People who live in Springville, Missouri, call it the “Great
Cobra Scare of ‘53.” It started Saturday, August 15th. One of the residents
killed an odd-looking snake. He turned it over to a local science teacher, who
declared it to be an Indian cobra. Over the next few weeks, nearly a dozen of
these deadly, decidedly non-native serpents turned up. Terrified townsfolk
huddled indoors or patrolled in groups, armed with garden implements. Someone even
fixed a speaker on a truck and drove through town playing snake charmer music,
hoping to lure out the vipers. They all relaxed at the first hard freeze that
fall, knowing the cobras’ reign was finally over. But no one knew the rest of
the story for another 35 years, when a man finally came clean. He admitted he’d
released a cage full of snakes behind a pet store when he was a boy, in an act
of revenge against the owner.
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