
This week on Last Podcast on the Left, EddieTunes takes the reins for a momentary detour from the Dupont Dynasty, to tell the story of an often overlooked topic of cruelty and evil - the tragic lives of Circus Animals - in particular Elephants, as we take a look at the sordid tale of Topsy the Elephant, and the Elephant Executions of the early 20th century.
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Marcus Parks
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Henry Zebrowski
ABC Wednesdays in comedian Nate Brigetzi's new
Marcus Parks
game show, to win, you don't need to know the right answer, just what
Henry Zebrowski
most Americans think is right. It's not about being the smartest.
Marcus Parks
You just have to be the most average.
Henry Zebrowski
We asked 100 average Americans, do they
Edwin Ewing
keep an empty gas can in their car?
Ad Read 1
No.
Marcus Parks
Have they ever broken a bone? No. I said a lot of no. That's all right.
Edwin Ewing
My wife says a lot of no as well.
Henry Zebrowski
The greatest Average American. Wednesdays 9, 8 Central on ABC and stream next day on Hulu.
Edwin Ewing
There's no place to escape to.
Marcus Parks
This is the last on the left.
Henry Zebrowski
That's when the cannibalism started.
Marcus Parks
What was that?
Henry Zebrowski
I don't care if I run into Alec. Murder.
Edwin Ewing
No, no, no, no. Cuz if you have, if you do means you've committed murder in South Carolina.
Henry Zebrowski
Hey, hopefully.
Marcus Parks
Or you're visiting.
Henry Zebrowski
Thanks for the content.
Marcus Parks
If you're in town.
Henry Zebrowski
Are you guys ready?
Edwin Ewing
Ready.
Henry Zebrowski
So should I not do any of my crow or raven characters in this?
Marcus Parks
No. No. Well, maybe if you change the voice a little bit. Maybe if you use the Hong Kong Henry Zaprowski voice.
Henry Zebrowski
Oh, then that's fine.
Ad Read 2
Right?
Henry Zebrowski
They'll all cancel each other out.
Edwin Ewing
Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Ok. If you use one racist voice to replace another racist voice, maybe it can work out.
Henry Zebrowski
60.
Marcus Parks
Yeah.
Henry Zebrowski
At 60.
Marcus Parks
Yeah. And we are focusing more on Asian elephants than African elephants today.
Henry Zebrowski
This is my
Edwin Ewing
welcome to last podcast on the left. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Marcus Parks. I'm here with Henry Zabrowski. Wayne is options. What have you come upon? What have you settled on?
Henry Zebrowski
I'll tell you what, the next time you're more likely to see an elephant fly than you hear me do an Asian accent again into a microphone. I save it for my family now.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah.
Henry Zebrowski
Time for my family. My dentist. Yeah.
Marcus Parks
Strictly by facts.
Henry Zebrowski
My dentist loves it. God, he loves it.
Edwin Ewing
Today, Ed Larson, the man across from me is the man with the script. This is an Edlet episode. We're taking a bit of a break from the Dupont saga and Ed, what do you got for us today? I can't wait for this. This is going to be so much fun.
Henry Zebrowski
Oh, there. That was just Ed. Ed's just trying to fit back into the cherry. He a drink? Elephants. Elephants.
Marcus Parks
I love elephants. Today, the star of our show is going to be Topsy the Elephant. But we'll get into her a little bit later. But I wanted to tell you guys, you know me, I like these animals.
Edwin Ewing
You love these animals.
Marcus Parks
You do love animals, especially when they big. But elephants are some of the most interesting mammals on Earth. They're huge, brilliant, loyal, emotional, and most importantly, violent creatures. Yeah, listen, I ain't no elephant biologist, so I ain't gonna get lost in the weeds explaining to you how elephant trunks have over150,000 muscle units and are the most sensitive organ for found in any animal.
Henry Zebrowski
But wait a second. It's most sensitive organ. But what about the comedian's heart?
Edwin Ewing
Yes.
Henry Zebrowski
I could go on and on about
Marcus Parks
how elephants are considered one of the smartest animals on earth that have funerals and have been theorized to have telepathic abilities. What?
Henry Zebrowski
I ain't gonna talk about that. I feel like this is. Now he's in his own elephant UFO territory. Like once he starts the elephant telepathy tape. And we're gonna have to cancel our tour.
Marcus Parks
Yes, that is all very cool stuff, but this is the last podcast on the left, and we are here to talk about death. Sure. Yes. And we are not going to discriminate. We're killing both elephants and humans today.
Edwin Ewing
Great.
Marcus Parks
If you crave just raw elephant info, go listen to Elephant Tales or the Global Rumblings podcast. That's.
Henry Zebrowski
Are they real?
Marcus Parks
Yeah, those are real podcasts that I decided to shout out and, you know, for eleph facts.
Henry Zebrowski
But you do know anything about them? You don't know whether or not they
Marcus Parks
could all be murderers and rapists.
Henry Zebrowski
You can't.
Marcus Parks
But they do talk about elephants scientifically a lot.
Edwin Ewing
Okay. And I know every single niche interest has 50 to 3,000 podcasts about it. So are these the two best elephant podcasts or are these just two that you chose at random?
Marcus Parks
Two of the top three results on Google.
Edwin Ewing
Absolutely.
Henry Zebrowski
And there's nothing corrupt in it? No, nothing at all.
Marcus Parks
Today I didn't use a particular book or documentary as a source. I just researched to the best of my ability about stories that intrigued me and found some even crazier ones along the way. So let's get this pachyderma stomping in true Marcus Parks fashion with a little Context.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah, Elephant.
Edwin Ewing
Context.
Henry Zebrowski
Elephant.
Marcus Parks
That's right, man. It's big. Yeah.
Henry Zebrowski
Slide right in. Very similar to a human vagina.
Marcus Parks
You can put your whole head in
Henry Zebrowski
there if you've got.
Marcus Parks
Elephants can be found naturally in Asia and Africa. Africa has two types of elephants, bush and forest elephants, which can get as large as 13, 000 pounds. In Africa, elephants are the third most deadly mammal after humans and hippos. In Africa, elephants kill about 500 people annually.
Henry Zebrowski
Cool.
Marcus Parks
But today we're going to focus on Asian elephants. At about 8, 000 pounds, Asian elephants are smaller than their. But they are the elephants we're more familiar with as far as circus performers go.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah.
Marcus Parks
Even though they could be £5,000 smaller than African bush elephants, they are still extremely deadly. To help put their sheer size in perspective, a Honda CRV weighs roughly 3,500 pounds. But to the CRV's credit, it has great trunk space.
Henry Zebrowski
Absolutely. And it doesn't have spongy reactions. This guy doesn't have horrible brakes, like maybe a formation. Toyota Rack RAV4. And I feel that if a Toyota RAV4 and an elephant were to go against each other, the elephant would win.
Marcus Parks
The elephant would destroy the RAV4 and
Henry Zebrowski
the CRV and hopefully and kill the driver and the passengers.
Marcus Parks
Children often. Awesome.
Edwin Ewing
Eddie, could you give me a little bit more of a lean forward when you say trunk space?
Marcus Parks
Trunk space.
Edwin Ewing
Thank you. Thank you.
Marcus Parks
CRV also has great trunk space.
Edwin Ewing
Thank you.
Marcus Parks
More dumb jokes to come.
Henry Zebrowski
I see. I was just more thinking about Toyota RAV fours and a field of them on fire and all of the people inside of them never being able to vote again.
Marcus Parks
Yeah. Amen. That's what we need to do. And actually should be starting about 35 minutes.
Henry Zebrowski
Thank you.
Edwin Ewing
And, you know, the thing is about a smaller elephant is going to be. A smaller elephant's gonna, I think, going to be more dangerous than a larger elephant.
Marcus Parks
Maneuverable. You know, they still got tusks and they're a little more angry.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah, I get it.
Marcus Parks
Asian elephants are mostly found in India, Thailand, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The smaller Asian elephant is responsible for as many as 750 deaths annually. 50% more than their African cousins. There are several subspecies of Asian elephants, and without getting too much into the genealogy weeds, we're going to be talking about Asian elephants as a whole.
Henry Zebrowski
Now, that's not. That's not racist.
Marcus Parks
Do not accuse me of being an elephant racist.
Henry Zebrowski
There's nothing racist about not a scientist.
Marcus Parks
I'm just obsessed with huge living creatures killing humans.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah.
Edwin Ewing
And that makes you woke, I think.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah, I think so.
Marcus Parks
I think it does.
Henry Zebrowski
Disgusting. I at least told you there's a
Marcus Parks
difference between the Asian and the African ones.
Henry Zebrowski
Oh, we know.
Marcus Parks
Yeah. Obviously we know that humans have been killing, kidnapping, and torturing all animals and especially elephants ever since we've figured out how to do so. When it comes to killing elephants for their ivory, that is much more popular in Africa than it is in Asia. And in a positive spin, those numbers are going way down. But they are extremely high still.
Edwin Ewing
How does it, like in the, like, let's say the cutting off gorilla paws for, you know, to make medicine and such. Where are elephant tusks on that scale?
Marcus Parks
It's much worse.
Edwin Ewing
Much worse.
Marcus Parks
Much. It's much, much worse. It's, it's a, it's a horrible thing. You know, the, the exact. Seems to be impossible to find. Sure. Current estimates suggest that up to 15,000 elephants are killed for their tusks and skin in Africa every year, or 41 a day. In peak poaching years, that number was expected to be around 40,000.
Edwin Ewing
And that's when we were making like every piano was made with, you know, with elephant tusks.
Marcus Parks
Honestly, back then it was probably worse than that. You know, 40,000, I'm talking like, that's like the 70s.
Edwin Ewing
Gotcha.
Henry Zebrowski
Do you think this is the speech that the 22 year olds have to hear from Leo before they're allowed to see the apartment?
Marcus Parks
I'm sure that's about global warming.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah.
Marcus Parks
In Asia, those numbers are actually much lower at around 500 poached elephants a year. Why are the numbers of human deaths in Asia larger than Africa? Well, I think you could chalk a lot of that up to population density, especially when it comes to India.
Henry Zebrowski
Sure.
Marcus Parks
Also, Asian elephants are captured and trained more than they are hunted for their tusks. And. And so at a smaller size, they're also domesticated at higher rates, thus raising their numbers of interactions with humans.
Henry Zebrowski
I find it interesting that in Asia they, they poach so many elephants because I really prefer them sunny side up.
Marcus Parks
It's better that way.
Henry Zebrowski
God damn it.
Marcus Parks
It's a big pan. It's a big pan. Asian elephants mostly attack in two ways. Female elephants attack whenever they feel their young could be in danger. And male elephants are known attacked when they're going through what is called must. Must. Must be said with a lisp. And in its simplest definition is when male elephants are in heat. All right, Moths. Must. I hate that word. But you know, it is what it is.
Henry Zebrowski
You must say it again and again
Marcus Parks
can last up to 16 weeks. And it is best to be nowhere near bull elephants during this time. Moths have been known in Asian elephants for over 3,000 years, but only recently in African elephants. For some reason that I don't understand,
Henry Zebrowski
the fever is like the spread of hiv.
