Bernard Shea

1: Empress (Gypsy) (attacked)

1. 1885: elephant trainer Bernard Shea attacked by Empress (Gypsy). Shea rode Gypsy to a stream so she could cool herself. There, Gypsy’s Trunk grabbed Shea and shoved him underwater. Bernard Shea Survived. Wriggling free, Shea subdued Gypsy in a “brutal” manner, which Johnston does not detail. “Shea quit the show after this incident, knowing it was only a matter of time before (Gypsy) would kill him.”

In 1896, during a Chicago show, Shea was away and animal handler Frank Scott ignored warnings to leave Gypsy alone. He exercised her. Scott climbed onto Gypsy’s back and sat on her head, the usual custom for riding an elephant. Riding down an alley, “Gypsy caught (Scott) with her Trunk and hurled him to the ground,” according to the Johnston article. “Using her front Feet, she stomped the life out of him. Shea was contacted at once. He hurried back to the show to be greeted by Gypsy with happy snorting and trumpeting. She held him in her Trunk gently, and appeared to be overjoyed to see him.” But Gypsy’s love for trainer Bernard Shea was a temperamental one. On a hot day in Smith’s Grove, Ky., Shea rode Gypsy to a stream so she could cool herself. There, Gypsy’s Trunk grabbed Shea and shoved him underwater. Wriggling free, Shea subdued Gypsy in a “brutal” manner, which Johnston does not detail. “Shea quit the show after this incident, knowing it was only a matter of time before (Gypsy) would kill him.”