Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1888 — AN ELEPHANT EXECUTED. [ARTICLE]

AN ELEPHANT EXECUTED.

Big “CbliX” Strangledi to Death byTwo of HU B .■* thren. The winter quarters of Forepaugh’s circus at Philadelphia were the scene Sunday afternoon of an execution not ordered by the court. Chief, the big elephant, was condemned to die. He had become entirely unmanageable and it was difficult to keep the great, strong brute chained up. He tried to kill nis keeper Saturday and it was decreed that he should be destroyed. Sunday afternoon the noose was placed arbnnd his neck. It was made in the middle of a piece of rope half an inch thick and ten yards long. It was a tick-; lish thing to get the noose on the elephant’s neck, but it was finally pulled over his trunk and placed close behind his ears. Then Basil and Bispaarck, two powerful elephants, were attached to the ends of the rope. At young Adam Forepaugh’s command the two elephant executioners were prodded and the line was drawn tight around Chief’s throat. Another signal was given and the elephants applied all their power. Chief tottered and fell and was dead in twenty seconds. Chief was an Asiatic elephant, ten arid a half feet high, and weighed 10,000 pounds.