Marcus Parks
You could tell an elephant is in must when they are irritable with horniness and leaking a skunky smelling thick tar like substance called temporin from their four foot penises.
Edwin Ewing
So they get really irritable and angry and their dick starts dripping.
Henry Zebrowski
That's dude period. Yeah, that's called. That's a dude period, y'.
Marcus Parks
All.
Henry Zebrowski
And that ain't fair.
Edwin Ewing
And it smells like skunk and it's thick and it's tar.
Marcus Parks
It's kind of like going to dinner with Ron Jeremy when the waitress isn't being attentive.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I want. Can I have more napkins for my friend Row.
Marcus Parks
During both male elephants testosterone can be up to a hundred times greater than usual. They randomly attack other animals, humans, other elephants, cars, or anything else that might piss off these randy behemoths. You know, that's, that's pretty amazing.
Henry Zebrowski
You know, like just the idea of just how horny these men are.
Marcus Parks
They go out there, you got to really do it. Do we gotta jerk these things off in zoos? Yeah, yeah.
Edwin Ewing
In zoos they absolutely have to do it.
Marcus Parks
Another cause of human deaths by elephants are by what are called rogue elephants.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah, I bet sugar.
Marcus Parks
Yeah. Rogue elephants are indeed rare, but real nevertheless.
Edwin Ewing
Rogue. From the X Men.
Henry Zebrowski
Oh, I understand. Yeah, you bet sugar. Don't touch them.
Edwin Ewing
I don't know where all these edaphone come from.
Henry Zebrowski
I gotta get my rogue costume.
Marcus Parks
So. One of my favorite rogue elephants was one that killed 27 people in the state of of Assam in India from 2004 to 2006 until it was eventually tracked down, shot and killed. Feared by locals, this rogue elephant was given the name Osama bin Laden.
Edwin Ewing
That's incredible that it was named that in India.
Marcus Parks
Yeah, he's notorious.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah. Pakistan. Yeah, right there.
Marcus Parks
Neighbors.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah.
Marcus Parks
During the final six months of his life, Osama bin Laden the elephant killed 14 people people. Rogue elephants are not scared of much and can attack indiscriminately. Usually an elephant will be scared off by firecrackers, but Bin Laden could give a. Yeah. Wonder why.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah, seem to really like him.
Marcus Parks
Eventually, a hunting party was sent out to kill Osama bin Laden and he was shot down by a team of men. But many believe that they killed the Wrong elephant. And Bin Laden is still at large.
Henry Zebrowski
Where's the body? Yeah, where's the body?
Marcus Parks
Probably in the Indian Ocean. Yeah.
Edwin Ewing
Did they dump this elephant in the ocean too, without any letting anyone look at it?
Marcus Parks
I think they just left it in the field. Probably, I imagine rotted. It's interesting. A lot of these elephant news stories. Not much detail.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah, a couple things got lost in
Marcus Parks
translation over multiple oceans.
Edwin Ewing
I get it. Yeah. And then it's not like there's like a New York Times elephant reporter who's like, really on the elephant beat.
Marcus Parks
That's my job.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah, it's true.
Marcus Parks
Now, Osama Bin Laden, or just Laden, is often a name given to murderous rogue elders elephants. The most recent rogue Bin Laden is still on the loose as of January 18, 2026. This rogue elephant killed 22 people in 10 days. He is believed to be currently in moth. He must be as well as being rogue and only has one tusk.
Henry Zebrowski
Whoa. Like Hitler,
Marcus Parks
he has been killing people by trampling indiscriminately. Apparently, he killed four members of the same family. So if you happen to be in Chuk to India and see him run and report him to India's Seal Team 6. Maybe after he's caught, Henry will be able to read his mammoth Festo.
Henry Zebrowski
Funny, funny, funny stuff. My only thing is, is I don't know what those seals are going to do against a giant, horny, raging elephant.
Marcus Parks
It's a good point. It's a good point.
Henry Zebrowski
Takes a man to shoot an elephant in the head.
Marcus Parks
Yeah. We'll never catch him, though. He's still on the loose. He's a regular zodiac killer.
Henry Zebrowski
That's, that's, that's stupid stup. Yeah.
Marcus Parks
Oh, there's also the incredible story of the elephant from the Odisha state of India, which is what I'm guessing a rogue elephant or was. Another elephant fueled with moths and temperin randomly killed an elderly woman named Maya Mermu. Ms. Murmu, who was collecting water from a well, minding her own business. And then out of nowhere, this pachyderm escaped from a local sanctuary.
Henry Zebrowski
Sorry.
Marcus Parks
Something about Ms. Murmu pissed him off and. And he indiscriminately beat and stomped her to death. She was taken to a local hospital, but then succumbed to her wounds there. Pretty straightforward elephant murder story. But here comes the fun twist. Then, during a public funeral, that very same elephant came back and rampaged the funeral, picking up her dead body from the funeral pyre and slammed and trampled her body again for good measure. It simply then laughed and Was never saw again. He must have hated her.
Henry Zebrowski
I honestly want to know what she did.
Edwin Ewing
Well, I mean, I was gonna ask you because I've recently learned I watched a video on why raccoons can never be domesticated. And they say one of the reasons why is because raccoons are one of the few animals that have a concept of revenge.
Marcus Parks
Okay.
Edwin Ewing
They don't forget. So if you fuck. If you up with a dog, like, the dog's not gonna forget. Well, that's just not gonna care. But a raccoon will take revenge on you every time. Do elephants have a concept of revenge?
Marcus Parks
You know, elephants never forget or forgive.
Henry Zebrowski
And honestly, that's a big burden on the elephant. That's a big burden on the soul of an elephant. You should let go. You should learn to forgive, move on.
Marcus Parks
Yeah, I thought that she had wronged. Because I knew this story before we'd covered it in Round table forever ago. And I was just like. I was like, she must have done something wrong. But it just seems like the elephant wanted the water she had.
Henry Zebrowski
It seems she was wrong place, wrong time.
Marcus Parks
Yeah.
Henry Zebrowski
And that was the elephant's water.
Marcus Parks
Water.
Edwin Ewing
So, yeah. Was she hoarding resources from the elephant?
Marcus Parks
It was a well. So I don't know how long this elephant's trunk was, but maybe, maybe he could have used her help.
Henry Zebrowski
Maybe he saw her delicately balanced on the edge of the well. Maybe he saw a breeze sort of blown through the village and had grown up in her. Her, I guess you'd say her ritual garb you could see, actually has a pair of brand new shiny pantyhose. And maybe he thought, oh, well, I should go and enter that woman.
Marcus Parks
You never know.
Edwin Ewing
You never know, you never know. Sometimes you do think here we can say that there was no sexual attraction between the elephant.
Henry Zebrowski
And there's nothing sexual about being fascinated of the sheen of pantyhose.
Marcus Parks
You love pantyhose. No, I just love it's containing. Now, apparently in history, every time an Asian elephant killed someone, it was not the elephant's own lust for murder. But. But until the early 20th century, some South Asian cultures used elephants as a form of execution. I didn't know about any of this.
Edwin Ewing
I actually didn't know about this either. And I'm a bit of a student of execution.
Marcus Parks
This was not really seen often in Africa, except around 240 BC in Carthage. But that's the story for another trunk. Execution by elephant seemed to be a tactic primarily seen in Burma, India, Thailand and Sri Lanka. Each were similar in the basic fact that elephant. Big human, small elephant, crush human.
Henry Zebrowski
It does.
Marcus Parks
But let's not discredit all of them. Each had their own methods of torture and execution by way of elephant.
Henry Zebrowski
Cool.
Marcus Parks
You want to hear them?
Henry Zebrowski
Yay.
Marcus Parks
What we're here for.
Henry Zebrowski
Stomped their balls. Stomp their head. They fucking eat their balls. They ate their head.
Marcus Parks
Close. Wow.
Henry Zebrowski
You know, I feel like it's also the same as is how many executions were applied by horse?
Marcus Parks
Oh, yes, very much so.
Henry Zebrowski
So I imagine that that to be honest, I bet you that's a little bit even more humane by elephant than by horse.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah. Than being ripped apart by four wild
Henry Zebrowski
horses running in separate directions.
Marcus Parks
Yeah.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah.
Marcus Parks
I'm going to tell you why it's not. Well, from your grave, this call is super cheap. That's right, because you're using mint Mobile. Do people like talking to you because you have fresh, minty breath? Yes. Because you just got a phone with mint mobile. How nice. I hate my old phone. Sometimes I pull it out of a drawer just to yell at it, scream at it. Why are you so expensive? Why did you do this to me? I didn't want to pay those premiums. And then I put it back in the drawer and I lock it and it stays in its prison. And I pull out my other phone, my sleek, sexy, six packed Ryan Reynolds phone. And I look at it and I say, thank you for being my phone. And then I kiss it. And it likes it. And then it kisses me back. Ready to stop paying more than you have to? New customers can make the switch today and for a limited time get unlimited premium wireless for just 15amonth. Switch now@mintmobile.com LPOTL that's mintmobile.com LPOTL upfront payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 for a 12 month plan required. It's 15amonth. Equivalent taxes and fees extra initial planned term only over 50 gigabytes. May slow when network is busy. Capable device required availability, speed and coverage var additional terms apply. See mintmobile.com exhausted from spending half your night cooking.
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Marcus Parks
Well, a lot of what we know about elephant executions comes from the captain's log of Alexander Hamilton. Not Alexander Hamilton, the rapper.
Henry Zebrowski
Oh, my favorite rapper. Yeah.
Marcus Parks
No, no, the Alexa. This Alexander Hamilton was captain for the wonderful East India Trading Company. Remember those sweethearts?
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah, Nutmeg.
Marcus Parks
Yeah. He wrote a book. The book was called A new account of the East Indies, which now is very old. He had a couple entries where Hamilton talked about witnessing execution by elephant. Here is a quote from his book about the elephant execution he witnessed in Siam, currently referred to as Thailand for treason and murder.
Edwin Ewing
The elephant is the executioner. The condemned person is made fast to a stake, driven into the ground for the purpose, and the elephant is brought to view him and goes twice or thrice around him. And when the elephant's keeper speaks to the monstrous executioner, he twines his trunk round the person and stake and pulling the stake from the ground with great violence tosses the man and the stake into the air and in coming down receives him on his teeth and making him off again, puts one of his 4ft feet on the carcass and squeezes it flat.
Henry Zebrowski
What if he doesn't catch him, throw him off and just catch him on the teeth and he can just bounce off. I guess they just throw him up again.
Marcus Parks
Yeah, it just lands on the ground and they does whatever it wants with them.
Henry Zebrowski
Wow, that's cool.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah, he's still gonna get hurt real bad before he dies.
Henry Zebrowski
I always like this idea too that they sounds all organized and stuff, but it's really just like this elephant just kills the out of this guy. Yeah, yeah, it does.
Edwin Ewing
It does boil down to elephant up that guy.
Henry Zebrowski
Ye, yeah. Throws him over the air and stomps his head.
