Remembering Topsy's Deadly Day

27 May 1902

It’s 1902. The year that the Teddy Bear was introduced, named after President Theodore Roosevelt. The Ringling Brothers Circus tours the United States on a train consisting of 65 railroad cars. The ‘Electric Theatre,’ the first full-time movie theatre in the United States, opens in Los Angeles.

It’s also early in the morning of 27 May 1902. A drunkard, Jesse Fielding Blount, crawls under the menagerie tent’s canvas walls belonging to the Forepaugh Circus, which is performing in Brooklyn, New York.

Image from St Paul Globe newspaper, 16 June 1902, of Topsy forced into chains and head harness.

Blount approaches each elephant in the Forepaugh herd to wish them a ‘Good Morning!’ He slaps Topsy’s trunk and taunts her with an empty whisky glass. Alcohol is often used to control the elephants. But the glass is empty. Some newspapers report that Blount burns her trunk with a lit cigarette. Topsy defends herself by picking up Blount, throwing him to the ground, and crushing him dead. Later in Poughkeepsie, she attacks Louis J. Dondero after he allegedly ‘tickles’ her with a branch.

The Forepaugh Circus sell Topsy as she is now known as a ‘man-killing’ elephant. She becomes the property of Frederic Thompson and Elmer ‘Skip’ Dundy, who are building Luna Park, one of America’s first amusement parks, on Coney Island, New York. Thompson and Dundy engage Frederick ‘Whitey’ Ault as Topsy’s keeper. He beats Topsy with a bullhook as he forces her to help build Luna Park. The police arrest Ault after various incidents involving cruelty to Topsy, which are reported in the local newspaper. Thompson and Dundy decided to fire Ault and kill Topsy.

On January 4, 1903, Topsy is poisoned with carrots laced with Potassium Cyanide. She is electrocuted to death with 6,600 volts of electricity. The film of her killing, ‘Electrocuting an Elephant,’ is available to watch on YouTube. It has been viewed more than 1.7 million times.

I am remembering Topsy as, 123 years ago today, when she defended herself against Blount’s assault by killing him, which tripped the events that led to her cruel and macabre murder.

2025 is the 150th anniversary of Topsy’s birth somewhere in Southeast Asia. To mark this anniversary, I am publishing a new book, 2025: The Year of Topsy. I explain why her life and death matter today. Look for my announcement on how you can buy a copy. I am only printing 50 copies. Each one is signed and numbered by me. Look for my announcement here.

Thank you for helping me tell Topsy’s story. Let’s make sure she is remembered as more than the elephant who was electrocuted to death in 1903.