The Untold Story of Kings Island's Fatal Lion Mauling
Originally published 1-5-2018
In 1974, Kings Island opened their season spectacularly with an entire new land and a 100-acre large star attraction. The land was called "Lion Country Safari" and the star attraction was the Safari Monorail, which took guests through multiple wildlife enclosures. While the story of the safari is fascinating, today we will be focusing on an often glossed-over and forgotten story from the safari, for in 1976, the safari was the location of Kings Island's first fatality.
In the 1960's and '70's, drive-through safari parks were all the rage. Lion Country Safari Inc. operated a grand total of six safari parks in 1974 (located in West Palm Beach, FL, Atlanta, Dallas, Irvine, CA, and Kings Dominion and Kings Island). But unlike most other drive through safaris, Kings Island's was unique in that you rode a monorail through the massive preserve.
"We needed something that could handle many more people here," said Warren Taylor in the Cincinnati Enquirer. Taylor was the manager of Kings Island's Lion Country in its inaugural year. "We call this thing a monorail, but actually it is a rubber-tire electric train, run on two rails."
Guests could pay a fee of $3 for adults, $1.75 for children and board the air-conditioned monorail trains for a 20-25 minute ride through the enclosure. A total of 362 animals roamed the preserve in three separate sections: Umfolozi Reserve, Serengeti Plains, and Tsavo Park. The total construction cost? $7 million. Adjusted for inflation, that's about $35 million.
A group of rangers worked at the safari year-round. According to a Lion Country Safari job description sheet, duties "involve[d] the care of large herbivores and cornivores [sic]...This include[d] feeding, cleaning of barns and display areas, observing behavior and other related duties as required."
Enter John McCann, 20, of Morrow, a Lion Country Safari ranger and the focus of our story today.
Newspaper coverage of the accident on July 25 was sparse. The Cincinnati Enquirer's initial report did not even mention that Lion Country Safari was located at Kings Island.
John McCann's autopsy revealed that he had died due to "asphyxiation due to animal bites." Among many other injuries inflicted from the lions, he had suffered a fractured windpipe, which was apparently his ultimate cause of death.
Dan Aylward, a Kings Island spokesman, dealt with the media. Aylward emphasized that park officials were doing a complete investigation into the mauling. Many reporters were asking the same question: "Why was McCann out of his jeep when he had been killed?" Aylward did not have an answer. "We may never know," he said. He also said that rangers "never, never" supposed to leave their jeeps.
By July 26, the bizarre story was gaining national attention. Warren County coroner Ralph Young was now telling the media that McCann probably left his jeep "to attend to personal toilet needs." Young confirmed that blood was found in the jeep, although because laboratory tests had not been completed, he did not know for sure whether it was human or animal.
Also on July 26, James McCann, the victim's father, requested a full investigation from the Warren County Sheriff's Office. We will cover the reasons for this request in a little bit. Sheriff Roy Wallace sent his chief deputy, Lynn Ertel along with deputy Metcalf, who was the initial officer on the scene, to Kings Island to begin the investigation.
At Kings Island, they took a statement from Dick Fussner who also supplied them with transcripts and tapes of his interviews with the rangers and the first-aid report from the clawing incident July 4. Nick Reindl came in after they were done talking with Fussner and they made arrangements to interview rangers Candace Walker, Dennie Acus and Pat Callahan on Wednesday, July 28, as they would all be working. Fussner showed Ertel and Metcalf the shirt, pants and paper before they were taken to the morgue. They were also shown McCann's jeep, which had been driven away from the death scene and parked in another area.
On Tuesday, July 27, James McCann, the father, came public and held a press conference along with his attorney, Marvin Kleinman. James confirmed that he had asked for the investigation from the sheriff's office, "because I want to get things clear in my mind...There are so many questions in my mind, I thought it best somebody other than Kings Island investigate this." Among the questions:
Dan Aylward responded, "We welcome an investigation and stand by our safety procedures." Aylward called the attack an "apparent violation" of those procedures.
Also on July 27, McCann's previous accident came to light. James McCann called the clawing "an attack," while Dan Aylward claimed it was just something lions do "sometimes." Aylward had earlier told the press that lions could not, under any circumstance, get at people in the jeeps. Despite this flub, the park did not seem to suffer in terms of public opinion.