Marcus Parks
All right, Check out this guy. In the early 1600s, getting thrown to the elephant garden was a popular execution doled out by the very ruthless yet intriguing emperor Changir.
Henry Zebrowski
Ooh. Jahangir.
Marcus Parks
Jahangir, who many said would kill criminals by elephant for his own amusement.
Henry Zebrowski
That's awesome. Elephant garden, fucking execution dome. It's the coolest fucking shit on the face of the fucking planet. That's what I want do to. To do to the government.
Edwin Ewing
I mean.
Henry Zebrowski
Well, I mean, at the end of
Edwin Ewing
the day, much execution is entertainment. At least it was for thousands upon thousands of years in humanity. So whether it's for the education of one man or the education of the masses, it must be remembered that execution was entertainment.
Marcus Parks
Absolutely.
Henry Zebrowski
It was for teaching lessons.
Edwin Ewing
Then why did people have picnics?
Henry Zebrowski
Because they had a lot. Because it does. You absorb while you're eating sandwiches. A little more ketchup, please.
Marcus Parks
Well, Emperor John Aguirre loved here he ain't alive. He don't know.
Henry Zebrowski
He doesn't know if you're a boot liquor for Empire. Jahangir, you can suck my ball.
Marcus Parks
So Emperor Jahangir loved elephants and had over a hundred and thirteen thousand in captivity. 12,000 he used as battle elephants. 1,000 he kept just to his battle elephants. And then hundred thousand he used to like, carry. Then of course, he had a couple more that were highly trained for his public executions.
Edwin Ewing
That's his killing elephants.
Marcus Parks
Absolutely. His favorite, I'm sure.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah.
Marcus Parks
So since the Emperor was such a connoisseur of elephants, when it came to execution, he wasn't just a crush him and forget him type of dude.
Henry Zebrowski
He.
Marcus Parks
He got creative with it, attaching blades to the elephant's tusks and hooves. Elephants were then taught to rip people limb from limb with their sharpened armor.
Edwin Ewing
Like Dino Wars.
Marcus Parks
Dud, dude. It's crazy and terrifying and I love it.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah, it's awesome. I just wonder what it's like to try if they don't want to go no more. That's the problem.
Marcus Parks
The thing is, the elephants, because they were like, get rewarded. They liked it. From all reports, it seemed like the elephants were having fun.
Henry Zebrowski
Oh, I bet.
Marcus Parks
I bet when someone was tossed to the elephant garden, there would be a trainer riding the elephant and command the elephant to kill the wretch. And the elephant would then pick the person up with their trunk, throw them in the air and impale them on their tusks when they came down. The elephant would then cut the victim into pieces, throwing their limbs into the crowd watching.
Edwin Ewing
There was a splash zone.
Marcus Parks
Yes. It is legend that sometimes Emperor John Gineer would order the elephant to skin people alive. His staff would then stuff them with hay and feed them to dogs. Dogs.
Edwin Ewing
So that's nice for everyone but the dog.
Marcus Parks
Oh, yeah, because he got all that hay.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah. The dog thinks it's gonna be eating a dude and he's just gets hay.
Henry Zebrowski
We get some outside skin and then the hay is good for fiber.
Marcus Parks
I didn't understand why you would stuff him with hay and then the dogs would eat them. Yeah, it didn't make much sense to me.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah.
Henry Zebrowski
Again, we're just talking about fun. Yeah, we're just talking about, like, why do people do anything?
Ad Read 2
Yeah.
Henry Zebrowski
I mean, why does that. Why do. It's like Bob Dylan do the fun thing where he used to put a cigarette. Cigarette. In the frets of his guitar. It's fun to do.
Marcus Parks
It looks cool.
Edwin Ewing
It does look cool. Yeah. Well, I also don't know if the elephants knew how to skin a man alive.
Marcus Parks
Well, apparently their hooves had, like, sharpened points on it and they would, like, skin the people.
Henry Zebrowski
And, like, I don't think it was done expertly. I don't think you can make them
Marcus Parks
expertly, but they are surprisingly nimble with their trunks. And like, if you remember Telecom, he was able to pull out one testicle from that guy's balls. True. So, you know, these big animals, you never know what they're able to do.
Henry Zebrowski
You really never know.
Marcus Parks
If you remember in our Saints episode, we talked about torture on the wheel.
Edwin Ewing
Oh, yeah.
Marcus Parks
You know, that's where they would strap you to a whale, break your bones, be bad. Well, in the 1810s India, there was a report of something similar to the wheel, but with an elephant. You see, in this instance, the elephant wasn't just the executioner, but the torturer as well. The elephant was trained to inflict the most pain possible, all whilst not killing the victim. Victim. Elephants were so smart, they could comprehend where and when to step on a person while inflicting the most pain. And then when told to finish the person off, it would then step on their organs, or their head was placed on a stump and the elephant would crush it with glee until there was nothing left.
Henry Zebrowski
I mean, again, if anybody could love their job as much as an elephant, loved being an executioner, the whole world would be better.
Edwin Ewing
I mean, at this point, like, is there. I can't think of any other animal that is trained in the ways of humanity this much like that is trained to kill. And not just kill, but to torture and enjoy it. That's incredible.
Henry Zebrowski
I will say probably the closest you'd put to it is dogs. Like, you'd probably. Dogs like police dogs, hunting dogs that are literally designed over time to Bite the fuck out of you. And dogs also have such extreme fine control over their mouths, which is why it's such a significant question when you bit by a dog is if they broke the skin or not. Because that really shows the very distinct difference between an unhinged dog and a not hidden. Because they actually can control whether or not they're going to break your skin. Yeah.
Edwin Ewing
But is the dog trained for torture? Because this is this.
Marcus Parks
Usually dogs are just trained to eat and attack.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah.
Marcus Parks
Yeah.
Edwin Ewing
I've never heard of a dog being trained for torture.
Henry Zebrowski
I mean, I could. Carvey goes, if there's a sound, if there's a boot, you know, that's torture.
Marcus Parks
Torture.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah, I suppose so. But I mean, this is something incredible because you can't train. You can't train like a chimp to do this.
Henry Zebrowski
If you give me 10 chihuahua. So break a man's mind.
Marcus Parks
I bet you could train a chimp to do this.
Edwin Ewing
A young chimp.
Marcus Parks
A young.
Edwin Ewing
Because you know, at one point, chimp stop listening to you.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah. Don't lift your tits off your eyeballs out.
Marcus Parks
A lot of elephants are stolen from the wild at like an adult age and are trained at an adult age. They're easily. Not easily, but they could be manipulated. They are very smart, though. One of the smartest mammals in the world and they have 11 pound brains, which is one of the biggest.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah.
Marcus Parks
Which is pretty cool stuff.
Henry Zebrowski
It's a lot of jelly.
Marcus Parks
Yeah. There was the story of a slave that killed his master and was sentenced to death by elephant. They laid him on the ground and tied three ropes to his legs and arm. And then those ropes were tied to a ring on the elephant's hind leg. He then walked across a 500 yard field over the course of an hour. Every couple of steps the elephant took, it would dislocate his limbs from hip or shoulder. His elbows and his knees came out of socket while he was very much awake for the entire process. By the end of the march, the man was covered head to toe in mud and was screaming in unspeakable pain.
Henry Zebrowski
Well, that's not unspeakable pain. I have the true mind of a sultan.
Marcus Parks
Yes. He was screaming in pain. Because he was saying the words. Word very loudly.
Henry Zebrowski
Let's think about this for a second.
Marcus Parks
Ow. But he was then put out of his misery when the elephant was instructed to step on his head until it was soup.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah.
Marcus Parks
Eventually, in the late 19th century, this form of execution ended in India and Sri Lanka only when the British found it to be too cruel.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah. When the British are telling you to calm down in that. In this time period in the late 19th century. Yeah. You're. You're going pretty far.
Henry Zebrowski
You're going very, very far. Well, I, I believe perhaps elephant is a bit. My question also, aren't elephants cute? Such thing, such thing with these wonderful cool animals.
Edwin Ewing
And also you can just shoot him, shoot him.
Henry Zebrowski
I do like how you make them slaves. That's quite, quite. And how wonderful it would be to outfit some human slaves with giant mandibles in order to act my revenge upon others. Oh, now I'm saying inside th.
Marcus Parks
Well, elephants were. They weren't just executioners. They were also famously used in war almost as like giant living tanks.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah.
Marcus Parks
This is something that had been done as early as 6th century BC. Elephants have been used in war by many countries basically until. Until cannons were invented.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah.
Marcus Parks
Famously, Alexander the Great had to fight an army of elephants in India during the battle of Hydespes against King Porus of India. King Porus. He had an army of about a hundred elephants, which scared the out of Alexander's men because most of them had not seen or even heard of the concept of elephants.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah.
Marcus Parks
And then they're just on a battlefield
Henry Zebrowski
and they're coming at you kind of see like when you look at like any depictions of this, you can kind of see what Peter Jackson and all those guys did.
Edwin Ewing
They like the Ollie Fogs.
Marcus Parks
Oh, yeah.
Henry Zebrowski
Like you start to look and see. Imagine that you've never seen an elephant although you've had his horses. Then you're seeing these giant horses with blades in their mouth and you're like
Edwin Ewing
gigantic dick at the front of their face.
Henry Zebrowski
It's a dinosaur. It's like having a dinosaur army.
Marcus Parks
Yeah. But incredibly intelligent.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah.
Marcus Parks
Somehow Alexander the Great still won the battle. But love the elephant elephants. Dude was like, yo, I will kill people with elephants too.
Henry Zebrowski
That y'.
Marcus Parks
All.
Henry Zebrowski
That should stop your body. My dick, little boy. That was the coolest thing I've ever seen in my God forsaken life.
Marcus Parks
Well, regardless of his sexual.
Henry Zebrowski
Alexander the Greatest. I could call him a. You can say whatever you want to him. I think so you can get. Great. Let me put it. Did Alexander the Great Great ask for consent? Let me ask, let me ask Alexander the Great.
Marcus Parks
What does Google AI say?
Henry Zebrowski
Let me see what it says. Let me see what it says here.
Marcus Parks
Oh, says not interested. No. Well, he started using the elephants himself and eventually they became sort of like a mascot of his. You can watch that shitty Oliver Stone movie. They're in there. I'M pretty sure they were the producers. The war elephant concepts started evolving, especially after the invention of gunpowder. Eventually they started covering them in armor and placed archers and musketeers on top of them. But once muskets evolved into cannons, bombs and machine guns, elephants were in great use in battle. Big targets and such.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah.
Marcus Parks
But they never stopped being used in an auxiliary role. Pulling heavy equipment, building bridges, launching ships. And even in World War II were used to perform tasks in regions where were. That were problematic for motor vehicles. They couldn't get in there. So they'd have an elephant get in there and pull something out.
Henry Zebrowski
You know, they had no. Those elephants had no idea they were working for the goddamn Nazis, man.
Marcus Parks
I think they're on our side.
Edwin Ewing
Are they both?
Marcus Parks
I'm pretty sure the elephants were ours.
