The hanging of Mary the elephant

After killing her trainer in a city parade in Erwin, Tennessee, 1916, the elephant Mary was sentence and hanged in front of an audience of 2500 people.

Today if an elephant is judged to be dangerous it would be an entirely different story. Because at the present time there are sanctuaries for old, sick, and needy animals. One such place is the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.

It is located at Hohenwald, in Lewis County. They now have two elephants and room to expand to care for as many as ten more. If such a place had existed in 1916 perhaps Mary could have been sent there and today Erwin would not be known as the town that hanged the elephant.

The electrocution of Topsy the elephant

Topsy was deemed a threat to people by her owners and killed by electrocution on January 4, 1903. Inventor Thomas Edison captured the event on film. He would release it later that year under the title “Electrocuting an Elephant.”

A means of execution initially discussed was hanging. However, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals protested and other ways were considered. Edison then suggested electrocution with alternating current, which had been used for the execution of humans since 1890.

To reinforce the execution, Topsy was fed carrots laced with 460 grams of potassium cyanide before the deadly current from a 6,600-volt AC source was sent coursing through her body. She was dead in seconds.The event was witnessed by an estimated 1,500 people and Edison's film of the event was seen by audiences throughout the United States.

On July 20, 2003, a memorial for Topsy was erected at the Coney Island Museum.

The shooting of Tyke the elephant

Tyke was a female circus elephant who on August 20, 1994 in Honolulu, Hawaii, killed her trainer, Allen Campbell, and gored her groomer Dallas Beckwith causing severe injuries during a Circus International performance before hundreds of horrified spectators at the Neal Blaisdell Center. Tyke then bolted from the arena and ran through downtown streets of Kakaako for more than thirty minutes. Police fired 86 shots at Tyke who eventually collapsed from the wounds and died.