Green mamba:
Posted on 05/22/2004 9:43:08 PM PDT by HAL9000
American detectives have released more information surrounding the bizarre death of a Scotsman found half-a-mile from a box of deadly snakes.Detectives say Garrick Wales ordered the snakes over the internet from a “reptile dealership” in Florida before police found his body in a rented car near a local airport,
Detective Eric Knowles, of the Little Rock Police Department, who is investigating the death, said tonight that the snakes were transported from Florida to Little Rock National Airport at Mr Wales’s request.
He understood Mr Wales, 48, had also taken delivery of other snakes on previous trips to the United States.
Detective Knowles said police still knew little about why Mr Wales ordered the snakes, what he had intended to do with them or where the other snakes were.
“Whether he had a snake fetish, we just simply don’t know,” he said.
Little Rock police found Mr Wales, from Kilmacolm, Strathclyde, dead in his car on May 13. He was pale and surrounded by vomit.
A local electrician discovered a wooden box containing four deadly African snakes near a motorway half a mile away the following day.
The box contained a 14in twig snake, a 6ft green mamba, a 4ft black mamba and a 5ft forest cobra. All four could be deadly and the box was said to be marked with warnings of its contents.
Detective Knowles said police did not yet know how the snakes came to be dumped by the motorway.
It would not be known if Mr Wales died from snake bites until reports came back from post-mortem and toxicology tests.
“We can say that this is definitely not a homicide. There is definitely no foul play as far as someone else contributing to his death. All other possibilities remain open to us.
“We will continue trying to determine what he did with the other snakes. We still have not accounted for those snakes.”
Detective Knowles said Mr Wales’s family told Little Rock police he had travelled to the United States on numerous occasions and owned a computer information business.
Mr Wales’s widow, Pamela, speaking from the family home in Kilmacolm, an affluent commuter village near Glasgow, declined to comment on the nature of her husband’s death.
Mrs Wales, a teacher at a local school, said: “I have no comment to make as it would not be appropriate as the matter is being investigated by American authorities.
“I would ask you to respect my own and my family’s privacy at this time.”
Neighbours of the large detached house spoke of a “lovely man” and “nice neighbour”.
Mr Wales, who was a successful computer programmer for business, was in Little Rock on business.
So lets add this up...the scotsman had ordered snakes before and picked them up, yet he was a computer sales representative, from Scotland. He goes out to the airport, picks up these snakes...opens the box and gets accidentally bit...doesn't seek care immedately...simply dumps the snakes on the side of the road in a box. His wife had no answer on why he was doing what he was doing. Doesn't this all sound rather unusual...even for Little Rock? You don't go around buying Mambas unless you know what you are doing.
An unrelated story, but a snake story no less. In 1981, a Colorado couple was found on a high summit dead. They had hooked up a hose to their car and piped the exhaust into the window...simply committed suicide. The deputy looked at the bodies...called the corner. As everyone was walking around and looking at the car...they decided to open the trunk. There were a dozen burlap bags inside, unstringed, just sitting there. Quiet strange, all empty. The deputy eventually sent a patrol out to the house, on the outskirts of Denver where they encountered the neighbors. When they mentioned the empty burlap bags...the neighbors were white as a sheet and siad to immedately enter the basement of the house. The authorities entered the basement and found dozens of glass cages sitting there empty. The neighbors explained that there were at least 20 different snakes in the basement...almost all from outside of the US...mambas, vipers, etc. The deputy went back out to the death site...and looked around. Obviously this couple had released their "pets" and they had moved on off from the parked car. No one ever found a single snake. The experts claimed that the cold winters of Colorado would likely kill the snakes that were dropped off...but others argued that they would find warmer places (houses, etc). Its been over 20 years...and not a single report yet...but we keep waiting.
These snakes are the fastest reptiles I've ever witnessed when they move.
Think of the speed of a coachwhip and multiply it ten times.
The vomiting sounds like a mamba bite, but I don't know what other snakes he had.
One thing for sure: If he was bitten by a mamba, he didn't have time to get to a hospital.
I meant to say that I don't know the symptoms of the other snake's bite.
Snake bite victim bought fatal reptiles
YAKUB QURESHI AND SARAH ROBERTSON
A SCOTTISH businessman found dead in the United States is thought to have been bitten to death by snakes he bought during the trip, investigators revealed last night.
The body of computer programmer and father-of-three Garrick Wales, 48, from the Renfrewshire village of Kilmacolm, was discovered in his rented car by Arkansas police nearly two weeks ago.
Little Rock Police Department confirmed that four deadly snakes, found close to the scene, had been purchased by Wales over the internet from a "reptile dealership" in Florida.
The car, with Wales’ body inside, was found on open ground near Little Rock National Airport by a member of the public on May 13.
Investigators said Wales’ body was surrounded by vomit. The results of toxicity tests conducted during a post-mortem examination have not yet been confirmed, but police said they had little doubt he had died from snake bites.
The snakes, which were in bags inside a box, were found the following day near a motorway half a mile away. The 14in twig snake, 6ft green mamba, 4ft black mamba and 5ft forest cobra are all deadly, and have been taken to a local zoo for safekeeping. The box was said to be marked with warnings of its poisonous contents.
Wales was employed as a networking consultant for other companies, and had been in the US for several weeks on business before his death.