McCann's funeral was held July 27 in Morrow. McCann is buried in the Sardinia Cemetery in Sardinia, Ohio.
On Wednesday, July 28, Col. Lynn Ertel, the investigator on the case for the sheriff's office returned to Kings Island for further investigation, this time with Sgt. Robert Dimmitt. Ertel interviewed rangers Candy Walker, Dennie Acus, Pat Callahan and Terry Gressner on the mauling and McCann. Walker discussed her last meeting with McCann and Acus and Callahan talked about the discovery of the body. Gressner was not working on July 24. All rangers discussed McCann's work performance as well as how he acted when asked about his clawing. The rangers also told Ertel and Dimmitt that McCann was not romantically involved with any of the rangers, that he was acting normal on the day of his demise (thus ruling out suicide), and that he was very well-liked by everyone (thus ruling out homicide). All the rangers interviewed speculated that McCann had probably left the jeep to relieve himself.
After the interviews, Dick Fussner gave Ertel copies of photographs taken by him the day John McCann was killed. Ertel also made plans to go to the death scene on Friday, July 30 to look it over.
Marcia McCann, the mother of the victim, told the Cincinnati Post that she "harbors no ill-will toward Kings Island." Mrs. McCann reported that Kings Island was being "very generous" with John McCann's widow.
On Friday, July 30, Col. Ertel arrived at Kings Island before the park opened at 7:30 a.m. with a photographer, Clark Nolte. Ertel, Nolte and Dick Fussner looked over the scene. They did find McCann's broken glasses located near where the body was found, but other than that no new evidence was uncovered. Photos were taken of the lions, who were in the huts at that time, for size reference. Ertel also obtained a maintenance report on McCann's jeep, which was reported to be in good working condition.
Also on July 30, the sheriff's office issued a press release. It essentially gave a brief summary of the investigation thus far. The press release concluded that, "...the general consensus of opinion [is] that McCann had left the jeep for some reason and was attacked by a lion or lions." Due to the fact that lab reports from the coroner's office were not finished, the press release made no mention of why McCann had left the jeep in the first place and the source of the blood in the jeep.
Enter John McCann, 20, of Morrow, a Lion Country Safari ranger and the focus of our story today.
John McCann
Photo from the Cincinnati Post
McCann joined the rangers in May 1975. He most often worked in the lion section of the preserve.
In late May or early June of 1976, McCann was on patrol when he noticed an antelope had wandered into the tiger enclosure. McCann broke park rules, exited his jeep in front of several tigers and pushed the antelope through a safety gate and into it's enclosure. Another ranger saw this happen and yelled at McCann to get back in his jeep and that saving the antelope was not worth McCann's life. Fellow rangers would later say McCann left his jeep unarmed in the animal enclosures quite often.
On June 26 of 1976, Nick Reindl, head of Kings Island's Lion Country Safari, distributed a memo to all rangers, due to the fact that "some very basic safety procedures...have been neglected in the cat areas." The memo outlined three rules to be obeyed by rangers at all times. One of these rules reads, "No one is to be outside their Jeep, alone, when in the section with the cats out."
On July 4, McCann was injured by one of the lions. McCann had been driving in the lion preserve when a lion jumped onto his jeep's door. The claw slipped through the jeep's protective bars, cutting McCann on the neck. Seven stitches were needed to close the wound. McCann was often spotted letting lions onto his jeep roof, something that was a big "no-no."
At some point during the week of July 18-24, fellow ranger Terry Gressner spotted John McCann out of his jeep straddling a lion.
On Saturday, July 24, McCann arrived at Kings Island for work at 8 a.m. McCann first checked that the shotguns were in working order along with fellow ranger Denny Acus. He took one and they then went to the cat huts where they let the lion cubs out into the preserve. About an hour later, they let the adult lions into the preserve. McCann stayed in the lion preserve the rest of the day making sure they weren’t fighting and that they were being displayed in a good manner. Throughout the day, McCann had told several rangers that his wife had just gotten a new job in Arizona and that he would be quitting his job at Kings Island sometime in August so that he could move out west with his wife.
At 11:00 that morning, a fellow ranger saw McCann open up the door of his jeep and pull the tail of a lion. The lion did not notice. McCann had done the same thing to several other lions three or four times before. Also that morning, a rider in the monorail reportedly saw a ranger resembling McCann open up the door, reach out of his jeep and pat a lion on the head.
