Storyteller's Cabin
Kingsport officials quickly "arrested" Mary and staked her by the county jail, where more onlookers gathered around her. Meanwhile, Charlie Sparks and his staff had a gut-wrenching decision to make concerning Mary's fate.
In those days, "rogue" elephants who injured or killed someone could quietly have their names changed and be sold to another circus. But the story of Eldridge's gruesome death had spread like wildfire throughout northeastern Tennessee. The newspapers had already nicknamed the elephant "Murderous Mary," and claimed that she had killed before. The mayor of nearby Johnson City, the circus's next stop, had banned Sparks World Famous Shows from setting foot in the city as long as Mary was with them, and more cities were almost certainly to follow. What's worse, it was rumored that a lynch mob was on its way to Kingsport to kill Mary - armed with an old Civil War cannon.
Charlie was a smart businessman, and he knew that, if he didn't satisfy the public's desire for swift justice, his show could be financially ruined. But his final decision ultimately came down to his concern for public safety. "A human's life is something I don't want charged against me," he later claimed in a 1924 interview. "If people in the business get hurt, that's our lookout. But with an outsider - that's different."
With great reluctance, Charlie decided that Mary had to be put to death publicly. But how? Shooting her in the four soft spots on her head would be both difficult and dangerous with the large crowds that would certainly gather around to watch. Mary was too smart to eat food laced with cyanide, and there wasn't enough electricity in that part of Tennessee to electrocute her. Even more gruesome scenarios were brought up and quickly dismissed.
Finally, he decided that the only "humane" way to execute Mary would be to hang her. Clinchfield Railroad had huge, 100-ton derricks that they used to unload lumber off their freight cars. If these derricks could handle those heavy items, they could surely handle a five-ton elephant.
But then more problems arose for Sparks. The summer of 1916 had brought torrential rains that caused floods and wash outs all over the mountains. Clinchfield refused to send a derrick car all the way to Kingsport when an emergency might require it south over the Blue Ridge Mountains. If Charlie wanted to use a derrick car, he would have to take his circus south to Clinchfield's headquarters and repair facilities in Erwin, Tennessee.
And so, on the morning of September 13, the circus train carrying Mary and the rest of Sparks World Famous Shows chugged south toward Erwin, and that city's date with history.