Henry Zebrowski
Rommel didn't do anything with elephants.
Edwin Ewing
I don't think the Germans ever did anything with elephants.
Henry Zebrowski
Couldn't be scared of them.
Marcus Parks
Yeah.
Edwin Ewing
I would imagine if there was some like the elephants, I would imagine that would probably been an Indian thing like from India, which of course the India at the time was a British. British colony.
Marcus Parks
Yes.
Edwin Ewing
And the British were allies. I would imagine anything in the elephant wise was us. Actually, the allies were pretty good about you. Like we had Vojek the bear. Yeah. The Polish had the bear.
Marcus Parks
Like.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah, we used a lot of animals.
Marcus Parks
That's awesome. The Italians use fish. Useless.
Henry Zebrowski
I can't believe this. We never use our official fish on a Friday. Use of a job.
Edwin Ewing
If you want to stop at the advanca and what are need is to go to Branzino.
Marcus Parks
Eventually, elephants were ultimately taken out of an auxiliary role because their ivory was worth more money to the armies than they were worth the trouble. So eventually war elephants are officially phased out.
Henry Zebrowski
And apparently also that's what one of the major things that one of the we didn't cover this in our Himler series was that the Polish had diamonds in their bellies, which is a. No one knew. They had to. One of the worst things pieces of
Marcus Parks
news to get out. Now, honestly, to sit here and tell you every insane story involving an elephant could take years. But one story that always fascinated me was the story of Topsy the elephant. Now, Topsy, in short, was a show elephant that died in a public execution in Coney Island. But when you dig a little deeper, her story is utterly fascinating. But also remember, remember, she was a legendary elephant that was killed in 1903. So in my research I did find some inconsistencies. Thus I'm gonna tell you her Story as accurately as possible.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah, I mean, I know, like, true crime journalism is hard to, you know, find a really accurate. I can't even imagine how hard it is to find accurate with animal. True crime journalism.
Henry Zebrowski
Elephant tragedy, tragic histories.
Marcus Parks
Yeah. 1903. We know the journalism was right on point.
Henry Zebrowski
It was good and yellow.
Edwin Ewing
I'm. I'm so happy we're finally telling the story. I've also found the story of Topsy the elephant just fascinating for years and years.
Marcus Parks
So Topsy was stolen as a calf in 1875 from the wild in Southeast Asia. She was smuggled by boat and land over the course of months to Hamburg, Germany. In Germany, she was acquired by Carl Hagenbeck, who was the Jeffrey Epstein of exotic animals in the late 19th century. Yeah.
Henry Zebrowski
Using this, a series of Kompromat, in order to, like, you know, you. You'd set up a circus tent and you'd have a guy fuck a bunch
Marcus Parks
of rabbits or whatever. We film it, you know, honestly, without the film part of it. I think so. I wouldn't put it past him. Hagenbeck started trading wild animals at the age of 14 when his father gifted him some seals and a polar bear.
Edwin Ewing
Gifted him.
Marcus Parks
Yes.
Henry Zebrowski
It was different then, man.
Edwin Ewing
Yes, son, take some seals of the polar bear.
Henry Zebrowski
Make something of yourself. All right, well, first things first. Try to put them together on a boat.
Edwin Ewing
Was his father a mental patient?
Marcus Parks
Now that I'm thinking about it, maybe the seals were food for the polar bear.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah, that makes sense.
Marcus Parks
Yeah. He captured animals from every corner of the world, but ended up under controversy when he built his human zoos. Yes, yes.
Edwin Ewing
Which were very popular across the Western world for a very long time. I think there were only two countries in Europe that did not have human zoos.
Marcus Parks
They were everywhere. Apparently in the 1870s 90s, Hagenbeck's human zoos could be found in Hamburg, Paris, London, Milan, New York City, Chicago and more. Hagenbeck wasn't the only person who owned a human zoo, but his were, for lack of a better description, the best ones.
Henry Zebrowski
Listen, the most popular ones, the nicest
Marcus Parks
ones, I would say the ones that. That had the best set design.
Henry Zebrowski
Oh, wow. It's like if you went to Buen Wall, then you're like, you know what? What I love about here, the palette. It's the color palette. Yeah, I love it. I can see the fall colors having
Edwin Ewing
gone to both Auschwitz and Birkenau. Auschwitz is much nicer.
Marcus Parks
Wow.
Edwin Ewing
It's far, far nicer.
Henry Zebrowski
Oh, that's good to hear. They were worked really hard on that.
Marcus Parks
We'll see how the new ones are gonna be. Yeah.
Henry Zebrowski
Anyway, hey, as long as they have Butt Hunter, I'm fine. Yeah.
Edwin Ewing
The United States government is purchasing dozens upon dozens of warehouses. Far more they can fit the supposed immigrant population. What are they doing with it? Look into it, please.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah, at least we know they're super bad at constructing things. So at least we know that, you know.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah.
Marcus Parks
Well, Hagen Beck's human zoos, the reason I called them the best ones or the best art direction is he would try to recreate the natural habitat along with the housing and the animals, accurate to their part of the world.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah, I put a cup of ice in there. That Eskimo is loving it. Play with that ice cube like it's like it's childhood toy again.
Marcus Parks
Unfortunately, not far off. Yeah,
Henry Zebrowski
I'm making seal noises. It's like he's home.
Edwin Ewing
I mean, this really wasn't all that far off from, you know, guys here in America. Like P.T. barnum was a slave owner.
Marcus Parks
Yes. They had these in, in Coney island as well.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah, for sure.
Edwin Ewing
But P.T. barnum did actually. He owned a woman that claimed to be George Washington's nanny. And yeah, he actually purchased her and then put her at the dime museum in New York City. So he was a full on slave owner.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah, you just sit there and wave at people, essentially.
Marcus Parks
The little I learned about P.T. barnum would be a great episode.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah, no, it's. It's on the docket, my friend. Trust me.
Henry Zebrowski
He's quite the entertainer.
Marcus Parks
Well, Hagen Beck's Nubian and Inuit exhibits were by far his most popular. Hagenbeck sold people and animals worldwide to everyone who would possibly need them. Need? Yeah. Want.
Henry Zebrowski
Hey, hey. It depends on what you.
Marcus Parks
But like, you got to look at your hierarchy of needs.
Henry Zebrowski
I'm not for me, it's. It's Jack Daniels Human Zoos. I. I love to hear the cries of the innocent.
Edwin Ewing
Number one, strangely, eggnog.
Henry Zebrowski
Eggnog at the top.
Marcus Parks
Oh, man.
Henry Zebrowski
It's just a way to get nutmeg in me to bring it all back around.
Marcus Parks
Well, hacking back. Just so you know, in 1913 was bit by one of his boom slang snakes and died. Died. When a boom slaying snake poisons you, it's said that it has to chew its venom into you instead of just a quick bite. Wow. The venom then creates small clots in the bloodstream and makes your brain bleed. So that dead. Yeah.
Edwin Ewing
A horrible death for a horrible man.
Marcus Parks
Yeah. I think it's nice.
Edwin Ewing
It's nice when it happens like that.
Marcus Parks
Yeah. I Always look. I looked up every person to see how they died. And he was the only one that really had a good bad.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah.
Marcus Parks
Hagen, Beth, you know Topsy, of course. Hagenbeck sold Topsy to Adam Forepaugh of the Forepaugh Circus, who falsely billed her as the first elephant born in America. This was a brilliant idea as it was to take away from Barnum and Bailey's impressive roster of huge elephants, which included both African and Asian elephants. So Mr. Forepaugh named her Topsy after the slave girl from Uncle Tom's Cabin and tried to make her a stolen star.
Edwin Ewing
Wow.
Marcus Parks
Yes.
Henry Zebrowski
I actually didn't know that.
Marcus Parks
Good old horrible facts.
Henry Zebrowski
Just a cute name with no kind of nefarious background at all.
Edwin Ewing
I could tell you something nice about an elephant name for sure.
Marcus Parks
Yeah.
Edwin Ewing
Is that P.T. barnum's elephant? Jumbo is. Where we get the word jumbo is that Jumbo was not named because jumbo was a word for huge. Jumbo became a word for huge after Barnum's elephant.
Marcus Parks
Yeah, Jumbo also horrible, horrible death. Not going to get into it, but we will talk about Jumbo too. Very good. The first elephant born in America seemed to be a hit at first, but when Hagenbeck saw this, he told PT Barnum that Forepaugh was full of and Barnum exposed him for being a liar. And then he changed her title to Topsy. The first elephant to be born outside of a tropical zone. Doesn't really have the same ring.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah, it doesn't mean anything.
Edwin Ewing
What the hell's a top topical zone?
Marcus Parks
I know.
Henry Zebrowski
It's nice that it was born outside of it, because that elf. I forget that giving me a mosquito
Marcus Parks
bite still a lie.
Henry Zebrowski
Still, I wanted to see an American elephant. Elephant ain't good unless it's American. Well, the old American elephant we're going to give you access to is, I guess, President T.
Marcus Parks
Well, Topsy started getting a reputation as a bad elephant. It is. It is unclear whether she killed or badly injured 24 Paw Circus workers in Paris and Waco, Texas.
Edwin Ewing
Paris, Texas.
Marcus Parks
Yes. Yeah, yeah. Paris and. Yeah, they're not taking her all the way the across back over the ocean. I think of a Paris, Texas. I figured people could get there, they understand.
Henry Zebrowski
They understand.
Marcus Parks
But she done them up, by the way. That's for damn sure. Her most infamous story became May 27, 1902 in Brooklyn, New York. A drunken spectator named James Fielding Blount supposedly snuck under the canvas into the elephant tent and began taunting the elephants chained up in a line to their post. Mr. Blunt apparently tried to get the elephants to drink his whiskey.
Henry Zebrowski
Are you too good for it?
Marcus Parks
And then when they refused, he began swearing at them.
Henry Zebrowski
You're too good for, huh?
Marcus Parks
When he arrived at Topsy, he became more physically abusive, throwing sand in her eyes and then tricking her into taking his lit cigarette in her trunk. Trunk. And eating it. Topsy then picked up blunt with her trunk, slammed it to the ground and headbutted him to death. Others say that she killed him with her knees. But I like headbutt to death.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Henry Zebrowski
I also like it if maybe shredding him.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah, yeah. Well, I don't know if he gets killed with the knee. If a headbutt. That's more of like an instant death. Like getting kicked by a mule, crushed to death by its knees. That's a slower death.
Marcus Parks
It might be slower. Yeah. The image of just like,
Edwin Ewing
funny.
Marcus Parks
Well, now, if possible, I have written a dramatic monologue from the perspective of James Fielding Blount, which will be performed by Wolf of Wall Street's own Henry Zabrowski. Please.
Henry Zebrowski
Ye clan clown family. Hope they'll die in a tiny car fire. Die all once told. Well, they'll die together.
Marcus Parks
Motherfucker dies on top of father. You clown.
Henry Zebrowski
Ah, you gotta know, you clown. Betty hates his stupid life now. You never work to trap bees, you clown. You fat dumbass clown can't bounce. Secret of trapeze artist. I gotta take a trap piss. God damn it, clown. You're the funniest. Goddamn. You should be the ass remaster.
