Asian elephant Gypsy, after having been strangled by ropes pulled on each side of the car by teams of horses. This took place at the first under canvas stand of the 1910 season. That was at Danville, IL on April 28th. While being unloaded that morning, 9 elephants stampeded doing much damage to local property. The one executed was said to be the leader. The surviving 8 “offenders” were sent back to Baraboo for “training.”
Ringling was having serious elephant management problems at the time. In 1909 there were three runaways. Elephant superintendent William Emery was new to the job that year, having replaced the veteran Pearl Souder. Emery lasted through the 1911 season after which he was replaced by George “Deafy” Denman who had the bulls on the 1910 and 1911 Forepaugh-Sells shows. He would become RBBB’s long running elephant supt.
Richard Reynolds
