7.07.2011

Tragic

I'm not sure whether to thank my contact in Denmark or not with his links about Baby Roger. They included a trove of newspaper clippings that it astounds me I hadn't found during my year's research on Roger.
They chronicle his deteriorating circumstances at the zoo and are ripping my heart out. Although the city was aware of how bad things were, they didn't know what to do with their "Baby" and life became unbearable all the way around.
The articles that I had read only referred to the famous fishook incident, but there was so much more going on.
This, of course, means the end of the booklet has to be changed, and the movie has to be recut as well.
More when I recover...

7.06.2011

Bombshell!!!

I had an unexpected email from Joachim Endres of the European Elephant group asking for info on all the Alices at RWP Zoo here in Providence. I told him I would go through my info as soon as I returned home. But, in our conversation he was able to give me some dynamite info on Baby Roger that I hadn't tracked down.
According to him, the species survival plan studbook shows- Baby Roger (from 12.05.1893 to 1903; transfer to Sig. > Soutelle Circus due to aggression)
. I had no idea what happened to him after he went to Wm. Bartel's exotic animal holding pens in Yonkers, NY.
In his next email, Endres gave me this bombshell link fingering Roger's last days... They came sooner than I had thought.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=inVcAAAAIBAJ&sjid=M1cNAAAAIBAJ&pg=4625,2091275&dq=elephant+roger&hl=en
Providence's "Evening Tribune" announced that "Baby Roger now listed as Murderer".
He also listed a number of links with records of Roger's misbehavior before the incident. Obviously this will require revising the Roger book and even the end of the film...
More as the story progresses...