Marcus Parks
We go
Henry Zebrowski
pissing on the tent. Pissing on the tent. My name is Jimmy. I'm pissing on tent. This tent smells like sheep's head. Brothel ending down there. There you will. Maybe it's me. Maybe I did that. Wait a second. That's sting in my. In my paper. Yeah, My pee. My pee don't smell like that. Oh, smash that.
Marcus Parks
Not me.
Henry Zebrowski
Hey, man. Peepee.
Marcus Parks
Oh.
Henry Zebrowski
Whoa. Is there a key to big doggies? I want to drink with the big doggy. Where's the freaking door to this tennis West Soft ass. Soft ass building. Knock down keep his home wherever you are. You. You big old dog. You're a big dog. You're a big dog.
Marcus Parks
Let me just step under slit.
Henry Zebrowski
Look around looking up and down your skirt. Like, looking up and down.
Marcus Parks
Whoa.
Henry Zebrowski
These are big doggies. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Now drink with the big dog. Now drink with the big dog. Where's the freaking door? This guy. Whoa. Yeah. You drink your drink and let all Jimmy Blount give you a whisk. Take it, take it, take it. Your stupid dog big ears, the shitty nose. Why you remember? Oh, look at that one. It's a lady. I could tell because the penis goes in. Hey there, sweetheart. You want to drink with me? No lady ever says no.
Marcus Parks
Big girl.
Henry Zebrowski
Never stop.
Marcus Parks
Old.
Henry Zebrowski
These fucking bitches. Always shooting old Jimmy. Daddy. You fucking bitch. But Jimmy don't like being shot. That you take over that right? You want something, Jimmy?
Marcus Parks
Jimmy.
Ad Read 2
I'm sorry.
Ad Read 1
Jimmy.
Marcus Parks
Dad.
Henry Zebrowski
Jimmy. Lion. How about you meet me couple for a little smoking?
Ad Read 2
Cigarette? You want a cigarette?
Henry Zebrowski
It's a light.
Edwin Ewing
It's a light.
Ad Read 2
I know you're trying to quit.
Henry Zebrowski
Oh, ate it. I didn't tell you ate it. I attacked.
Marcus Parks
Little gurgling. And scene. Okay. Yeah. It's crazy. No one hires you anymore. Wow.
Henry Zebrowski
It's a great character. Yeah.
Edwin Ewing
Maybe we can get someone to work on the movie. It's the story of this man.
Marcus Parks
This horrible sheep's head bathed dog.
Henry Zebrowski
He ain't nobody's cat.
Marcus Parks
So after this incident, the New York press had a field day. Murderous elephant slays local drunken, you know, and such. So Forepaugh got all Scrooged with it and screamed, you can't buy this type of publicity. And the Brooklyn crowds came out in force to see Topsy the murdering elephant through the end. Through the end of their Brooklyn run. The whole place was sold out. The news inquiry crowds followed them all the way up to Kingston, New York.
Edwin Ewing
So let me get. So nobody cared when. When the elephant killed, like his family didn't like sue or anything like that. It was everyone.
Marcus Parks
I don't think he had a family.
Henry Zebrowski
But anybody gave a. About the guy that went in, really
Marcus Parks
surprised he had a name.
Henry Zebrowski
Elephant. Until it crushed his face. Yeah.
Edwin Ewing
Okay. Local tramp. Yes. Okay.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah.
Edwin Ewing
And in this point in New York City, City, like people were beyond disposable.
Henry Zebrowski
Everybody was joining.
Marcus Parks
Yeah. Especially Coney.
Henry Zebrowski
Oh, yeah.
Edwin Ewing
Oh, yeah, man. It's like fucking one less shithead. Great.
Henry Zebrowski
They were just happy to hear a new way for a shithead to die. They were like, oh, my God. We didn't know. That was another tragic way you could die in Brooklyn. Let's go.
Marcus Parks
So back in the day, from what I'm learning with these circus elephants, whenever they killed somebody, they would use that as an advertisement to get people to come. Right there.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah, man. Kill an elephant.
Henry Zebrowski
I'm right there.
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Marcus Parks
So when they went up to Kingston, New York, it was sold out. All the way through there too. And then when they were boarding the train to leave Kingston, a crowd came to say goodbye to Topsy. And one spectator named Lewis Dondero used a stick to try and tickle Topsy behind her ear. Topsy was not so ticklish this day. She picked up Dondero with her trunk and right before she was about to pile drive him into punch Pudding, her handler Whitey Alt, stopped her from ending his existence.
Henry Zebrowski
This is the deadly elephant.
Edwin Ewing
What is with people like
Marcus Parks
Big?
Henry Zebrowski
What could this 3500 pound animal with swords on its face possibly do? Let's find out.
Marcus Parks
So Fourpaw said, enough with this elephant. Its trail of death and destruction is too much much. She's becoming a liability. So he sold Topsy and her handler Whitey to the fearless frogman who Swam the English Channel. Paul Boyton. Paul Boynton at the time was the owner of the Coney Island Sea Lion Park.
Henry Zebrowski
I just want to say thank you so much for also purchasing me. It's one of the hardest things in all that I live inside of it. I was in a basket on fellow years back then. That is one of the nicest things. It's one of the nicest things ever happened to me. Somebody sold me. I actually didn't even know I was bought. God damn, I love that Whitey.
Marcus Parks
Well, Paul Boyton was a much better frogman than he was a businessman. And he sold the Sea lion park that same year to Frederick Thompson and Elmer Dundy, who built the still famous Luna Park.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah, Luna park in Brooklyn.
Marcus Parks
Love Luna Park. Topsy helped build Luna Park. Topsy became a working elephant and would mostly just like pull the heavy equipment and supplies, you know. Her labor was photographed and portrayed in the media as penance for her violent past.
Henry Zebrowski
That's an amazing storyline.
Edwin Ewing
Tops the elephant, once a murderer and attempted murderer, now is in Brooklyn.
Henry Zebrowski
It's like I tried.
Marcus Parks
Well, Whitey Alt, who was as drunk because he was an elephant handler, was in charge of getting Topsy to work. And one day when she refused to drag an amusement ride from one into Luna park to the other, Whitey stabbed her with a pitchfork. There were many witnesses that saw the abuse and reported Mr. Alt to the cops. This really pissed Alt off, so he decided to say it and just let Topsy run free and cause chaos in the street.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah, you don't fuck with me, man. Don't fuck with me.
Edwin Ewing
Never trust a Whitey with anything. Someone named Whitey, don't trust them with a 3,000 pound killing machine.
Marcus Parks
8,000.
Edwin Ewing
8,000. Jeez. God.
Marcus Parks
You're thinking of the CRV.
Henry Zebrowski
I am thinking of no one's ever tore apart a bunch of people using CRVS or a Toyota RAV4.
Marcus Parks
Well, Alt was arrested and then two months later, when he got out, in an act of revenge, Whitey Alt got on top of Topsy and rode her into the police station where Topsy barreled through the station doors trumpeting her trunk, sending the officers to lock themselves in the cells out of fear.
Henry Zebrowski
This is what, this is where when we say make America great again, this is what I'm fucking talking about, okay? Whitey Alt, somehow still a slave past slavery. He is somehow still a slave to an elephant. And he went and told the cops what was going on.
Marcus Parks
I think maybe they was just mad about their stomp and FR risk program.
Henry Zebrowski
It was Unfair, because in New York
Edwin Ewing
City, it was very unfair practice.
Henry Zebrowski
It really was, because they could pull over any whitey they wanted. It was reverse racism.
Marcus Parks
Well, all was fired and arrested, not sure in which order. And Topsy's new owners, Thompson and Dundee, thought, man, this elephant really isn't worth all this trouble. Not to mention, with Alt, the only elephant handler in town, now gone, they had to get rid of this elephant somehow. Topsy had such a bad reputation at this point, they couldn't even give her away. So they settled on the next best thing. Public execution. December 13, 1902. It was announced in the local papers that for the 25 cents, you could come and see the execution of Topsy. On January 4, 1903. This event was billed as an advertisement for their brand new Luna park opening up in May.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah, of course.
Edwin Ewing
This is how Luna park, the wonder wheel opened with this.
Henry Zebrowski
Everybody come around, we're killing an elephant. Everyone's just like, yeah, absolutely, I'll bring a giraffe, let's break. Let's kill my mother in law.
Edwin Ewing
And don't forget to go to the spook house.
Marcus Parks
Brand new.
Henry Zebrowski
Surprised I was honest today. I was extremely disappointed to go in the spook house and find only ghosts.
Marcus Parks
Hype was built in the papers every day, and the whole city was preparing itself for the public death of Topsy. With all the press this event was getting, the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty of Animals, you know them better, as the ASPCA stepped in and said, this is insane. You can't electrocute this elephant in front
Henry Zebrowski
of a huge crowd.
Marcus Parks
Didn't you hear about what happened with
Henry Zebrowski
Jumbo 2 in Buffalo last year?
Edwin Ewing
This had happened before.
Henry Zebrowski
Yes.
Edwin Ewing
This was the second elephant execution.
Henry Zebrowski
Well, yes, because in America, this is not the one. What was the one with Alexander Graham, with Thomas Edison?
Edwin Ewing
That's Topsy.
Marcus Parks
Yes, that's Topsy now. We'll get into that in a little bit. There's a lot of rumors and weird shit in there. Jumbo two, though. All right, was hard to find information on Jumbo too, but I was fascinated.
Edwin Ewing
I'd never heard about this.
Marcus Parks
I. The only place I could find it was like on a podcast from the Buffalo. The city of Buffalo's like local museum podcast episode on Top Jumbo too. And so this is where I got that information. Jumbo 2 was sentenced to death after supposedly killing two people. And the city of Buffalo decided to do it at the Pan Am stadium where President McKinley had been assassinated two months earlier.
Henry Zebrowski
This is where things get killed. We can't get to the stadium. That's exactly where we go. We great. You remember when President McKinley got shot and how great of time we had, Right? It was pat, why don't we do it again, but this time with something that we know is going to get shot because then we'll be there for it ahead of time.
Edwin Ewing
I also appreciate that you made sure that after allegedly killing two people, like he didn't. We don't know that he killed two people.
Marcus Parks
We don't know that he killed two people. It's actually a very. A point of contention because it was. A thousand people wanted to see this. They all bought 50 Cent tickets. But at the last minute, the mayor was like, we can't let people come watch this. Plus, they just saw an elephant murdered here when President McKinley was shot because he's Republican. But a thousand people were already there and wanted to see this fucking elephant died.
Henry Zebrowski
Now we're fucking here.
Marcus Parks
So they postponed the execution till later that evening when people would hopefully lose steam and go home. That being said, 500 people still snuck into the stadium to watch.
Henry Zebrowski
Don't you lie to me. All right? I am here to see an elegant creature be murdered. Okay, I got to see it. I brought three geese with me as well. I'd like to slit their throats if we could. My wife found a swan over in the park. We're gonna skewer it on these javelins.
