Chief
Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) at
Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden in United States

Biography

☨ ♂ Chief
Chief as museum specimen. Chief’s taxidermied body was wheeled around on a cart. Photo from the University of Cincinnati Archives.
Museum locations
Present / last location:	Cincinnati Museum Center, in United States

Date of arrival

	Cincinnati Museum Center, Cincinnati, United States

Identification


Description
Species:	Asian elephant (Elephas maximus)
Sex and age:	Male ♂ 26 years old

People killed:	1
Origin
Born:	* 1864 wild
Birth place:
Death
Dead:	†1890-12-00
Death reason:	euthanised: shot
Locations - owners
Present / last location:	Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, in United States

Date of arrival

	Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden from John Robinson Circus

1876-00-00	John Robinson Circus from American Racing Association

Record history
History of updates	2025-03-19: text

Latest document update	2025-03-19 10:36:42
Google map

† Chief is a dead Male ♂ Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), , who died 1890-12-00 at Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, in United States, . Official death reason described as shot.

Museum locationThe Museum specimen remains of this animal is within the collection at Cincinnati Museum Center, in Cincinnati, United States.

Casualties

1 casualties

1880-09-28: animal trainer John King fatal attack by Chief. While the circus was in Charlotte for performances, Chief rammed King into his railcar cage, crushing him. King was described as crushed beyond recognition “to jelly”. † John King Died 1880-09-29

Origin

Chief was born wild 1864.

Comments / pictures

1880-09-28: Killed the boss animal man at John Robinson show, John King, at Charlottesville, North Carolina.

Shortly after being unloaded in Charlotte, The Chief, a circus elephant, turns on his keeper and crushes him to death against a rail car.

"The man sank down without a groan," reports The Charlotte Observer, "and the elephant turned and started up the railroad track, the excited crowd fleeing in every direction. The loose elephant got into the main streets of the city, and a crowd was being formed to hunt him down and shoot him when it was learned that the circus people were after the truant beast.

"They took the other two elephants, Mary and The Boy, and, driving them rapidly through the streets, overtook The Chief, chained him to the others and finally got him back to the circus grounds."

John King will be buried in Charlotte's Elmwood Cemetery beneath a five-foot monument donated by his fellow circus workers. On it is carved the image of an elephant and a palm tree.
Charlotte Observer, Sep. 02, 2007

the most complete account of the affair came from Ed Cullen, a circus employee of some sort, who described the scene in tabloid-quality detail for the New Orleans Picayune.

“The elephant’s bulk crushed into King,” Cullen told the paper, “and jammed him against the cage, and the great beast, throwing all his weight into the effort, smashed that unfortunate trainer as flat as a pancake—pardon the term, but it is the only fitting one I can find.”

Cullen believed Chief was suffering from a surge in testosterone, a regular process called Musth that coincides with the mating season and can lead to a 60-fold increase in reproductive hormones. “Elephants—that is, some elephants, and Chief was included in that class—have periods of madness,” he explained.

The elephant, known as Chief, had a reputation for being unruly. His murderous behavior was blamed on surging testosterone from musth, a breeding cycle that male elephants go through periodically.

While the circus was in Charlotte for performances, Chief rammed King into his railcar cage, crushing him—the impact reportedly broke every bone in his body. Chief then started to rampage, but other circus workers managed to capture him and tie him to his mate, a larger female elephant named Mary, to get him back under control.

After this incident, Chief was sent to a zoo in Cincinnati. He is reported to have killed two additional people before being put down by a firing squad in 1890. His body was then made into steaks served at a local restaurant. His skin and Skeleton were stuffed and put on display at the University of Cincinnati. Eventually, the Skeleton was sent to the Cincinnati Museum Center, where it remains.

Chief remained, for a time, with the John Robinson Circus but never again performed. He was eventually exiled to the Cincinnati Zoo for flinging bricks and coal at circus employees with his Trunk and for occasionally breaking out to terrorize the neighborhood. At the zoo Chief continued to harass his keepers until the zoo determined to put him to death in 1890. The botched execution by firing squad, for which a giant circle was painted on the elephant where his Heart was thought to be, was not even the final humiliation for the beast. Chief “steaks” were apparently served at Cincinnati restaurants, and his taxidermied body was pulled around on a cart. Today his Skeleton is in the collection of the Cincinnati Museum Center.

Reference list

References

Koehl, Dan, (2025). Chief, Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) located at Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden in United States. Elephant Encyclopedia, available online retrieved 22 April 2025 at https://www.elephant.se/database2.php?elephant_id=2392. (archived at the Wayback machine)