The original Tiger King
January 9, 2021
Today s best articles
Daily business briefing
Solving COVID newsletter
Two policemen shouldered their way through a mob of onlookers, following the sounds of men fighting and sea lions barking. The officers had been patrolling the Lincoln Park Zoo when they d heard the commotion break out in the distance and set off to investigate. The zoo was popular in Chicago in 1919 â there wasn t much else to do on a hot summer s day. And though most had come to see the animals, this crowd was watching a different spectacle entirely.
When the officers finally got ahead of the crowd in front of the sea lion pit, they saw a sight more bizarre than any creature in the park: Cy DeVry, the head animal keeper and director of the Lincoln Park Zoo, with his sleeves rolled up, fists balled, and a foot planted atop a dazed man on the ground.