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The-MOST-F-ED-UP-circus-act-on-camera-Trigger-Warning · Crime and Horror

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  Speaker 1: There are a handful of images that periodically make the
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  Speaker 1: rounds on the Internet because they're so shocking and horrible
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  Speaker 1: looking that most people assume.
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  Speaker 2: They are fake, but they're not.
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  Speaker 1: Today, I'm going to tell you a wild story that
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  Speaker 1: is the background to one of those photos, and then
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  Speaker 1: at the end I will show you this totally bizarre
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  Speaker 1: and shocking photo. But before we get into that story,
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  Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious
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  Speaker 1: delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place,
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  Speaker 1: because that's all we do, and we upload once a week.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, let's get into today's story. On September twelfth, nineteen sixteen,
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  Speaker 1: residents of the little mining town called Kingsport, Tennessee, left
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  Speaker 1: their homes and packed the main street because on this day,
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  Speaker 1: a traveling circus called Sparks World Famous Shows was coming
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  Speaker 1: to town. The performers in this traveling circus were going
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  Speaker 1: to put on a big parade and then end it
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  Speaker 1: with a traditional circus act. This was going to be
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  Speaker 1: the most exciting and biggest event that had ever happened
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  Speaker 1: in Kingsport. Kingsport was not an affluent place. Most people
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  Speaker 1: lived in tents instead of homes, and many of the
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  Speaker 1: roads were mud and so they were really desperate for
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  Speaker 1: something fun and exciting to happen. By around noon, all
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  Speaker 1: the residents who were lining the main street began hearing
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  Speaker 1: the sound of music off in the distance, and then
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  Speaker 1: from around the corner came clowns were banging symbols and
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  Speaker 1: blowing on kazoos, And then there were acrobats and dogs
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  Speaker 1: painted different colors, and there were men juggling and water
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  Speaker 1: looking on stilts and walking upside down. There were horses
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  Speaker 1: and lions and trained sea lions. I mean, this parade
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  Speaker 1: was a total spectacle and the residents of Kingsport loved it.
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  Speaker 1: They were screaming and cheering with excitement. But the most
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  Speaker 1: exciting part of this parade were the elephants. There were
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  Speaker 1: five of them, and they were at the front of
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  Speaker 1: the parade, and they each had their trunks wrapped around
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  Speaker 1: the other elephant's tail, so they were walking in a
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  Speaker 1: line and the elephant at the very front of these
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  Speaker 1: five elephants was very clearly the star of the show.
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  Speaker 1: Her name was Mary, and the owner of the circus,
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  Speaker 1: whose name was Charlie Sparks, advertised Mary as being the
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  Speaker 1: largest living.
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  Speaker 2: Land animal on earth.
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  Speaker 1: She weighed more than five tons, which is ten pounds,
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  Speaker 1: and Charlie had had her since she was a baby,
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  Speaker 1: and he had taught her many tricks. She could stand
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  Speaker 1: on her head, she could play twenty five songs on
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  Speaker 1: a trumpet, and she could throw a baseball. Charlie loved
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  Speaker 1: Mary like she was his child, and Charlie knew that
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  Speaker 1: Mary was really his ticket to real success. At this
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  Speaker 1: time in America, there were lots of other traveling circuses
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  Speaker 1: that Charlie had to compete with, and generally speaking, Charlie's
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  Speaker 1: circus was on the smaller side, and so this was
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  Speaker 1: frustrating for Charlie because he was always trying to find
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  Speaker 1: new ways to grow his circus and make it more
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  Speaker 1: fun and enjoyable, but a lot of his efforts didn't
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  Speaker 1: really work out. However, he at least had Mary, who
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  Speaker 1: always seemed to draw a crowd. And when Mary walked
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  Speaker 1: down main Street of Kingsport. Everybody was totally amazed by her,
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  Speaker 1: and they were totally jealous of the man on her
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  Speaker 1: back who got to ride her.
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  Speaker 2: It was her handler. His name was Red Edridge.
