Storyteller's Cabin
Written by: Craig Dominey
Before the days when television, radios and VCRs beamed countless entertainment options into even the most remote American communities, the traveling circus was small town America's ticket to worlds of magic and wonder. Each year, young and old alike would excitedly fill the streets to watch the parade of gaily colored wagons, clowns, performers and animals roll into town. As railroad systems spread into the outermost corners of rural America, more circuses of all sizes fought for the hard earned dollars of American families.
But when Sparks World Famous Shows, a mid-sized, 15-rail car circus, rolled into the mountainous community of Erwin, Tennessee on September 13, 1916, they promised a bizarre spectacle that no circus had ever offered before. After the matinee performance, they promised Erwin's citizens a free, public hanging of who was then the most notorious killer in Tennessee, "Murderous Mary..."
...A circus elephant.
What you are about to read is a true story. Some events leading up to the hanging of Murderous Mary have been clouded over time by faulty memories, the oral tradition and outright lies and exaggerations. To this day, some of Erwin's citizens refuse to even discuss the incident.
But there is little doubt that an elephant was hung in the Erwin rail yards on September 13, 1916 - an event that would forever label this little known community as the "Town That Hung the Elephant."
