Don't poke the rhino: Part 1
The 1874 newspaper story that unleashed mayhem in Central Park
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Release Date: August 26, 2025
A moment-by-moment account of carnage
Readers of the New York Daily Herald woke up Monday, November 9, 1874, to find a horrifying story covering the paper’s entire front page: “Awful Calamity”, read the bold headline, “The Wild Animals Broken Loose from Central Park. Terrible Scenes of Mutilation. A Shocking Sabbath Carnival of Death. Savage Brutes at Large.”
The dramatic six-column piece, written by a reporter who happened to be outside Central Park’s menagerie when the “carnival of death” commenced, meticulously laid out the events of the night for stunned readers – “the bursting forth of the most ferocious of the beasts within the menagerie of the Park, the awful slaughter that ensued, the exciting conflicts between the infuriated animals, the frightful deaths that followed, the destruction of property and the fearful and general excitement.”
The reporter’s lengthy dispatch was vivid, graphic and, given the horrors he’d witnessed, teetered understandably between a telling of the cold hard facts and a deeply personal commentary:
“It would be vain of the writer to presume himself capable of picturing the harrowing scene of which he was a distressed and involuntary spectator. To give, for instance, an adequate conception of the frightful incident where Lincoln, the Numidian lion, urged to indescribable fury by the bullets that pierced his flanks and shoulders jumped into a landaulet occupied by a nursemaid and her four young charges, mangling the delicate little things past all sign of recognition, would be a difficult task.
But let me endeavor to describe the fearful scenes with some attempt at order. My head is so confused and my nerves unstrung with the fearful scenes through which I have passed that I confess I am hardly equal to picturing them.”
Much of the first-hand account would depict scenes too violent to be printed just a few decades later. Even readers of the day — even readers today —well used to sensational stories filled with gruesome details of crime scenes and war, were likely traumatized.
And for good reason. This wasn’t happening in some far-off land, or distant battlefield, it was taking place in the very heart of New York — the Central Park menagerie, and people were dying.
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Remarkably, the Herald newspaperman was there when the inciting event occurred, “an apparently small cause for a huge and horrible result.”
A young zookeeper by the name of Chris Anderson poked Pete, the rhinoceros, with a cane. In the eye, and the armored beast took exception.
“The short, angry, squeaking cry of the rhinoceros, like sudden blasts on a fishhorn, were heard amid the sound of snapping bars and crashing planks. It at once struck me that the huge animal was breaking down the walls of his pen in the endeavor doubtless to reach this tormentor.”
And reach him Pete did, trampling young Chris into the ground before goring the keeper to death with his mighty horn.
The carnage had begun. Within minutes, the rhinoceros had broken down the cages of other animals in the vicinity, and soon the menagerie grounds became a killing field as the big cats and other carnivorous beasts were unleashed on the gawking, still unbelieving crowds.
“I saw a young man fall from a blow of the awful paw, and another crushed to earth beneath the beast’s weight. The crowd fled in all directions, but the lion did not pursue. Planting his paws upon one of the bodies he filled the air with the fearful rumble of his roar.”
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Panic on the street
At some point over night, and before the Herald’s print deadline, Mayor William Havemeyer issued a statement, which was included in the front page reporting:
All citizens, except members of the National Guard, are enjoined to keep within their houses or residences until the wild animals now at large are captured or killed. Notice of the release from this order will be spread by the firing of cannon in City Hall Park, Tomkins Square, Madison Square, the Round and Macomb’s Dam Bridge, Obedience to this order will secure a speedy end to the state of siege occasioned by the calamity of this evening.
An account will be opened at City Hall of the city of New York for contributions to the sufferers.
Within hours of the sensational story hitting the streets, the neighborhoods surrounding Central Park, New York City’s Upper West Side and Upper East Side, were in panic. Families barricaded themselves in residences. Groups of armed men gathered in protection of neighborhoods, Police officers and emergency personnel from across the city roamed the streets in search of both victims and aggressors.
Given the length of the Herald’s piece — it came in at over 10,000 words — not to mention the overwhelming and gratuitously graphic descriptions and imagery, it’s likely few New Yorkers actually read the entire piece. Most of what they knew about the horrifying incident probably came from word of mouth, one neighbor to the next, each passing on a slightly different, more gratuitous version of the reported truth.
And that was a fatal mistake.
Because beneath a list of the dead — both human and animal; a full accounting of beasts still marauding the city’s streets; and a thrilling description of how General Duyree “saved hundreds of children in the vicinity of Thomkins square from being devoured”, the following paragraph appeared:
Of course, the entire story given above is a pure fabrication. Not one word of it is true. Not a single act or incident described has taken place. It is a huge hoax, a wild romance, or whatever other epithet of utter untrustworthiness our readers may choose to apply to it. It is simply a fancy picture which crowded upon the mind of the writer a few days ago while he was gazing through the iron bars of the cages of the wild animals in the menagerie at Central Park. Yet as each of its horrid but perfectly natural sequences impressed themselves upon his mind, the question presented itself; How is New York prepared to meet such a catastrophe? How easily could it occur any day of the week? How much, let the citizens ponder, depends on the indiscretion of even one of the keepers? A little oversight, a trifling imprudence might lead to the actual happening of all, and even worse than has been pictured. From causes quite as insignificant the greatest calamities of history have sprung. Horror, devastation and widespread slaughter of human beings have had small mishaps for parent time and again. 1
Yes, the entire story was a sensationalized, ill-thought and perhaps regrettable hoax.
The panic, however was real. And so was the outrage.
It would take nearly two decades for the true story of how the city was duped, and by whom, to come out in the open. By then, many New Yorkers had already moved on and the hoax was forgotten.
Many, but not all.
Copyright 2025 Lori Olson White
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End Notes
1 “Awful Calamity. The Wild Animals Broken Loose from Central Park. Terrible Scenes of Mutilation. A Shocking Sabbath Carnival of Death. Savage Brutes at Large. Awful Combats Between the Beasts and the Citizens. The Killed and Wounded. General Duryee’s Magnificent Police Tactics. Bravery and Panic. How the Catastrophe was Brought About – Affrighting Incidents. Proclamation by the Mayor. Governor Dix Shoots the Bengal Tiger in the Streets. Consternation in the City”, The New York Daily Herald, November 9, 1874, P.3.
We are so inclined to believe what we read, especially when that article was written. I can see how it took years for the public to accept it was not real. The power of the pen.
Thank you, Lori, for bringing this unforgettable episode to light. The 1874 Central Park menagerie hoax is a powerful reminder of how frightening and how fragile our trust in what we read can be.
Psychologists have referred to this phenomenon as the Illusory Truth Effect. The more we see a claim, even a false one, the more likely we are to believe it simply because it feels familiar. Another factor is proportionality bias. When people hear about something shocking, they instinctively assign it a dramatic cause, even if one does not exist.
In today’s age of fake news, it is even more crucial to pause and ask: Is this true, or is it just a gripping story that feeds our emotions? Your post takes us back to a time when reality and fiction blurred with devastating effect. It is something we would do well to remember now more than ever.