Today is Monday, January 4th, 2021.

On this day in 1903, a circus elephant named Topsy was executed in New York.

Welcome to Today in True Crime, a Spotify original from Parcast.

Due to the graphic nature of today's events, listener discretion is advised.

This episode includes dramatizations and discussions of animal cruelty that some people may find offensive.

We advise extreme caution for children under 13.

Today we're covering the execution of a circus elephant named Topsy.

Let's go back to Coney Island on January 4, 1903.

It was a breezy winter day as an animal trainer named Carl Goliath led Topsy, a 28-year-old elephant out of her pen.

Topsy lived in the menagerie of Luna Park, an amusement

property on the Coney Island boardwalk. As Carl walked the elephant past the carousel,

arcade, and flume ride, he held her harness gingerly. He was just a replacement handler. Her

longtime trainer, Whitey Alt, had been fired a month earlier.

Alt had gotten drunk, ridden Topsy through the streets of Coney Island, and rammed her repeatedly

into the police station. But this wasn't Topsy's only brush with the law. A year earlier, the Pacaderm had killed a spectator and injured at least one trainer. There were rumors that Topsy had killed as many as 12 men, and Carl didn't want to be next. So when Topsy stopped in her tracks and refused to move, the new trainer panicked.

He needed to get the stubborn animal to the center of the amusement park where a crowd

was waiting for her.

The group of people weren't waiting for Topsy to perform, not in the usual sense of the

word at least.

Luna Park had scheduled a secret event with

Topsy as the centerpiece. That was all in jeopardy now, since the new handler couldn't

get Topsy to budge from her spot, so the park's owners sent for Topsy's disgraced former

...