Edwin Ewing
And snuck in like, it's more like 500 people just sat in front of a fucking police like, no,
Henry Zebrowski
I'm coming in.
Marcus Parks
Jumbo 2 was led out by three other elephants. He was then tied to a platform built that day and electrodes were fastened to his thick skin. Then, as the crowd watched, 2,200 volts were sent shooting it to Jumbo 2 2's body. Nothing happened.
Edwin Ewing
Yep.
Marcus Parks
Jumbo 2 actually seemed to enjoy the electricity. Wagging his tail, throwing dirt in the air and playing with the platform.
Henry Zebrowski
Now back on to plan B, everybody.
Marcus Parks
Jumbo2 was then led back to his pen by his elephant co worker friends and his life was spared. They took him on the road to Boston and Baltimore, where he was billed as an elephant that killed 50 men and withstood 3,000 volts of electricity in July. That same summer, while on tour in Cleveland, Jumbo died in his sleep from unknown reasons. Like so many great rock stars we've lost.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah. God damn. I can't imagine. Where was he? At the Roxy? Yeah. In a pool of his own vomit. He's got a capoeira. What's a little cup of capoebera there panties. Underage capybara and her little panties. She been traffic there from Germany.
Edwin Ewing
And it really wasn't the days when entertainment had your imagination do half the work. Because, you know, you just say, this elephant killed 50 people and it withstood 3,000 volts of electricity. And what you're doing when you go to see the elephant, you're just looking at the elephant.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah.
Edwin Ewing
You're not doing anything.
Henry Zebrowski
Wow.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah.
Marcus Parks
There's no.
Edwin Ewing
You're just going like. You're just imagining the elephant killing 50 people and getting hard.
Marcus Parks
They would assign human characteristics to elephants a lot back then. And, like, it almost seemed like they deserved a. The prison sentence they were given.
Henry Zebrowski
Well, because that was the idea that creates a full story arc.
Marcus Parks
That's what they were looking for.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah.
Marcus Parks
So back to Coney, where they didn't want another Jumbo 2 incident on their hands.
Edwin Ewing
You mean they didn't want another dud show.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah, they didn't want it to be boring.
Marcus Parks
So the ASPCA had now convinced Thompson and Dundee, hey, maybe we don't electrocute Topsy. They suggested, what if we drug Topsy with cyanide and then hang her? Wouldn't that be better?
Henry Zebrowski
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Marcus Parks
And you can't charge admission. So Thompson and Dundee were like, fine.
Henry Zebrowski
It's gonna have to be invite only.
Marcus Parks
Yeah.
Henry Zebrowski
You're gonna have to just. We're gonna have to cap it at 50, all right.
Edwin Ewing
You don't drug with cyanide. You poison with cyanide. You poison it with cyanide.
Marcus Parks
My English isn't good, Marcus.
Henry Zebrowski
I also like the idea of, like, it's the same for B. Herman being like, what if we shoot it in the head?
Marcus Parks
I don't know.
Henry Zebrowski
What if we. What if we shoot in the head
Marcus Parks
and then we hang?
Henry Zebrowski
We let him go.
Marcus Parks
Well, they agreed and kept the date for January 4, 1903. The press was notified. But when the day came, even though they said no spectators, a thousand people still showed up to watch Topsy hang.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah. In New York, you get a hanging elephant, fucking people gonna show up.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah. Let's go.
Marcus Parks
To this day, I think that's true.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah. Honestly, I'd go. If you were going to build. If you told me it's 1903 in Burbank. I'm just saying right now, if you told me in Burbank, someone had built an impromptu gallows and they were going to hang an elephant, I'd at least
Edwin Ewing
go, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marcus Parks
You ruin your day. Yeah, but, you know, I got 50 cents.
Henry Zebrowski
Think about that. A 1903 show in 2026. How easy would that be? Now that's your show.
Edwin Ewing
I mean, I do know if that were to happen, I think I would probably be roped in by my wife to plot to rescue the elephant.
Henry Zebrowski
Sure.
Edwin Ewing
Because Caroline is a massive, massive elephant fan. Loves elephants.
Henry Zebrowski
I love elephants, too.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah. We could save it. We could have our own elephant. I mean, elephant.
Henry Zebrowski
I don't want it to die, but I love the idea that it's happening.
Edwin Ewing
But we could. Then we could rescue the elephant. We could have our own elephant.
Henry Zebrowski
I would take it. Absolutely. And I'd train it to go against the police. That it fucking. Then you could see, now you're turning into Walt Whitey. That easy.
Marcus Parks
So a thousand people showed up, but only 100 were allowed in. And some press were allowed in the watch the spectacle. Many more jumped the fence and watched from rooftops nearby where they were charged admission.
Ad Read 1
Yeah.
Edwin Ewing
Now that's Brooklyn. Yeah.
Marcus Parks
The giant electrical tower was rigged with rope and inspected by the aspca. And when they said, yeah, you can hang your elephant here quick.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah, Nice, nice, nice.
Marcus Parks
The event commenced. So the official plan was to feed topsy carrots laced with 460g with cyanide, walk her over a bridge to the electrical tower, hang her from it, and then electrocute her for good measure.
Henry Zebrowski
Oh, my God. And then we're going to have the Kaiser shooter with the first ever Gatling gun. And then we have. God, this is just a whole afternoon.
Marcus Parks
Well, a man named Carl Goliath, who was a supposed elephant expert who formerly worked for Carl Human Zoo Hagenbeck, was chosen to lead Topsy to her death. But Topsy knew that something wasn't right, and she refused to be led to her demise at the tower. Even after being cattle prodded and given apples as treats, she was wouldn't go. It was probably when he yelled dead elephant walking over and over again that tipped her off.
Henry Zebrowski
Soon as he saw that nun show
Marcus Parks
up, they were at a loss at what to do. So Thompson and Dundee sent for our favorite drunken police station attacker, Whitey Alt, and offered him $25 to lead her to the tower.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah, I'll give you one better $15.
Marcus Parks
Whitey said he wouldn't do it even for a thousand dollars. Ironically, 25 in 1903 is about a thousand dollars. Now. Does that matter? No. But still slightly interesting.
Henry Zebrowski
It could be really could be just Whitey all. I love the power. Now what he all has just, you know, they made me a slave.
Marcus Parks
Just hammered at Rubies eating clams.
Henry Zebrowski
He's like, he's already been shucked. Chewing on the shelves like, oh, Topsy, I wish you were here to open
Marcus Parks
these clams for me.
Henry Zebrowski
Just tell me when it's over. Tell me when it's over.
Marcus Parks
Well, the decision was made that if Topsy refused to march to her death, then death would be brought to her.
Edwin Ewing
Cool.
Marcus Parks
The team then rigged the noose with extra rope, gave her some more cyanide, and extended the electrical cables and got the show on the road.
Henry Zebrowski
It is unclear the new.
Marcus Parks
Okay.
Edwin Ewing
Why does it have to be so elaborate? There is a gun, an elephant gun. There is a gun that is named specifically for the purpose of killing elephants. You could just shoot the elephant in the head and die.
Henry Zebrowski
You listen here. You're skinny Communists. We've got the crane already here. I've got so much noose, I don't know what to do with myself. Okay, this news has got to go. Noose has been sold and purchased. Where else are we going to bring this big giant noose? We got to use the noose.
Marcus Parks
It is unclear on the ASPCA's role in the audible.
Edwin Ewing
All right.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah.
Marcus Parks
So with help from the Edison Illuminating Company of Brooklyn, they were able to have two power stations send enough electricity to kill Topsy. One copper sandal was placed on her left left forefoot, and another was placed on her right hind foot, so the electricity ran through her whole body. They had spotters on roofs signaling the Coney island power station nine blocks away when they were going to flip the switch in case of grid problems. The Luna park chief electrician also closed off a Luna park switch, which would then redirect 6,600 volts to topsy, three times as much that was used on Jumbos 2's execution attempt. Electric chairs use anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 volts.
Henry Zebrowski
They're gonna make elephantstein.
Marcus Parks
Yeah.
Edwin Ewing
Well, what I'd always heard on this with Edison, like, because I'd always heard that Edison was the guy behind it all. And what he was trying to do was demonstrate that AC power was better than DC power, or maybe vice versa. The DC power was better than AC power.
Marcus Parks
I'm gonna get into all that in a little bit, okay? Yeah. So when the switch was flipped, the superintendent at the Coney island station was almost killed when he got mixed up in the apparatus and was thrown across the room. Topsy's fate was not like Jumbos. She was dead within 10 seconds. One onlooker said that she went out without a trumpet or A groan.
Edwin Ewing
Of course. People in electric chairs don't go ah the whole time it's silent.
Marcus Parks
It's sad.
Henry Zebrowski
So I wish they would.
Marcus Parks
After she was electrocuted to death, they decided to hang her anyway for good measure. The steam powered wench strangled her lifeless body for 10 minutes. She was then pronounced dead officially at 2:40 47pm an autopsy was then conducted in the very place she died. They removed her organs and sent them to Princeton. And a taxidermist skinned her and turned her into a chair for Thompson. Jesus. Thompson also had her four legs fashioned into umbrella holders for the office. You guys should think about that.
Henry Zebrowski
You know, I actually. I don't really know what to do with all my ivory. Largely. I've been using it to make bullets to shoot the poor. Was one of my favorite things is to shoot a homeless man in the head with a ivory bullet. One of my bucktop list.
Marcus Parks
Well they cut off her head and buried it behind the horse stables. The execution was filmed and turned into a 74 second movie that could be viewed with Edison kinescopes and toured around America for children to enjoy.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah.
Marcus Parks
The film was creatively called Electrocuted Shooting an Elephant. It did not run long because it was not very popular. Sure.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah.
Edwin Ewing
This is back in the days when that's. This movies just were what they were. They were named what they were. It's like.
Marcus Parks
Yeah, train, train coming station. Yeah, it was like the first movie.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah.
Henry Zebrowski
All right.
Marcus Parks
Well, unfortunately here is Topsies electrocuting an elephant.
Henry Zebrowski
I mean honestly, we can just kind of flip through it because it's silent.
Marcus Parks
So it's only 74 seconds.
Henry Zebrowski
It doesn't really dig, you know, it's.
Marcus Parks
Yep.
Edwin Ewing
Dead.
Henry Zebrowski
Dead elephant walking. You really see it coming now.
Marcus Parks
Yeah. Yep.
Henry Zebrowski
It's really. That is a dead ass elephant about to be dead. Yeah.
Marcus Parks
She doesn't seem mean.
Edwin Ewing
I can see the steam from the steam winch.
Marcus Parks
Imagine like you're at a fair and you're just watch as a child. You're extremely sad watching this through a fucking little machine that you're cranking.
Henry Zebrowski
I kind of take this back because this is not entertaining at all. No, this entire execution of the elephant is like it needs an opener.
Edwin Ewing
No, that's the thing. It'd be much better. Jared Logan saved the elephant.
Henry Zebrowski
No, I'm saying with Jared Logan opening, he was doing crowd work like a form of warm up. That's really up, Eddie. Yeah.
