The execution of the American shocking elephants in 1916

Mary, an Asian elephant weighing 5 tons, was hanged with a crane after killing a circus member.

The event of Mary's elephant , the "star" in the Sparks World Famous Shows circus , was hanged for murder in Tennessee, the United States caused a big stir in public opinion in 1916, according to Rare Historical Photos.

Mary's story begins in the late 19th century with Charlie Sparks, a circus performer from 8 years old. His father bought this 4-year-old Asian elephant and named it Mary. Sparks and his wife Addie Mitchell continue to take care of and nurture Mary as their own children.

Later, he became a Sparks World Famous Shows owner, circus clown with clowns, acrobatics, lions and other strange animals, including Mary. The elephant's nickname is "Big Mary" (Mary Big) because it weighs up to 5 tons and was introduced as "The largest terrestrial animal on Earth".

On September 12, 1916, tragedy occurred when Walter Eldridge, a tramp was hired a circus by the circus a day, sat on Mary's back to control the group of parade elephants. Mary is the star of the show and should be at the forefront, followed by other circus elephants.

Eldridge had no experience with controlling elephants, the only thing he was asked to do was use a sharp stick to force Mary to obey.

Mary's elephant was hanged with a crane.(Photo: Rare Historical Photos).

When Mary reached out to try to eat a piece of watermelon, Eldridge used a sharp iron stick to pierce the elephant's ear, according to witnesses WH Coleman. Mary got angry, swept the Eldridge with the hose, threw it to the ground and stepped on him. Some witnesses said Mary only whipped Eldridge at the head.

The audience became frightened, screamed and hurriedly ran away. A regional blacksmith used a pistol to fire several shots at Mary, but the elephant was unharmed. After a moment of anger, Mary suddenly calmed down, stood still and seemed confused at the gunfire as well as the shout of the people: "Kill the elephant, kill the elephant!".

In the face of the crowd's anger, Charlie Sparks reluctantly decided to publicly execute the elephant to quickly resolve this terrible situation. The crowd quickly ruled that it would use a heavy crane to hang it the next day.

That day, it was raining and there was a lot of fog. Mary was taken to the Clinchfield Railroad, Unicoi, Tennessee, where a crowd of more than 2,500 people including children gathered.

On the way, Mary was still leading the other four circus elephants, each with a hose to the tail like the previous parade. Sparks hopes their presence will help Mary listen. But when people wrapped an iron chain around Mary's neck, the elephants began screaming bitterly that he was afraid he would try to run away.

As a precaution, one used Mary's chain to tie one of Mary's legs to the railroad track, but they forgot to remove it when the crane began to operate, gradually lifting Mary up. When the crane lifted Mary about 1.5 meters, the chain suddenly broke, the elephant fell straight to the ground and broke its hip.

Everyone gathered to see Mary executed.(Photo: Rare Historical Photos).

The circus crew wrapped the second chain around Mary's neck and it was lifted again. The elephant struggled and cried out in pain while the crowd cheered below. Finally, Mary stopped moving, completely silent. People continue to hang the hovering elephant for half an hour before the veterinarian declares it dead.

At night, an elephant in the circus used to live with Mary for years to escape and run towards the railroad track, where Mary took her last breath, but was later captured and returned to the circus.

When the image of the execution of Mary's elephant appeared on the newspaper, it was very controversial in public opinion, but the sad story of "Murderous Mary" was not the only case. In 1903, the Topsy elephant was executed electrically in New York after trampling on three drivers. In 1994, Tyke was shot 87 times by Honolulu police for fleeing the circus and killing the trainer.

Later, the death of Mary and the abuse of animals for them to perform amusements made many animal protection organizations speak out."Mary simply acted like an elephant. They were already dangerous, and I didn't blame Mary for what happened. The people who brought it to the new circus were at fault," said Ed Stewart, head of the department. Performing Animals Welfare Society, commented.