you who he is, but here are the gifs. That’s so interesting The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy was made - (English) Russian, Tennessee, USA) is an Asian elephant who performed in the American Sparks Brothers Circus (eng. Sparks World Famous Shows). She gained fame after she was hanged for murdering a man.

Mary
English Big Mary
Execution of Mary the Elephant. Kingsport, Tennessee, USA, 1916
View	Asian elephant
Floor	female
Date of Birth	approx. 1886
Place of Birth	?
Date of death	September 13(1916-09-13 )
A place of death	Erwin (English) Russian, Tennessee, USA
A country	USA USA
Master	Sparks Brothers (circus troupe)

Murder

On September 12, 1916, the Sparks Brothers circus troupe came to Kingsport, Tennessee to perform. They brought with them a 30-year-old elephant, Mary, who was also scheduled to perform. Mary was being watched by a certain Red Eldridge, a newcomer to circus work who did not know how to handle animals. Before one of the performances, Eldridge pierced her ear with a hook to bring Mary on stage. Mary got angry, grabbed him with her trunk, threw him to the ground, and trampled him to death. Panic ensued. They started shooting at the elephant, but the medium-caliber bullets did not kill her. It was difficult to stop the elephant. Local Sheriff Hickman "arrested" Mary and locked her in a cage next to the city jail. Residents of neighboring cities, having learned about the massacre, said that they would not host this circus while the elephant was alive.

Although one death is known with certainty, the 1938 Believe It or Not reported that the elephant was responsible for the deaths of 3 people, and popular rumor said 8 were killed.

Hanging

Under pressure from the public, the circus owners, the Sparks brothers, made a decision - the next day Mary was hanged from a railway crane in front of a crowd of spectators. About 5,000 people gathered. But the chain by which the elephant was hanged could not bear the weight and broke. Mary fell and broke her hip. She was hanged again and Mary died. Mary was buried near the site of the massacre.