Gator Bait

That’s New Caney wrecker driver “Slinky” Knox helping Montgomery County constables remove an eight foot gator from the San Jacinto River bridge on Hwy 242.  The picture came from one of a dozen or more stories about alligators in the area this summer.  Just last week, a teenager was attacked by a gator while swimming in a park in Chambers County, and his dad was bitten by the same gator when he jumped in to save him.  Both are still in the hospital.

You would think that the word would have gotten around, but in spite of  signs posted at Burkhart’s Marina in Orange,

 a guy named Tommie Woodward jumped in the water about two a.m. on Friday morning – right into the jaws of a 12-foot gator.  News stories don’t say so specifically, but given the time, and testimony that he jumped into the water in spite of the signs and being verbally urged not to, alcohol was probably involved. 

Not to speak ill of the dead, but a look at his picture makes me think that Darwin’s Law was also a factor.

 He did achieve a certain level of fame, becoming the first alligator attack fatality in Texas in over two hundred years.