Topsy dreams of her mum and the jungle where she was born somewhere in Southeast Asia, but she is halfway around the world in Brooklyn, New York. She is chained up with the elephant herd of the Forepaugh-Sells Circus in the menagerie tent.
It’s early in the morning of 27 May 1902. A drunkard, Jesse Fielding Blount, crawls under the tent’s canvas walls. He approaches each elephant in turn wishing them a “Good Morning!” He slaps Topsy’s trunk and wakes her from her dream. He taunts her with an empty whisky glass. Alcohol is often used to control the elephants. But the glass is empty. Some newspapers report Blount burns her trunk with a lit cigarette. Topsy defends herself by picking up Blount, throwing him to the ground, and crushing him dead. Seven months later, Topsy is poisoned with Potassium Cyanide and electrocuted to death with 6,600 volts of electricity.
Topsy the Elephant is the shocking true story that must be told. I’m researching and writing her biography. I’m also working with designer, Richard de Pesando, on a graphic novel about Topsy to reach a different audience.
We are publishing a short 20-page graphic novel to mark this pivotal moment in May that led to Topsy’s cruel death at one of America’s first amusement parks, Luna Park, on Coney Island, New York on 4 January 1903.
Our booklet, Topsy the True Story of an Asian Elephant and the Men Who Betrayed Her, is an exclusive, limited edition self-published booklet. We want to bring awareness to Topsy and her miserable life and cruel death by raising the necessary funds for our project.
Please visit my website ( https://www.topsytheelephant.com/topsy-shop-and-support/ ) to order your copy of our short graphic novel and help us tell Topsy’s story.
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