"I Was Scared To Death": Missouri’s Great Cobra Scare Of 1953 Was Eventually Solved After 35 Years

As the summer of 1953 drew to a close, Springfield, Missouri, was terrorized by a gang of cobras. Although it’s described today as “the oddest and most hilarious” story in the city’s history, the incident sparked several months of panic and confusion at the time. It took over 35 years to solve, but the cause of the mysterious reptilian invaders was finally revealed in the 1980s.

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The first report of a rogue cobra emerged on the evening of August 15, 1953. Springfield resident Roland Parrish reportedly came across an unusual-looking snake in his backyard and swiftly whacked it to death with a garden hoe. That same week, a bulldog was rooting around some shrubs and found another strange snake in the same neighborhood, prompting police to investigate.

They handed a dead snake over to a science teacher who identified it as an Indian cobra, a species not native to the Americas, as its name subtly suggests.

This species (Naja naja) is armed with potent venom that’s extremely dangerous to humans, and they’re responsible for a significant number of bites in their native Indian subcontinent. Understandably, Springfielders were pretty flustered to hear these volatile fellas had established a presence in their city.

“Mothers locked their children inside and would only allow them out to play if an adult stood watch with a garden hoe, ready to behead the snakes in a moment’s notice. Police officers were sent to investigate reports of suspicious snakes,” the History Museum on the Square, a local museum, said in a blog post celebrating the incident’s 70th anniversary.

“At one point, a radio van was equipped to play ‘Indian snake charmer music’ in an attempt to lure the snakes out of hiding, into the waiting arms of the large group of men with garden tools following the truck on foot. Sadly, snakes only react to the vibrations, not the sounds and it did not help the search efforts,” they added.

By October 1953, 11 cobras had been killed in the city (presumably with the help of garden hoes). Another was captured alive and spent the rest of its life at the nearby Dickerson Park Zoo. 

The mystery went unsolved for decades until 1988, when a man called Carl Barnett came forward with an enticing story. When he was just 14, he had entered into a deal with a local pet shop owner, Reo Mowrer, whereby he would capture local snakes and hand them over in exchange for tropical fish.

One fateful day, Barnett picked up what he believed was a prize fish, only to discover it had died by the time he got home. The pet shop was uninterested in reimbursing Barnett for his loss, sending him into a teenage rage. He stormed out the door and went to the back of the shop, where he came across several wooden crates containing snakes. 

“I thought to myself, ‘Well, these aren’t the same snakes I traded for the fish, but they’re probably about equal value. So maybe I’ll just leave the door open, and then we’ll be even.' And that’s just what I did — just left the trap door open and got on my bike and rode home," Barnett told the local media.

"I started hearing that cobras were turning up in people’s yards near Mowrer’s shop. I realized what I’d done, and I was scared to death. Every time someone mentioned the cobras, I just wilted,” he added.

Fortunately, no one was harmed by the released cobras, and the species did not reproduce, nor become an invasive species. Nevertheless, the memory of the incident still lives on, and locals fondly celebrate that strange late-summer when their city was overrun by exotic snakes.