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  Speaker 1: When the parade finally came to an end and Charlie
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  Speaker 1: was getting ready to shift the entire performance from parade
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  Speaker 1: to traditional circus act, read Mary's handler took Mary and
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  Speaker 1: led her over to a nearby pond to let her
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  Speaker 1: get a drink of water. Red, who was thirty eight
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  Speaker 1: years old, was new to elephant handling. In fact, Charlie
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  Speaker 1: had hired him just a day earlier when Charlie's show
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  Speaker 1: had passed through Virginia, where Red was working as a janitor.
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  Speaker 1: Animal handlers in Charlie's show were all trained to treat
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  Speaker 1: the animals gently, especially Mary. But Red was a grouchy
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  Speaker 1: person who was a very skinny guy with bright red hair,
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  Speaker 1: and he had been teased for much of his life,
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  Speaker 1: which had kind of made him a mean person. And
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  Speaker 1: so as he and Mary are walking over to this pond,
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  Speaker 1: Mary saw a watermelon on the ground and stopped to
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  Speaker 1: eat it. And as she was doing this, Red noticed
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  Speaker 1: there was a group of people kind of forming up
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  Speaker 1: around them just kind of amazed by Mary, and they
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  Speaker 1: were noticing that Red was trying to get Mary to
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  Speaker 1: go to the pond to get a drink of water,
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  Speaker 1: and she wasn't listening. She was focused on the watermelon,
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  Speaker 1: and so Red very likely started to feel insecure that
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  Speaker 1: they would think he wasn't in control of the animal,
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  Speaker 1: and so he got mad and he took his metal
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  Speaker 1: prod and he jabbed it to the side of Mary's head,
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  Speaker 1: right behind her ear, breaking her skin. Now, Mary was
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  Speaker 1: a very gentle creature, but over the past twenty four
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  Speaker 1: hours that Red had been her new handler, he had
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  Speaker 1: been cruel like this, and so when he poked her
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  Speaker 1: with that prod, it was like Mary snapped. Mary dropped
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  Speaker 1: the watermelon, turned to face Red, and Red he's startled
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  Speaker 1: by this and just kind of stares up at Mary,
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  Speaker 1: wondering what's going on. And Mary would wrap up Red
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  Speaker 1: in her long trunk and throw him into a nearby drinkstand.
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  Speaker 1: At this point, the crowd of children and other people
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  Speaker 1: from Kingsport who were watching Mary started to scream and
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  Speaker 1: run away and Mary she was not done with Red,
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  Speaker 1: who was now groaning and rolling over onto his back.
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  Speaker 1: Mary walked over to Red, and then she got up
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  Speaker 1: on her hind legs and came crashing down directly, all
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  Speaker 1: ten thousand pounds of her onto Red's skull, killing him instantly.
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  Speaker 1: Charlie heard all this commotion over near the pond, and
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  Speaker 1: he ran over and he found Mary looking totally terrified,
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  Speaker 1: and so he began to comfort her, and then he
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  Speaker 1: noticed on the ground next to her was Red's mangled body.
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  Speaker 1: And around this time the townspeople who had run in
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  Speaker 1: fear had now come back and they saw what Mary
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  Speaker 1: had done. And instead of being scared of Mary, all
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  Speaker 1: these townspeople got angry and began screaming at Mary the elephant, murderer, murderer.
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  Speaker 2: Once the news.
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  Speaker 1: Headlines fade about whatever terrible thing happened to them, the
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  Speaker 1: victims of violent crime and their families are often left
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  Speaker 1: to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives all
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  Speaker 1: on their own. This is why we started the Mister
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  Speaker 1: Ballin Foundation. It is a registered five oh one c
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  Speaker 1: three charity whose sole purpose is to help these forgotten people. However,
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  Speaker 1: we can't do it alone. Since last year, with your help,
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  Speaker 1: we were able to raise and give away to victims
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  Speaker 1: of file crime and their families nearly half a million dollars,
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  Speaker 1: and this year alone, our studio Ballin Studios is going
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  Speaker 1: to donate.
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  Speaker 2: One million dollars.
