Animals: Scooped Lions

The circus played our town one day; Three bengal tigers got away. The manager looked straight at me;Said he: “Your opportunity! “Somebody’s got to get them cats, “Somebody’s got to go. . . .” —Bert Williams

Notorious throughout the land last fortnight was Denver M. Wright, the man who wanted to hunt lions in Missouri (TIME, Oct. 17). Unknown to readers of the story in the newspapers were two Missouri newshawks whose rivalry was to reduce the episode from the bizarre to the ridiculous.

Into the Ozark foothills in a truck went Denver M. Wright one day last week. With him. beside the two young lions he had bought from a circus for $75, were two friends, a barber and a plumber. Somewhere in the hills were his two sons, lost. Behind him, horrified, was the St. Louis suburb of Brentwood, where he had long been respected as a manufacturer and a member of the school board. All around him was hostility. In Mississippi County waited a sheriff with an insanity warrant. In Cape Girardeau County waited 800 vigilantes determined that he should hunt no lions there. Over the rough roads of Scott County bounced the truck, stopping now and then while Hunter Wright begged shelter at a farm house. Always there was only one bed. “It’s making me look like an inhuman ogre,” cried he.

To Commerce, Mo., went the expedition. There Hunter Wright learned that newsreel photographers had withdrawn from the chase, that his wife was on her way from Brentwood to stop the hunt, that a game warden had abducted his 14-year-old son Charles. “The boy and I are going out in the country a piece,” said the warden. “By the time we’re back maybe Wright will listen to reason.”

In Commerce, Hunter Wright found one friend. Tillman Anderson, landowner, offered him the use of a small island in the Mississippi. Off to the island went hunters, dogs and the two lions, Nell & Bess.

Into the complicated life of Hunter Wright now intruded the Press. Covering the lion hunt for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was its energetic crime-news reporter, Alvin Goldstein, 1925 Pulitzer Prizewinner (for helping solve the Leopold & Loeb crime). The Post-Dispatch’s up-&-coming rival, the Star-&-Times, had engaged United Press Correspondent Leland Chesley. Their rivalry became a feud when Reporter Goldstein claimed exclusive rights to take pictures and Hunter Wright supported his claim. The rival newshawks chartered separate boats.

“Gentlemen,” said Hunter Wright as he opened the cage on the island, brandishing a chair and a pistol like famed Lion-tamer Clyde Beatty, but with his friends training rifles on the beasts, “this is the biggest moment of my life.” The lions stood up, yawned, slunk out. Seven hounds cowered and whined. Off into the thick willows wandered the lions. Hunter Wright, gleeful, promised them a four-hour start, suggested lunch. At this point he found Newshawk Chesley busily taking photographs. Newshawk Goldstein complaining about the loss of his plates, threatening to break his rival’s camera. “Please!” begged Hunter Wright.

Back to Commerce raced the reporters with the story of the lions’ release, for the early editions. Newshawk Chesley won. Then he slipped back to the island accompanied by a deputy sheriff, a Cape Girardeau reporter and a boatman named Walter Wise. They landed on the island out of sight of Wright’s party. Newshawk Chesley wanted to take some more pictures of the lions before the hunt began.

The deputy sheriff and the smalltown reporter elected to stay in the boat. With Wise carrying the submachine gun and Chesley a pistol (to signal the boat) they plunged into the willow tangles.

To the U. P. Correspondent Chesley sent the following account of his expedition: “After about 15 minutes we found their tracks. We followed them for 30 minutes or so through heavy woods and underbrush and then lost them. We looked around a while but couldn’t pick up the trail. I told Wise I would go over to the shore to see if the boat was nearby. As I reached a wooded patch near the shore I suddenly found that I was between two lions. I yelled for Wise. He came and shot them. The second one was crouching . . . when Wise shot. It seemed to be excited. . . .

“Then I signalled the boat. We decided to take the lions with us. . . . We headed north, away from Commerce, and put in at Thebes, Ill. From there I telephoned the story. . . . Three hours later we returned to Commerce with the lions. The Post-Dispatch and the A. P. were scooped by three editions.”

Home from the hill to Brentwood went disconsolate Hunter Wright. Said he: “If anybody ever says lion hunt to me again I’ll. . . .”