At 12:45 p.m. that day, McCann drove up to a fellow ranger and told her that he was going to go check on some cats and that he would be back in a little bit. It would be the last time McCann was seen alive.
Early that afternoon, Dennis Acus, the ranger working the tiger section of the safari that day, recieved a pitcher of ice water that he was to take to McCann. At 1:05 p.m., Acus radioed McCann to notify him about the pitcher.
McCann did not answer.
Acus waited a few minutes and then radioed McCann again with the same message.
Again, there was no response.
Pat Callahan, the senior ranger, then got on the radio and told Acus to go and check on McCann and see what the problem was.
Acus drove into the lion preserve to the huts, where the animals were stored over night. The huts were located in the highest section of the preserve. Acus did not see McCann from this viewpoint, so he decided to check behind Blazer Berm, an earthen berm located in the back of the section and the only area not visible from the huts.
As he pulled back behind the berm, Acus saw McCann's jeep. The door on the jeep was closed and Acus assumed that McCann had fallen asleep. When he pulled up closer, he saw McCann's badly mauled body lying 15-20 feet away from the jeep. Six lions were on the body itself and there were multiple other lions in the immediate area. Acus immediately radioed Pat Callahan, the senior ranger, to get to the lion preserve immediately.
Map of Lion Country Safari...the "x" behind Blazer Berm marks the location of fatality.
Courtesy of the Warren County Sheriff's Office
Pat Callahan arrived on the scene soon afterward. Callahan knew as soon he saw the body that McCann was dead. Callahan radioed almost every ranger (except the ones in the watchtowers) to report to the scene along with Nick Reindl, the head of the safari. Dick Fussner, Kings Island's chief of security was also dispatched. A deputy from the Warren County Sheriff's Office who was on-duty at Kings Island was contacted and reported to the scene. Callahan called the monorail section and told them to stop running trains and get all trains out of the safari.
Callahan chased the cats around the body away with his jeep, but not before one of them dragged the body away from it's original location and closer toward the perimeter fence.
The sheriff's deputy, Harold G. Metcalf, observed the body and the scene. He sent a little memo to the sheriff and apparently decided that, since no crime seemed to have been committed, it didn't really warrant any more investigation.
Dick Fussner, Kings Island's chief of security, arrived at the scene at about 1:20 p.m. Fussner observed the body and noticed that McCann's radio was still in the jeep and was on. However, due to the many lions, Fussner was unable to get any closer to the scene. He returned to his office and contacted the Warren County Coroner and the Mason Life Squad to come and remove the body.
After the rangers gathered up as many cats as they felt was possible, Fussner took the coroner and a Life Squad member to the scene. They removed the body, but again, Fussner was unable to thoroughly examine the scene. Fussner and Nick Reindl agreed that the monorail should remain closed for the rest of the day.
At 6:00 p.m., Lion Country Safari told Fussner that all lions had been rounded up and that the scene could be examined. Fussner looked over the scene along with several other rangers.
In McCann's jeep, they found both McCann's loaded shotgun and his radio. In addition, they observed McCann's shirt lying crumped on the driver's seat with a brown substance on the sleeve which looked and smelled like feces. Several spots of blood were also observed on the jeep's seat, floor, and driver's side door. These details would later become the focus of the intense media coverage that would surround the incident. The shirt and blood were saved for lab analysis. McCann's trousers were lying between where the body was found and the jeep. Torn-up bits of paper with the same substance from the shirt were observed stuck in the perimeter fence. After observing the scene, Fussner interviewed Pat Callahan and Dennie Acus, along with Candace Walker, who was working in the guard tower at the time of the incident and was also the last person to ever talk to McCann.
A ranger points to the location of John McCann's death. Note the jeep's location.
Photo courtesy of the Warren County Sheriff's Office
Kings Island officials determined that the lions posed no threat to patrons in the monorail, so when the park opened the next day, the monorail was back in operation. There was no decrease in attendance, though many guests reportedly asked employees about the accident.Newspaper coverage of the accident on July 25 was sparse. The Cincinnati Enquirer's initial report did not even mention that Lion Country Safari was located at Kings Island.