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  Speaker 1: And to be clear, the Mister Ballin Foundation does not
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  Speaker 1: make a profit zero, meaning one hundred percent of your
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  Speaker 1: donations to the foundation go to the cost, not to overhead,
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  Speaker 1: not to salaries, nothing, It's just the cost. So if
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  Speaker 2: Is just trying to do the thing we say we
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  Speaker 1: Support victims of violent crime and their families, then look
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  Speaker 1: This was, of course a worst case scenario for Charlie
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  Speaker 1: just from a business perspective, because Mary was the star
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  Speaker 1: of his show and she had just very publicly killed
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  Speaker 1: her handler. In the hours after Red's death, news of
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  Speaker 1: murderous Mary began spreading around town and to other towns nearby,
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  Speaker 1: and before long there was a mob of people trying
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  Speaker 1: to kill Mary, who had to be held back. And
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  Speaker 1: then also the sheriff of Kingsport at some point came
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  Speaker 1: up to Mary and fired his gun at her, but
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  Speaker 1: Mary was so big and her skin was so tough
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  Speaker 1: the bullets did not penetrate. Also, within hours of Red
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  Speaker 1: being killed, the town that Charlie and du circus were
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  Speaker 1: supposed to go to next sent word that they were
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  Speaker 1: not allowed to come if Mary was going to be
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  Speaker 1: with them. Charlie knew that at this point, even though
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  Speaker 1: Mary had been the star of his show, that if.
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  Speaker 2: He didn't get rid of her, he would be out
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  Speaker 2: of business. He'd be financially ruined. However, he loved Mary.
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  Speaker 2: She was his oldest and most loyal partner, and.
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  Speaker 1: He couldn't imagine giving her up. But Charlie was also
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  Speaker 1: very ambitious, and he had a whole crew of people
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  Speaker 1: in his circus that depended on doing these shows to
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  Speaker 1: make a living, and so on the night of Red's death,
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  Speaker 1: Charlie would lay awake all night just thinking about what
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  Speaker 1: he was going to do, and by early the next morning,
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  Speaker 1: Charlie had come up with a plan. Charlie ordered his
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  Speaker 1: entire circus to pack up and get back on the train.
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  Speaker 1: They were going to head to the next town called Erwin,
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  Speaker 1: and Charlie said once they got there, they would put
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  Speaker 1: on a show that no one in the world had.
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  Speaker 2: Ever seen before.
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  Speaker 1: Spark's world famous shows arrived in Irwin at about ten
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  Speaker 1: am that day, and immediately all the performers began setting
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  Speaker 1: up for this big show, which again would start with
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  Speaker 1: a parade, followed by a circus act and then a
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  Speaker 1: grand finale. Now Irwin was already packed by the time
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  Speaker 1: the circus actually arrived, because news of what Charlie had
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  Speaker 1: planned for this grand finale had reached Erwin and the
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  Speaker 1: surrounding towns, and so everybody had flooded this town see it.
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  Speaker 1: At midday, Charlie's team was ready and they began the parade,
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  Speaker 1: but Mary was not a part of the parade.
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  Speaker 2: Instead, she was chained up.
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  Speaker 1: Inside of the main circus area where the circus act
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  Speaker 1: would take place after the parade ended, And when the
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  Speaker 1: parade ended, it put on the circus act right around Mary.
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  Speaker 1: But Mary was not unchained. She was left in the
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  Speaker 1: middle of the circus, just kind of standing there, not
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  Speaker 1: sure what to do. She kind of swayed around with
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  Speaker 1: the music and trumpeted a few times, but she was
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  Speaker 1: confused and no one really knew what she was doing there.
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  Speaker 1: And then finally the main circus act came to an end,
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  Speaker 1: and most of the performers went back into their tents,
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  Speaker 1: and at this point all of the crowd who had
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  Speaker 1: been watching this circus began making their way over to
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  Speaker 1: the railroad yard. At the same time, Charlie and several
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  Speaker 1: of the animal handlers came out and grabbed the four
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  Speaker 1: other elephants who were not chained up, and they went
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  Speaker 1: over to Mary and they unchained her, and then they
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  Speaker 1: formed all the elephants up in a line with each other,
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  Speaker 1: the trunks connected to the tail of the next elephant,
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  Speaker 1: and they marched all five elephants over to the railroad yard,
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  Speaker 1: where now there was a massive crowd that also included
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  Speaker 1: the press who had shown up with their cameras ready
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  Speaker 1: to capture the grand finale. Charlie led Mary and the
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  Speaker 1: other four elephants onto the railroad tracks which were up
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  Speaker 1: on this embankment, and once they got up there, Charlie
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  Speaker 1: halted the other four elephants and sent them away with
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  Speaker 1: their handlers and.
