CROCLIST: NYC's Sewer Alligators=Truth or Hoax???

[sgrenard]

It may never be known but found this on a website www.unmuseum.org  (The
Unnatural Museum)



So is there any truth to this urban legend? Surprisingly, yes. In the
early1930's a number of alligators were seen swimming in the Bronx River.
Several dead gators were found along the banks and a few, small, live ones
were captured. Then on February 10, 1935, the New York Times reported:

ALLIGATOR FOUND IN UPTOWN SEWER

Youths Shoveling Snow into Manhole See the Animal Churning in Icy Water

According to the story, several teenage boys had been clearing East 123rd
Street by shoveling snow into an open manhole when they saw something large
and alive in the water below. It turned out to be a seven-foot plus
alligator that somehow had gotten stuck. The boys used a rope to pull it to
the surface. Upon reaching safety, the ungrateful reptile snapped at one of
them. The teens responded by beating the animal to death with their shovels.
At a nearby auto repair shop the dead animal was weighed and found to be 125
pounds. Later, the Department of Sanitation picked up the carcass and
incinerated it. The Times speculated that the animal had escaped from a ship
traveling from "the mysterious Everglades," swam into Harlem River and then
came150 yards up a storm conduit to where it was found.

Other evidence indicates that the gator wasn't just a single escaped rogue,
however. Several years later, according to Robert Daley's 1959 book, The
World Beneath the City, a colony of alligators had settled comfortably into
the sewers of New York. It was in 1935 that the animals were first reported
to Superintendent of Sewers Teddy May. At first, May refused to believe
reports from his inspectors that they were being menaced by the
sub-terrainian reptiles. "I says to myself," May recalled in Daley's book,
"them guys been drinking in there." May was so sure that the allegations of
alligators were false that he refused to approve reports mentioning the
animals. He also sent men to watch the inspectors to see how they are
getting a hold of alcohol on the job. When no reports of smuggled whiskey
appeared, May decided to take a look at the claims himself. "I'll go down
there and prove to youse guys that there ain't no alligators in my sewers,"
May said.

Once he examined the situation close at hand, however, May had a change of
heart. He saw a number of alligators himself. Most were about two feet in
length and lived in the smaller pipes that emptied into the trunk lines
below major streets. Mays, having realized the gators were a real problem,
started a program to get rid of them. Many were killed by rat poison, others
were shooed into the trunk lines where the rapidly flowing water carried
them out to sea. A few were killed by overzealous sewer inspectors using .22
rifles and pistols in what must have been one of the strangest sub-terrain
hunts ever. According to Daley's book, all the gators were dead in a few
months.

It seems this account from Daley's book might well be the source of the 60's
urban legend. Is the story true, though? Much of Daley's book comes from
stories told by Teddy May. May, a colorful character with an active
imagination, had a reputation for embellishing stories. This leads some
skeptics to believe that the gator story in The World Beneath the City might
be complete fiction.


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A Partial Bibliography

The World Beneath the City by Robert Daley, 1959.

Unexplained! by Jerome Clark, Visible Ink, Inc. 1999.

ALLIGATOR FOUND IN UPTOWN SEWER, New York Times, February 10, 1935.