alligators in the sewer

[jbor]

> please explain how something on the order of
> alligators in the sewers gets into a work of modern fiction.
> Also, just what alleys was the author cruising when he happened
> upon this piece of news?

"[...] On February 10, 1935, the New York Times carried an astonishing
report that several teenagers had dragged a live eight-foot alligator out of
a sewer in Harlem the previous evening. The kids supposedly found the gator
while shoveling the remains of a recent snowfall into a manhole--a project
that strikes me as suspiciously civic-minded, given the reputation of Big
Apple youth, but never mind. The boys first saw the alligator thrashing in
the sewer ten feet below street level, and decided to drag it up with a
clothesline. Once on dry land, however, the frightened animal began snapping
about with its mighty jaws. The teenagers promptly beat it to death with
shovels [...]"

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_339.html

best