John McCann's autopsy revealed that he had died due to "asphyxiation due to animal bites." Among many other injuries inflicted from the lions, he had suffered a fractured windpipe, which was apparently his ultimate cause of death.
Dan Aylward, a Kings Island spokesman, dealt with the media. Aylward emphasized that park officials were doing a complete investigation into the mauling. Many reporters were asking the same question: "Why was McCann out of his jeep when he had been killed?" Aylward did not have an answer. "We may never know," he said. He also said that rangers "never, never" supposed to leave their jeeps.
By July 26, the bizarre story was gaining national attention. Warren County coroner Ralph Young was now telling the media that McCann probably left his jeep "to attend to personal toilet needs." Young confirmed that blood was found in the jeep, although because laboratory tests had not been completed, he did not know for sure whether it was human or animal.
Also on July 26, James McCann, the victim's father, requested a full investigation from the Warren County Sheriff's Office. We will cover the reasons for this request in a little bit. Sheriff Roy Wallace sent his chief deputy, Lynn Ertel along with deputy Metcalf, who was the initial officer on the scene, to Kings Island to begin the investigation.
At Kings Island, they took a statement from Dick Fussner who also supplied them with transcripts and tapes of his interviews with the rangers and the first-aid report from the clawing incident July 4. Nick Reindl came in after they were done talking with Fussner and they made arrangements to interview rangers Candace Walker, Dennie Acus and Pat Callahan on Wednesday, July 28, as they would all be working. Fussner showed Ertel and Metcalf the shirt, pants and paper before they were taken to the morgue. They were also shown McCann's jeep, which had been driven away from the death scene and parked in another area.
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| The infamous "Death Jeep" Photo courtesy of the Warren County Sheriff's Office |
- Whose blood was on the jeep seat?
- Did the jeep or radio malfunction?
- Was there any evidence John McCann "had a...bowel movement?"
- What was the exact time of the attack?
- Did "investigating county authorities" enter the lion compound and, if not, will a further investigation occur?
- Was John McCann attacked at his jeep and dragged out, was the attack totally in the jeep, or was McCann some distance away when he was attacked?
Dan Aylward responded, "We welcome an investigation and stand by our safety procedures." Aylward called the attack an "apparent violation" of those procedures.
Also on July 27, McCann's previous accident came to light. James McCann called the clawing "an attack," while Dan Aylward claimed it was just something lions do "sometimes." Aylward had earlier told the press that lions could not, under any circumstance, get at people in the jeeps. Despite this flub, the park did not seem to suffer in terms of public opinion.
McCann's funeral was held July 27 in Morrow. McCann is buried in the Sardinia Cemetery in Sardinia, Ohio.
On Wednesday, July 28, Col. Lynn Ertel, the investigator on the case for the sheriff's office returned to Kings Island for further investigation, this time with Sgt. Robert Dimmitt. Ertel interviewed rangers Candy Walker, Dennie Acus, Pat Callahan and Terry Gressner on the mauling and McCann. Walker discussed her last meeting with McCann and Acus and Callahan talked about the discovery of the body. Gressner was not working on July 24. All rangers discussed McCann's work performance as well as how he acted when asked about his clawing. The rangers also told Ertel and Dimmitt that McCann was not romantically involved with any of the rangers, that he was acting normal on the day of his demise (thus ruling out suicide), and that he was very well-liked by everyone (thus ruling out homicide). All the rangers interviewed speculated that McCann had probably left the jeep to relieve himself.
After the interviews, Dick Fussner gave Ertel copies of photographs taken by him the day John McCann was killed. Ertel also made plans to go to the death scene on Friday, July 30 to look it over.
Marcia McCann, the mother of the victim, told the Cincinnati Post that she "harbors no ill-will toward Kings Island." Mrs. McCann reported that Kings Island was being "very generous" with John McCann's widow.
On Friday, July 30, Col. Ertel arrived at Kings Island before the park opened at 7:30 a.m. with a photographer, Clark Nolte. Ertel, Nolte and Dick Fussner looked over the scene. They did find McCann's broken glasses located near where the body was found, but other than that no new evidence was uncovered. Photos were taken of the lions, who were in the huts at that time, for size reference. Ertel also obtained a maintenance report on McCann's jeep, which was reported to be in good working condition.