Edwin Ewing
That's really awful.
Marcus Parks
I know. It is.
Henry Zebrowski
Being electrocuted to death.
Marcus Parks
Yes.
Henry Zebrowski
You're a bastard.
Marcus Parks
I'm Not a bastard. I wanted. It's powerful.
Edwin Ewing
It is.
Marcus Parks
It is.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah.
Henry Zebrowski
Yes, it's powerful. I want to know like what's his internal temperature?
Edwin Ewing
And then they hung it afterwards.
Marcus Parks
Yes. After this.
Henry Zebrowski
Well, that's just to make sure it's dead. You don't want it to come back. Like Mike Myers.
Marcus Parks
Clearly dead here too. Right?
Henry Zebrowski
It seems like it might not dancing.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah.
Marcus Parks
Yeah. Its legs are stiff and suspended.
Edwin Ewing
Like them hanging it.
Marcus Parks
Yeah.
Edwin Ewing
Well, that was a God awful Ed.
Marcus Parks
Yeah, there's lots of movies like that.
Henry Zebrowski
You're a bastard.
Marcus Parks
So Thomas Edison is often credited as the man who electrical executed Topsy. But the truth is he wasn't there. And confusion comes because the electric company bore his name. And then even though he was ousted as controller of that electric company a decade earlier. Ah, he owned the film. So he had been falsely credited as the man who pulled the lever and orchestrated the entire event.
Edwin Ewing
Okay.
Marcus Parks
Yeah. Not that he had some huge moral code or anything.
Henry Zebrowski
He was a horrific.
Marcus Parks
I bet he was pissed he missed it. Would have been laughing his ass off if he was there.
Henry Zebrowski
Like, I wish we could have done it with a line of dogs. I wish we could have done with people.
Marcus Parks
Especially since he made sure the film was preserved by the Library of Congress.
Henry Zebrowski
You know, technically it is history.
Edwin Ewing
When I electrocuted an elephant in my
Henry Zebrowski
backyard, nobody came, nobody cared. When my daughter was born without a face.
Marcus Parks
Well, in 1916, there was another elephant lynching in Tennessee of an elephant called Murderous Mary. Her just Mary to non idiots.
Henry Zebrowski
It's just an elephant.
Marcus Parks
Yeah. She got her nickname after she killed an unqualified handler on his first day of the job. He was riding her into a crowded area and she wasn't moving fast enough. So he prodded her behind her ear. Mary snatched him off of her back with her trunk, slammed him through a drink stand and squashed his head in front of many onlookers.
Henry Zebrowski
Cool.
Marcus Parks
The newspapers created more sensationalism saying that she gored him with her tusks when. And we all know female elephants don't have tusks. So she was ordered to be executed regardless. September 13, 1916. Murderous Mary was hung in front of a crowd of 2,500 people chanting kill the elephant. Over and over and over again.
Edwin Ewing
Kill the elephant. Like kill the elephant.
Marcus Parks
Kill the elephant. Kill the elephant. I'm sure they were offbeat for a
Henry Zebrowski
little while because honestly, I know that that's how they said it, because I remember that that was a chance. Started when Ed and I walked into the Mariah Carey concert that we were at over Christmas break and it was like, that's where I heard that. I was like, where do I recognize that?
Edwin Ewing
Yeah, you can also do like kill the elephant.
Marcus Parks
Kill the elephant. You're giving him too much credit. Okay. Yeah. Kill the elephant.
Henry Zebrowski
Kill the elephant. Kill.
Marcus Parks
Mary had a chain tied around her neck and was lifted by a crane while hanging to her death. The chain snapped and she fell and broke her head hip in front of the crowd. She screamed in pain in front of everybody. This was said to have scared the children.
Edwin Ewing
Oh, the children who were brought to the elephant execution.
Henry Zebrowski
They were like, this wasn't as fun as we thought it was going to be.
Marcus Parks
So this wasn't as fun as the
Henry Zebrowski
time we went to go see those anarchists get shot. Daddy, you remember when we went to go see the anarchists get shot? Oh yeah.
Marcus Parks
It was all those attempts.
Henry Zebrowski
I remember having so much fun when we saw those Italian gay just turned into Gilbert.
Marcus Parks
Yeah. Well, they went and got a bigger chain and it worked. The next time she was buried right there beside the railroad tracks. But before she was buried, a veterinarian performed an examination and determined that she had a rotted out tooth in the exact spot the novice handler had prodded her.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah, Obviously it was bad.
Marcus Parks
Yeah.
Edwin Ewing
I don't know why, but I imagine murderous Mary with a little bow, a little pink bow.
Marcus Parks
She would have to be adorable.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah, yeah.
Marcus Parks
No, it's very much. It's a Sherry Moon zombie. Yeah. No, if she was an elephant, I wish that.
Henry Zebrowski
I'll make sure to tell her that. Yeah. Every time I'm going to DM her.
Marcus Parks
I'm sure she listens. I wish that Mary, Jumbo 2 and Topsy were the only stories like this. But. But the truth is there were 36 public elephant executions in America between the 1880s and the 1920s. Elephants were often looked at as good or bad and an elephant could be considered bad if it did not work. When told in the carnies eyes, bull elephants were looked at as unruly brutes that required constant abuse to be kept in line unless they could become unmanageable and possibly destroy the showman man's business. They took the stance that if an elephant tried to avoid work, it was lazy and needed to be punished. And elephant execution was deemed appropriate retribution for criminal behavior.
Edwin Ewing
I really wonder if, because it seems you say 1880, you know, that's around the time that we stopped doing like public hangings, do you? I think it seems like maybe elephant executions were trying to like fill the hole in America.
Marcus Parks
The Sequel. Yeah.
Edwin Ewing
We can't execute people in public anymore, so let's execute elephants.
Marcus Parks
They started with dolphins, but they were too slippery.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah. And you really can't see them struggle because they're under the water.
Marcus Parks
Yeah.
Edwin Ewing
They don't really have necks, so I
Henry Zebrowski
actually think that there's. That makes a lot of sense. And also the idea that we're throwing human, like, attributes on the elephant, so it does sort of give the same kick. Almost like it's like a. Like a methadone for human executions.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah.
Marcus Parks
Well, circus elephants never had it easy. An 8,000pound animal constantly on the road and forced to perform for crowds of screaming people while cannons are shot off and clowns spray seltzer water and horses jump from towers into small pools. It's bad. We all know that having animals as attraction in circuses are inherently evil. We've all seen Dumbo. It came out in 1941. We've done known this. It is wrong. Also, say what you want about the crows. They're the only characters that were nice to Dumbo.
Henry Zebrowski
They were the only characters with a heart in the whole movie.
Marcus Parks
Yeah. The unfortunate thing is, if Dumbo was murdered, those talking crows would have been the first ones to get arrested. Oh, man.
Henry Zebrowski
The really cute little pigs that would have played ice.
Marcus Parks
We know it's wrong. We knew it was wrong.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah.
Marcus Parks
I remember being on top of an elephant as a child at Ringling Brothers Circus. The elephant didn't want to do what the trainer wanted, and he whipped the elephant profusely while I was on top.
Henry Zebrowski
How did he tell the difference?
Marcus Parks
I remember my mom screaming, and then finally they got me down eventually. Even at that young age, I knew I never wanted to do no like that. That again.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah.
Marcus Parks
As of May 2016, Ringling Brothers has retired their working elephants to a sanctuary in Polk County, Florida. Could be worse.
Henry Zebrowski
Could be worse.
Marcus Parks
Ringling brothers were paid 16 million by the Humane Society and other animals rights groups as a settlement to retire the elephants. So don't think they're saints.
Henry Zebrowski
No, no, no.
Edwin Ewing
They not only had to be forced, they had to be paid a lot of money.
Marcus Parks
Yeah. Currently, 10 states in America have banned elephants from performing in circuses, Hawaii being the most notable after the famous 1994 incident featuring an elephant named Tyke. Tyke killed her trainer and critically injured her groomer and then stormed out of the arena into the street, where she injured another, trampled cars, and ultimately was shot dead by police with 86 bullets.
Edwin Ewing
Truth.
Marcus Parks
Tyke should have never been there. She had two incidents the previous year, when she broke out in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and Minow, North Dakota, she rampaging loose in both towns for over half an hour each. Who the thought it was a good idea to put the same 8,000pound animal on a boat halfway across the Pacific Ocean and then force it to perform?
Edwin Ewing
It's like King Kong. Yeah, it really is. King Kong on the barge.
Marcus Parks
Yeah. So is there a moral to these stories? Sure. The obvious is that using wild animals as entertainment is wrong, plain and simple.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah, they're bad, you know, it's bad.
Marcus Parks
Yeah. AZA accredited, edited zoos. I can still see the importance in teaching us about animals, making us fall in love with them, thus making us want to be a part of animal conservation. That makes sense to me.
Henry Zebrowski
So it's like there's a difference between an elephant walking out and they kind of scrub it and everyone going like, hi instead of like. And not putting it, like in a suit.
Marcus Parks
Yeah.
Henry Zebrowski
You know what I mean? Like on top of a little platform while everyone's screaming, throwing like. There's a difference, you know?
Edwin Ewing
Yeah, yeah. There's a difference between, like, you know, like a trained, like, veterinarian who walked out, who went to, like, grad school, probably has a master's degree, and some dude named Whitey.
Marcus Parks
Yeah.
Henry Zebrowski
Why do you care? Why?
Edwin Ewing
He didn't care at all. Why do you only cared about the elephant's power.
Henry Zebrowski
Why did he have no one?
Edwin Ewing
And even though his. His demand for getting into going and, you know, leading the elephant to his doom, even though it was an exorbitant sum, he still had a price.
Henry Zebrowski
Whitey had to go about making himself a slave. He was not a slavery.
Marcus Parks
He was.
Edwin Ewing
He wasn't a slave. He wasn't a slave.
Marcus Parks
I think he was paid, you know, a small amount.
Henry Zebrowski
Yes.
Ad Read 1
Edit.
Edwin Ewing
Ed said something about the trainer also being bought and you ran with it. It's not true.
Henry Zebrowski
He's not a slave. I don't understand the whole rage.
Edwin Ewing
His name was White.
Henry Zebrowski
I've never been allowed to go anywhere.
Marcus Parks
Why do you work for Dundee now? And you got no choice about it.
Henry Zebrowski
Thank you. I think the original.
Edwin Ewing
Original take you out. I'm like, yeah, like, that's.
Henry Zebrowski
That's more true than what Whitey was.
Edwin Ewing
Although a man one day loses, takes it into a police station.
Henry Zebrowski
So fun.
Marcus Parks
What I'm saying is how many telecoms, Topsies, Tatianas and Harambes have to die before we say enough of it all? You know, in the current state of affairs, the safety and care for animals will probably be Pushed aside for a while. Yeah, not that anyone needs another reason to hate our president. But in 2020 18, Trump lifted the ban on elephant tusks being brought into the United States from Zambia and Zimbabwe. Specifically where his sons have been photographed next to their trophies. Wow.
Henry Zebrowski
What wow? Wow.
