Black Diamond (elephant)

Black Diamond (1898-1929) was an Indian elephant owned by the Al G. Barnes Circus. Weighing nine tons, he was believed to be the largest Indian elephant in captivity. A good worker but prone to fits of temper, he was generally kept chained to two calm female elephants during parades through the towns the circus visited. On October 12, 1929, while being unloaded in Corsicana, Texas, Black Diamond went on a rampage, injuring his long-time former trainer, H. D. (Curley) Pritchett, and Pritchett's current employer, Eva Speed Donohoo (or Donohue).

Ms. Donohoo was not the first person Black Diamond had killed, so after his recapture he was deemed too dangerous to continue with the circus and the decision was made to put him down. Numerous ideas were floated but his size made most of them unworkable; the final decision was to shoot him. As many as 50, perhaps more than 100, shots were required before Black Diamond died.

His mounted head, on display in a museum in Houston, Texas for many years, was eventually acquired by a local Corsicana businessman, who had been a five-year-old boy in the crowd that day in October of 1929. Allegedly, one of his feet was made into a pedestal for a bust of Hans Nagle, Houston's first zookeeper, the man who fired the final shot that brought Black Diamond down.

In 2006, singer/songwriter Al Evans wrote "Black Diamond's Song," a lament from the pachyderm's perspective. [http://www.alevans.com]

ources

* "Black Diamond." Time Magazine, October 28, 1929.
* "Black Diamond." [http://www.roadsideamerica.com/pet/diamond.html Roadside America] .
* "Killing Rampage: Man Marks 70th Anniversary of Circus Elephant's Wild Run." "Corsicana Daily Sun", October 13, 1999