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| Press release from the sheriff's office Courtesy of the Warren County Sheriff's Office |
Also on July 30, the sheriff's office issued a press release. It essentially gave a brief summary of the investigation thus far. The press release concluded that, "...the general consensus of opinion [is] that McCann had left the jeep for some reason and was attacked by a lion or lions." Due to the fact that lab reports from the coroner's office were not finished, the press release made no mention of why McCann had left the jeep in the first place and the source of the blood in the jeep.
On August 3, Dick Fussner and Col. Lynn Ertel went to the Hamilton County Morgue to obtain the lab report, as all tests relating to the incident had been completed. The report concluded that the fecal matter on the shirt and the papers found in the fence was human and that the blood found in the jeep was human and from McCann. McCann's blood had no alcohol or drugs in it.
Col. Ertel, in final consideration, believed that the following is what happened on that July afternoon:
John McCann went behind Blazer Berm and left the jeep to relieve himself without taking his gun, violating park policy. Him exiting the jeep apparently aroused the interest of one or more lions which had been unseen by McCann in the brush. McCann had just finished wiping but had not yet put his pants back on when he was caught by the lions. McCann attempted to get away and did get back in his jeep, but was unable to pull the door closed before the lions dragged him out and away from the jeep and mauled him to death.
Marcia and James McCann were outraged over the sheriff's department's findings, which were identical to Kings Island's internal investigation and proved that McCann was extremely careless around the lions and was at fault for his death. They considered suing Kings Island, ostensibly to "obtain information they felt might avert other, similar tragedies." A Warren County attorney predicted slim chance of success, so they never filed the suit.
The McCanns never went to Kings Island again, going so far as to try to not even drive by the park.
Due to the McCann mauling and an earlier escape of 50 new baboons, Kings Island terminated their contract with Lion Country Safari Inc. The safari was renamed Wild Animal Safari in 1977 and would now be 100% run by Kings Island. In 1983, the safari underwent a final name change to Wild Animal Habitat. The lions were removed in 1988 because officials were unsatisfied with the lion's shelters.
In November 1993, Kings Island announced that it would be closing Wild Animal Habitat. The habitat was expensive to maintain and had low attendance. In addition, the monorail took up a massive amount of space, which officials wanted to utilize for future development of Paramount films-based attractions.
The land that the safari once sat is currently the location of Banshee, Flight of Fear, and Firehawk. The loading station was approximately located where Xtreme Skyflyer is today. The site of the McCann mauling is currently a restricted area behind Banshee.
Despite the massive amount of media coverage John McCann's death received, his story has faded away and is largely forgotten today. Most people that have heard of the accident only know that he died from a lion attack and they don't know the circumstances.
This horrific tragedy will always be remembered, however, as the first death at Kings Island.
Marcia and James McCann were outraged over the sheriff's department's findings, which were identical to Kings Island's internal investigation and proved that McCann was extremely careless around the lions and was at fault for his death. They considered suing Kings Island, ostensibly to "obtain information they felt might avert other, similar tragedies." A Warren County attorney predicted slim chance of success, so they never filed the suit.
The McCanns never went to Kings Island again, going so far as to try to not even drive by the park.
Due to the McCann mauling and an earlier escape of 50 new baboons, Kings Island terminated their contract with Lion Country Safari Inc. The safari was renamed Wild Animal Safari in 1977 and would now be 100% run by Kings Island. In 1983, the safari underwent a final name change to Wild Animal Habitat. The lions were removed in 1988 because officials were unsatisfied with the lion's shelters.
In November 1993, Kings Island announced that it would be closing Wild Animal Habitat. The habitat was expensive to maintain and had low attendance. In addition, the monorail took up a massive amount of space, which officials wanted to utilize for future development of Paramount films-based attractions.
The land that the safari once sat is currently the location of Banshee, Flight of Fear, and Firehawk. The loading station was approximately located where Xtreme Skyflyer is today. The site of the McCann mauling is currently a restricted area behind Banshee.
Despite the massive amount of media coverage John McCann's death received, his story has faded away and is largely forgotten today. Most people that have heard of the accident only know that he died from a lion attack and they don't know the circumstances.
This horrific tragedy will always be remembered, however, as the first death at Kings Island.
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