Detective Eric Knowles, from Little Rock Police Department, told Scotland on Sunday there was no doubt that the snakes had belonged to the programmer. He said: "These snakes are not indigenous to anywhere in the US. They are all south and east African snakes. We don’t even stock the anti-venom for them anywhere in Arkansas.
"These particular snakes came from a dealer in Florida that Mr Wales had been dealing with. We are therefore sure that they had been in his custody.
"No foul play whatsoever was involved but there are still inquiries we need to make.
"All other possibilities remain open to us."
He said he understood that Wales had ordered other snakes on previous trips to the United States. The snakes were transported from Florida to Little Rock National Airport at Wales’s request.
He refused to comment on whether Wales, who was booked into a local hotel in the state capital, had been trying to release the snakes or was selling them on to another person.
Reptile experts said any one of the four snakes could have killed Wales. The black mamba is considered the most deadly snake in the world as well as one of the fastest. It can grow to up to 14ft and can travel at up to 12mph.
The bite and venom of a green mamba can kill in less than 30 minutes. It grows to around 5ft and lives in trees across Africa, feeding on birds and lizards and is often difficult to see in green foliage.
The forest cobra is a large, thick-bodied, black snake from the tropical and subtropical rain forests of Africa. It is seen as the least dangerous of the notorious cobra family but its bite can still cause rapid death without quick intervention.
The twig snake comes from the family of rear-fanged snakes which have enlarged rear teeth with a groove to allow venom to flow down while swallowing their prey.
The body of the father-of-three was flown back to Scotland on Thursday after it had been examined.
In Scotland, friends of the computer programmer paid tribute to the "friendly family man".
Neighbour Ewan Marshall, 21, said he was "saddened" by the death and was surprised that Wales had been in possession of the snakes. "It is sad because he has left three young kids and my thoughts are with his family right now," he said.
"I would say hello to him most days and he was a really friendly guy.
"I would call him a real family man. The link to snakes is the biggest mystery. I have no idea if Mr Wales had pet snakes or an interest in them, but I find it very unlikely."
Another neighbour, who did not wish to be named, said: "Mr Wales did not have any hobbies involving snakes. He has never kept them or been interested in them as far as I am aware."
Yesterday his wife Pamela, an English teacher at St Columba’s in Kilmacolm, said she was "too distressed" to speak.
Speaking from the family home, she said: "We are terribly distressed and I cannot make any comment at the moment."
Although venomous snakes can sometimes deliver a "dry" bite without releasing their poison, all bites require immediate hospital treatment.
Even with a sample of the venom it can be difficult to create the right anti-venom to treat the poison. Some venoms have more than 130 chemical components, which all of which have different physiological effects, and can mean that no two samples drawn from a snake will have the same effects.
In the past decade an average of five people a year have died annually from snakebites in the United States.
Yeah. Mambas have a highly deadly neurotoxic venom, they have short fangs close to the front of the mouth which means they can deliver a deadly bite easily, they are fast and they are short tempered and aggressive.
How amny Americans have been bitten by and threatened by Mambas??
This is the first case I ever heard of.
Any mambas or other tropical snakes released anywhere in the U.S. are unlikley to survive a winter here.
So, before we go ballistic over exotic reptiles, this is a freak occurance, like so many events in Arkansas, and we should just mark this up as another one in the land of Clinton.
Unless you want a waiting period before somebody can buy a pet snake, a federal list of the names of people with pet snakes, etc.etc. Sound familiar? Wait.
Noooo, I want the ownership of poisonous reptiles to be entirely illegal. Isn't it?
If my gun collection could slither around by itself, escape and shoot people on its own, I might reconsider that Second Amendment thing, too.
Only Ogden Nash (ok, maybe Dr. Suess) could have done justice to your post.
Probably mostly rattlesnakes, mostly when handled or surprised.
Statistics from : http://frogsandsnakes.homestead.com/snakebitefacts.html
8,000-10,000 snakebites are reported annually in the United States.
Only 12-15 deaths occur each year in the United States, putting your chances of survial at roughly 499 out 500. [I'm getting like 9,985 out of 10,000.]
Approximately 3000 of these bites are classed as illegitimate, meaning the victim was handling or molesting the snake when the bite occurred. See Preventing Snakebite.
85% of bites are below the knee.
50% of bites are 'dry' bites where the snake has not injected any venom. Snakes can control the amount of venom they inject. They need their venom to subdue prey, and they do not prey upon humans. In fact, it is the humans who prey upon the snakes.
I've been in the wild with mambas, both of green and black.Obligatory rhyme of "hospital" and "spittle", all just bring a smile to my soul. I know this is tragic for his family and loved ones, but lest he die in vain, let it be hoot for the rest of us.
And let me tell you, brother, I ain't never going back.
The natives are afraid more of the green kind than the black,
And they'll never tell to the kids to "buy 'em by the sack".
Green mamba:
A wise man one told me, "There's no such thing as a useless person. If nothing else, you can always use them as a bad example".
Or the object of amusement and ridicule.
Fangs for the memories...
If someone ever dies from camel spider bites, I'll tell you what I know about camel spiders and you can write a poem!
We'll collaborate and make millions!
(Well, maybe coffee money, anyway...)
But I hate those mambas more than most snakes.
They're killers who will track you down in the bush.
If someone orders a box of camel spiders and gets eaten by the darn things, I have no sympathy for them.
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