Edwin Ewing
He changed an entire law just so his stupid sons could have their stupid elephant test drove.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah, where they tie him next to a pole and then they go and they shoot him in the back of the head execution style like they're in the Russian government.
Edwin Ewing
But surely this man is here for the common man.
Marcus Parks
Don't worry, it's not just us. Prince Harry has gone trophy hunting. While all while his family advocates to put an end to wildlife trade.
Henry Zebrowski
Both of anybody with the prince in front of their name isn't a real fucking human being.
Marcus Parks
No, you're not a hunter.
Henry Zebrowski
No, you don't need to hunt.
Marcus Parks
You're a prince.
Henry Zebrowski
Go disappear all you princes. Just go fucking disappear somewhere.
Marcus Parks
All right? So Prince Harry, he did this thing which I'm sure you've heard of before, where people try to tell you that this type of big trophy hunting is actually good for animal conservation. What some animal reserves have been said to have done is that they have really, really rich people from all around the world pay an exorbitant fee, so they have the right to kill old or sick animals. The reserve then takes those large sums of money and uses it to keep the reserve afloat financially. As someone who has been on safari in Africa, there wasn't one moment when I thought, man, it'd be pretty cool to shoot that elephant in its huge, beautiful brain.
Henry Zebrowski
You got to go over there. I always. My favorite is I strap two indigenous birds my feet. I got two squirrels in either hand. You know, if you hunt to eat
Marcus Parks
or hunting when it's necessary to control an out of control population or invasive species. That I understand.
Henry Zebrowski
Sure, if you go on a plane to go hunt on another continent, you can suck my balls.
Marcus Parks
I couldn't agree more.
Henry Zebrowski
Unbelievable. You're such a loser.
Marcus Parks
But with laws changing for the worse in many places, for instance, Florida's own swollen face high heeled Governor Ron DeSantis decided that Florida needed a reopen bear hunting season this past year for some fucking reason.
Henry Zebrowski
I mean, there's been quite an influx of the bear community because of the Republican influx. Chubby, bearded, closeted men that really do
Marcus Parks
need quite a bit action in Florida. Bears were hunted into, almost hunted into extinction in the 1970s when they were brought down to less than 500 in the wild.
Henry Zebrowski
You should see the thrift stores. You can tell
Edwin Ewing
strangely the otter population's through the roof.
Marcus Parks
Well now there's 4,000Bears in Florida and they're off the endangered species list. So let's start killing them again. Seems fun, right? I don't know what goes through the mind of someone who has a desire to hurt an animal. There may be reasons to hurt some people, sure. But the animal kingdom deserves our respect. So maybe it's a of piece out time to find some of these sad weak ass poachers and politicians and throw them to the elephant garden.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah. Yes. Yeah.
Edwin Ewing
Throw them to the elephant garden.
Henry Zebrowski
Yes. Yeah. Cuz like again, if you're just hunting deer or hiring like that's like the whole thing of it.
Edwin Ewing
Right.
Henry Zebrowski
If you're hunting for sustainability, if you're hunting to eat the food, it all makes sense. Like even the idea of some low level prize hunting makes sense in places where you're going after deer and going after these things that are actually like
Marcus Parks
actually if you're using the animal.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah. Like they're a part of the thing. It's just the idea of just going and shooting an exotic animal in the
Marcus Parks
head for no reason other than. Yeah. To be able to kill it and stuff it and put it in your fucking library. It's full of books. You can't read.
Henry Zebrowski
You don't even have a story.
Edwin Ewing
I mean I could get it like if it's. If we're talking like you know, 1910, Teddy Roosevelt, like going out, like I can understand like you know, the I can.
Henry Zebrowski
Michael Douglas movie.
Edwin Ewing
It can very much understand like the idea of like I'm going to go out and into the wild and I'm going to kill something that could kill me.
Marcus Parks
Like that.
Edwin Ewing
I understand. I can kind of get that.
Henry Zebrowski
That's not what these Patagonia vest bitches are doing.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah, yeah. Like Prince Harry. There's no, he has no fucking risk of being killed by any of these animals. The fact that these people are paying to go shoot a sick animal.
Marcus Parks
Yeah.
Edwin Ewing
Is fucking garbage.
Marcus Parks
It really is.
Edwin Ewing
So it is gas. Like it's one of those things where it should be like, like a trap. It should be like the moment you go out there and you have the animal in your sights and you pull that trigger and it goes click. That's when your gun should explode and you should die.
Marcus Parks
Yeah.
Henry Zebrowski
Or you realize you have no bullets and now you're just out there. Yeah. You know, and now. Okay, now let's see what happens.
Marcus Parks
Yeah. Or you get like a tiny 6 inch blade and it's a fair fight.
Edwin Ewing
Yeah. There you go.
Marcus Parks
That is kind of interesting.
Henry Zebrowski
It'd be kind of cool if you had one attached to each finger. That would be fun. Well, Eddie, man, what a fantastic job.
Edwin Ewing
This was so much fun.
Marcus Parks
Yeah. A lot of death.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah.
Edwin Ewing
And now we have a new thing to say. Throw them to the elephant garden.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah, I like that. I wish it was real. Go to patreon.com Last podcast on the left. Go visit our own personal elephant garden. We have incredible content. You can also go see. You can get all of the podcasts ad free. You also can see last stream on the left live 6pm PST every Tuesday. We have this one coming up. It's going to be great. You know, whole bunch of go check our Patreon.
Marcus Parks
Yes. This weekend we're going to be in Austin, Texas at the Paramount Theater. Come see us. It's going to be a blast. That's Saturday. February 28th, March 13th will be in Indianapolis. April 25th, Cincinnati. May 29th, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. June 27th, Grand Rapids, Michigan. July 17th, Tulsa, Oklahoma. And July 18th, Oklahoma City. Also, I got a bunch of shows coming up I figured I'd let you guys know about. April 3rd, I'm doing stand Up Here in Los Angeles with Amber Nelson at The Lyric Hyperion. April 11, P Funk Fest in Tallahassee. April 12, V Star Stadium in Jacksonville with Danny bosan and Holden McNeely. This one's new. I don't know why I'm doing this. July 10th, a salute to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Henry Zebrowski
Yeah.
Marcus Parks
Hosted by me, Dan Becker and Ruby Deer from Start Making Sense. I'm just doing the show for no reason.
Henry Zebrowski
Reason.
Marcus Parks
It's over at Arts Quest. It's just amazing. They, like, turn like a steel factory into a cool art space. I just booked this. It's a lot of fun. And also I'm going to be in Newark on July 12th at our buddy Justin Williams. He just opened a comedy club in Newark called the Newark Culture Club.
Henry Zebrowski
Right. I forgot about his thing. That's so cool.
Marcus Parks
Yeah, so I went check that. Also, I wanted to give a special shout out to Eddie Ewing who sent me a bunch of elephant jokes that I used. There was a lot of fun. Oh, yeah, he's hilarious. I love that guy. Guy. I love all of you. This was a lot of fun.
Henry Zebrowski
Really good work.
Edwin Ewing
Thank you very much.
Marcus Parks
Thank you. Thank you.
Edwin Ewing
I love you, too.
Henry Zebrowski
I love you.
Edwin Ewing
I don't use that word lightly. I love you.
Marcus Parks
Can't handle it.
Henry Zebrowski
See, next week we're going to be doing. We're going to be coming back with
Marcus Parks
the Fox Catcher Murders.
Henry Zebrowski
We're going to be ending our Dupont series. And then we're going into some true crime. And then back to the Mount Rush. More of evil.
Edwin Ewing
Yes.
Marcus Parks
Cannot wait.
Edwin Ewing
Well, that's going to be after we
Henry Zebrowski
have a little surprise.
Edwin Ewing
You know what month is coming up.
Marcus Parks
Oh, y' all know what's coming.
Henry Zebrowski
And we got a new. We got a new way to do it this year.
Marcus Parks
I think it's going to be really fun. It's going to be great. All right.
Henry Zebrowski
All right. Hell, Satan.
Marcus Parks
Oh, he Topsy.
Edwin Ewing
Hail Topsy. Yeah, she didn't know the difference.
Henry Zebrowski
She didn't know what she was doing. That was mine. That's my perfect elephant.
Edwin Ewing
Hey, listeners, Marcus, Edd and Henry here, a little bit of an announcement.
Marcus Parks
You loving all the episodes of Last podcast on the Left lately. Well, listen, now you can get even more from us.
Henry Zebrowski
Squeeze it out of us. If you want to hear new episodes ad free and unlock access to last podcast on the left seven days early. Subscribe to SiriusX Podcast plus on Apple Podcasts or visit siriusxm.compodcast+ to start your free trial today. Do it.
Release Date: February 27, 2026
Hosts: Marcus Parks, Henry Zebrowski, Edwin Ewing
This episode of Last Podcast On The Left delves into the tragic and brutal history of elephants used in human entertainment, focusing on the infamous story of Topsy the Elephant, a circus elephant executed in Coney Island in 1903. The hosts—Marcus, Henry, and Ed—blend dark humor, historical research, and social critique to explore the intersection of animal cruelty, spectacle, and the bizarre moral logic of early 20th century America.
| Timestamp | Topic | |---------------|-------------------------------------------------------| | 02:13 | Episode Introduction: Focus on elephants | | 06:01 | Elephants vs. vehicles – a size comparison | | 08:06 | Asian elephants and their interactions with humans | | 13:32 | Indian Rogue Elephants: Osama bin Laden legend | | 16:14 | The "revenge" elephant at the funeral pyre | | 19:21 | Elephant executions in Southeast Asia | | 25:11 | Emperor Jahangir’s "elephant garden" executions | | 33:25 | Elephants in war, ancient to WWII | | 38:08 | Topsy’s origin story | | 45:41 | Topsy kills the drunken antagonist | | 54:47 | Topsy is sold to Coney Island/Luna Park | | 57:42 | Decision for Topsy’s public execution | | 66:40 | The execution plan in detail | | 70:19 | Topsy’s death and its aftermath | | 73:56 | Edison’s real (limited) involvement | | 75:03 | Murderous Mary’s lynching in Tennessee | | 77:37 | The history of elephant executions in America | | 80:36 | Modern circus elephant retirements | | 83:35 | Trophy hunting and conservation debate | | 86:34 | Final moral and call to respect wildlife |
As always, the Last Podcast on the Left masterfully balances macabre historical content with sardonic humor, improvisational riffs, and the hosts’ signature irreverence toward authority—whether circuses, politicians, or trophy hunters. While the subject matter is grim, the delivery is brisk, conversational, and often self-deprecating, inviting listeners to both reckon with the horror and laugh at the absurdity.
This episode provides a sobering yet wildly entertaining exploration of how the monstrous treatment of elephants in entertainment both reflected and fueled darker elements of human culture: cruelty, spectacle, and exploitative capitalism. In telling Topsy's story and others like hers, the hosts challenge us to reconsider our responsibilities toward the animal world, even as they gleefully riff on history’s absurdities. The lesson lingers: “Throw them to the elephant garden”—but let’s hope, at last, it’s the abusers and exploiters who end up there, not the elephants.