They have long memories on Coney Island—the people who live there, that is, not the rubes that come in from the city, not one of the more than one thousand people who came out to Luna Park that dreary January morning in 1903 to witness this rather inglorious affair.
The handlers fed her carrots laced with potassium cyanide while Edison’s men placed the electrodes and fitted her with special copper-lined sandals to complete the circuit. Six-thousand volts, and the big beast died without a trumpet or groan.
When Luna Park burned down in 1944, they called it “Topsy’s Revenge.”
Part 1 is here.
Image by way of My Sweet Inspiration.
Added to ABC Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteAh, the payback!
ReplyDeleteROG, ABCW
Topsy's Truth!!!
ReplyDeleteShocking!!
ReplyDeleteA terrible story. You can watch the video Edison took of the execution online, but I wish I hadn't.
ReplyDeleteAn Arkies Musings
OMG! I'd never heard of it! What animal rights' activists today would do about that!
ReplyDeleteLeslie
abcw team
I'm glad her demise was without groan or pain. It does pain me to read of it.
ReplyDeleteI saw the execution online, too. Left me with a sick feeling. "Topsy's Revenge," well, first, the name Topsy, ugh... but the idea that the park burned because of what EDISON did seemed unfair.
ReplyDeleteSee the documentary, "Dr. Death," not the Kevorkian one, but the one about the guy who "modernized" the electric chair... it will make you think... Amy