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In 1916 an assistant elephant trainer at a circus was killed by Mary the elephant. According to witnesses the man prodded Mary behind ear with a hook and she went into a rage, threw him to the ground and stepped on his head.

Apparently onlookers began chanting “Kill the elephant!” and within minutes the local blacksmith tried to kill Mary by firing five rounds into her with little effect.

Leaders of nearby towns threatened not to allow the circus to visit if Mary was included. Reluctantly the circus owner, one Charlie Sparks, decided to have Mary killed in public.

So the next day she was taken by rail to Erwin Tennessee where over 2500 cheering earthlings gathered. Mary was hanged by her neck from a railcar mounted industrial crane but the chain snapped and Mary fell, breaking her hip. The severely wounded elephant died during a second attempt and was buried beside the tracks.

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A vet examined her after the hanging and found that she has a badly infected tooth in the exact spot where the assistant trainer had prodded her

Topsy the Elephant

"Today (Jan 4th, 2013) The 110th Anniversary Of Thomas Edison’s Brutal Murder Of Coney Island’s Topsy The Elephant

"The tale of Topsy the Elephant is sad and cruel, and today marks the 110th year since her grisly demise at the hands of Thomas Edison’s staged electrocution on Coney Island at Luna Park."

from our local blog Sheepshead Bites » Blog Archive Today, The 110th Anniversary Of Thomas Edison's Brutal Murder Of Coney Island's Topsy The Elephant » Sheepshead Bay News Blog

There is a grisly short film of the incident included in this report.

Also:

"Topsy belonged to the Forepaugh Circus and spent the last years of her life at Coney Island's Luna Park. Because she had killed one trainer (who attempted to burn her with a lit cigar),[1] and subsequently became aggressive towards two other keepers, who had struck her with a pitchfork, a way of managing elephants in captivity, Topsy was deemed a threat to people by her owners and killed by electrocution on January 4, 1903, at the age of 28.[2] Inventor Thomas Edison oversaw and conducted the electrocution, and he captured the event on film. He would release it later that year under the title Electrocuting an Elephant. Edison used the film in his campaign against Westinghouse and AC technology."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topsy_(elephant)

There are many many more sources & links for this.

JJ, pardon me if you covered Topsy already.

I love elephants.

I now about Topsy Annie but have not posted anything here ...