In case anybody ever wondered about Wingfoot’s mention of illegal elephants wandering about Erwin, and laws against it, it all stems from an event on 9/13/1916. Thought it was interesting, or at least weird…
Sep 13 1916
Mary the circus elephant is publicly executed in the Erwin, Tennessee railyard, after killing a drifter named Red Eldridge the previous day. The five-ton animal is hanged from a derrick car in front of 3,000 onlookers, and left hanging for half an hour.
airferret
