50 years or ago, a bunch of King Cobras got loose in rural Missouri. All were killed by residents with hoes. Too lazy to Google it but it is a good read.
Here's the story:
August 1953 - 1421 St. Louis Street - A teenaged customer who was upset about a dead exotic fish that he bought at the Mowrer Animal Company pet store went to the back of the store and released a crate of black snakes, thinking they were harmless.
Cobra Encounter #1: August 15, 1953 - 1420 E. Olive Street - Roland Parrish was working in his yard when he spotted a snake in the grass. When Parrish approached the reptile, the snake stood its ground, raised its head, and spread a delicate hood about its head and lunged at Parrish. Parrish struck first and killed the snake with his garden hoe.
Cobra Encounter #2: One week later, Parrish's neighbor across the street, Wesley Rose, heard his bulldog barking. Rose looked outside and saw his dog wrestling with a snake in the shrubbery. Rose saw what kind of snake it was, pulled his dog off of the snake, and took a garden hoe to the back of the snake who had reared up, ready to fight. The snake was paralyzed, so Rose pulled it out and killed it. Rose called the police, who took the snake carcass to headquarters and analyzed it.
It was determined the snake was a Naja naja, an indian spectacled cobra that is native to southern Asia and is capable of carrying enough venom to kill an adult human.
People began to become suspicious of the Mowrer Animal Company, which was located about a block away from the Parrish and Rose homes. The proprietor, Reo Mowrer, admitted he kept cobras at the shop but denied that any had escaped.
Cobra Encounter #3: August 30, 1953 - 1410 E. Trafficway - Eight days later, Ralph Moore found a cobra in his yard (two blocks from the Mowrer Animal Company). Another hoe was used to kill the snake.
Cobra Encounter #4: The same night, Willis Murdaugh caught a glimpse of a snake as he drove through his neighborhood. He backed up his car to get a better look at the serpent and saw the snake rise up, open its hood and start swaying back and forth. Murdaugh struck the snake with a jack handle and ran over the snake several times with his car, killing it.
Cobra Encounter #5: Early September 1953 - 1420 E. Olive Street - Mrs. Howard McCoy was warned by her daughter that a snake had been seen gliding into their garage. Mrs. McCoy grabbed a hoe and entered the garage. The snake was coiled up in a corner, and Mrs. McCoy dispatched it with her hoe.
Cobra Encounter #6: September 9, 1953 - Another cobra was spotted by neighbors near Mowrer's shop, who caught the reptile before police arrived.
Cobra Encounter #7: Later that day, across the street from Mowrer's shop, L.H. Stockton saw a snake coming out of his garden. Stockton threw a rock at it but missed his target and he watched in horror as the 4-foot long snake crawled through an opening in the foundation of his house and disappeared. The police were called, and Chief Frank Pike tried to use a 10-foot pole with a rope noose underneath the house to snare the snake but failed. Stockton and his landlord gave the police permission to bombard the crawlspace with tear gas. A gas grenade was set off underneath the house and the cobra came out. Officer Jack Strope aimed a shotgun at the snake but the weapon jammed. Strope grabbed the pistol from his holster and shot the snake five times; however, the snake still managed to raise its hooded head. Chief Pike used his "snake catcher" pole to capture the snake with the rope, and the snake was killed with another hoe.
By now, the entire town of Springfield was in an uproar. The City Health Director Del Caywood ordered Mowrer to move his stock out of the city, but the scare wasn't over.
Cobra Encounter #8: September 16, 1953 - H.K. Patton saw a snake on Chestnut Street near National Avenue. Patton aimed his car at the snake and ran over it, backed up and tried it again. The snake rose up, spread its hood and tried to strike at Patton's car. Patrons from the nearby Twilight Inn helped to trap the serpent and police officers crushed its head with a large rock.
September 28, 1953 - Life magazine publishes a story about "The Big Ozark Cobra Hunt".
Near the end of September, the public outcry grew even larger and Caywood ordered anti-venom shipped in as a precaution against a bite.
Cobra Encounter #9: October 1, 1953 - 1221 St. Louis Street - Dan Funkhouser found a cobra outside his plumbing and heating firm. With the help of his employee, Hardy Teague, and a trusty hoe, the snake was killed.
October 5, 1953 - Caywood commandeered a truck equipped with a public address system and cruised the neighborhood while a record of "Indian snake-charming music" blared from the truck's roof-mounted loudspeakers.
Cobra Encounter #10: 600 N. Prospect Avenue: Even though this shouldn't have worked (cobras don't have ears), 45 minutes later another cobra was spotted and killed near the Reynolds Manufacturing Company.
Cobra Encounter #11: October 25, 1953 - 1400 Block of E. Olive Street - The 11th and final officially confirmed confrontation with a cobra ended with the snake being captured alive and put on display in a glass cage at Dickerson Park Zoo. The snake died two months later.
Mowrer denied that he had anything to do with the snakes being released and died in the 1970s before the story could be cleared up.
In 1988, the angry teenager (now a grown man) who released the snakes, came forward and admitted what he did.
There's apparently a display up at Drury with one of the Cobras on show (dead I would assume)
