New York Times
February 10, 1935
The youthful residents of East 123d Street, near the murky Harlem River, were having a rather grand time at dusk yesterday shoveling the last of the recent snow into a gaping manhole.
Salvatore Condulucci, 16 years old, of 410 East 123d Street was assigned to the rim. His comrades would heap blackened slush near him, and he, carefully observing the sewer’s capacity, would give the last fine flick to each mound.
Suddenly there were signs of clogging ten feet below, where the manhole drop merged with the dark conduit leading to the river. Salvatore yelled: “hey, you guys, wait a minute,” and got down on his knees to see what was the trouble.
What he saw in the thickening dusk, almost caused him to topple into the icy cavern. For the jagged surface of the of the ice blockage below was moving; and something black was breaking through. Salvatore’s eyes widened; then he managed to leap to his feat and call his friends.
“Honest, it’s and alligator!” he exploded.
Others Look and Are Convinced.
There was a murmur of skepticism. Jimmy Mireno, 19, of 440 East 123d Street, shouldered his way to the rim and stared
“He’s right,” he said.
Frank Lonzo, 18, of 1,743 Park Avenue, looked next. He also confirmed the spectre. Then there was a great crush about the opening in the middle of the street and heads were bent low around the aperture.
The animal apparently was thrashing around in the ice, trying to get clear. When the first wave of awe had passed, the boys decided to help it out. A delegation was dispatched to the Lehigh Stove and Repair Shop at 441 East 123d Street, “W want some clothes-line,” demanded the delegation, and got it.
Young Condulucci, an expert on Western movies, fashioned a slip knot. With the others watching breathlessly, he dangled the noose into the sewer, and after several tantalizing near-catches, looped it about the ‘gator’s neck. Then he pulled hard. There was a grating of rough leathery skin against jumbled ice. But the job was too much for one youth. The others grabbed the rope and all pulled.
Slowly, with its curving tail twisting weakly, the animal was dragged from the snow, ten feet though the dank cavern, and to the street, where it lay, non-committal; it was not in Florida, that was clear.
And therefore, when one of the boys sought to loosen the rope, the creature opened its jaws and snapped, not with the robust vigor of a healthy, well-sunned alligator, but with the fury of a sick, badly treated one. Curiosity and sympathy turned to enmity.
“Let ‘im have it!” the cry went up.
Rescuers Then Kill It.
So the shovels that had been used to pile show on the alligator’s head were now to rain blows upon it. The ‘gator’s tail swished about a few last times. Its jaws clashed weakly. But it was in no mood for a real struggle after its icy incarceration. It died on the spot.
Triumphantly, but not without the inevitable reaction of sorrow the boys took their victim to the Lehigh Stove and Repair Shop. There it was found to weigh 125 pounds; they said it measured seven and a half or eight feet. It became at once the greatest attraction the store had ever had. The whole neighborhood milled about, and finally, a call for the police reached a nearby station.
But there was little for the hurrying policeman to do. The strange visitor was quite dead; and no charge could be preferred against it or against its slayers. The neighbors were calmed with little trouble and speculation as to where the ‘gator had come from was rife.
There were no pet shops in the vicinity; that theory was ruled out almost at once. Finally, the theories simmered down to that of a passing boat. Plainly a steamer from the mysterious Everglades, or thereabouts, had been passing 123d Street, and the alligator had fallen overboard.
Shunning the hatefully cold water, it had swum toward shore and found only the entrance to the conduit. Then after another 150 yards through the torrent of melting snow — and by that time it was half dead — it had arrived under the open manhole.
Half-dead, yes, the neighborhood conceded. But still alive enough for a last splendid opening and snapping of its jaws. The boys were ready to swear to that.
At about 9 P.M. when the tired mothers had succeeded in getting most of their alligator conscious youngsters to bed, a Department of Sanitation truck rumbled up to the store and made off with the prize. Its destination was Barren Island and an incinerator