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  Speaker 2: Left Mary all alone on the railroad tracks.
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  Speaker 1: And at this point, as Charlie is consoling her, one
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  Speaker 1: of the circus performers came over and chained Mary's back
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  Speaker 1: legs to the railroad tracks. Now, Mary was extremely well
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  Speaker 1: trained and Charlie is right there comforting her, and so
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  Speaker 1: even though she was nervous as she was getting chained up,
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  Speaker 1: she didn't try to fight it. And as this was happening,
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  Speaker 1: a railroad worker climbed into a machine called a derrick,
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  Speaker 1: which is basically a big crane that's able to lift
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  Speaker 1: heavy things like lumber off of the railroad cars. And
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  Speaker 1: so this worker in the derreck, which is on tracks,
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  Speaker 1: and he brought it over right behind Mary. And so
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  Speaker 1: once the dereck was in place, and once Mary was
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  Speaker 1: securely fastened to the tracks, another worker climbed up onto
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  Speaker 1: the crane of the dereck, so the actual arm that
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  Speaker 1: was jutting out over Mary, this worker climbed up on
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  Speaker 1: top of it and he grabbed the chain that was
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  Speaker 1: dangling off of it, and he jumped onto Mary's back,
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  Speaker 1: carrying this chain and he looped it around Mary's neck
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  Speaker 1: and secured it and then jumped off of Mary. At
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  Speaker 1: this point, Charlie, who was still holding on to Mary's
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  Speaker 1: trunk and comforting her, gave her one last embrace, and
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  Speaker 1: then turned away from her and walked down the embankment
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  Speaker 1: toward the huge crowd, who had now gone totally silent,
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  Speaker 1: sensing the grand finale was about to start. Once Charlie
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  Speaker 1: reached the crowd, he turned around to face Mary. He
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  Speaker 1: signaled the railroad worker in the dereck, who then pulled
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  Speaker 1: a lever inside of the dereck. At this point, the
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  Speaker 1: only sound that could be heard across the whole railroad
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  Speaker 1: yard was the sound of this chain that had just
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  Speaker 1: been activated slowly being retracted by the dereck, and so
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  Speaker 1: as it was, it was pulling Mary up off the
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  Speaker 1: ground by her neck, and so as it tightened around
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  Speaker 1: Mary's neck, and she realized she couldn't go anywhere because
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  Speaker 1: she's anchored to the tracks by her back legs, she
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  Speaker 1: began to panic, and she kept looking over at Charlie
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  Speaker 1: and trumpeting, trying to get someone to help her, but
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  Speaker 1: no help came, and eventually the derek tightened so much
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  Speaker 1: that it lifted Mary's front legs off the ground and
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  Speaker 1: her back legs were still on the ground, And so,
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  Speaker 1: with one last look over at Charlie, she let out
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  Speaker 1: a trumpeting call and then her back legs left the
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  Speaker 1: ground and she went silent, and she was hung there
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  Speaker 1: until she died. Mary's public execution was Charlie's big grand
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  Speaker 1: finale to this show. He had killed off this murderous
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  Speaker 1: elephant in an effort to appease the masses and save
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  Speaker 1: his circus business, and it did work. His circus continued
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  Speaker 1: to grow for a number of years. I mean, lots
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  Speaker 1: of people were interested in coming to see whatever he
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  Speaker 1: was doing because of the infamy around Mary. But after
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  Speaker 1: killing Mary, Charlie was never the same. He would actually
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  Speaker 1: retire early and then die in nineteen forty four. Today, Irwin,
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  Speaker 1: Tennessee is still known as the town that Hung the Elephant.
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  Speaker 2: So that's going to do it.
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  Speaker 1: If you enjoyed today's story, be sure to check out
• 14:24
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• 14:33
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