Did the MGM Lion Really Kill Someone? Here’s the True Story. - VICE

If you’ve ever seen a movie produced by MGM, chances are you’re familiar with the company’s mascot, Leo the Lion, who roars at the screen just before each of their films begins. Originally appearing ahead of the 1917 silent drama Polly of the Circus, “Leo” has been played by eight different lions to date and has preceded the opening credits of countless movies, from The Wizard of Oz to Tom and Jerry cartoons to the latest James Bond releases. Only one of those lions was actually named Leo, though, and he’s the one you’re most likely to have caught at some point, considering that it’s his image they’ve been using since 1957:

Strangely, nearly a century after the iconic mascot made his big-screen debut, the first Leo—played by a lion named Slats—suddenly became the subject of a wild internet rumor. If the story’s to be taken at face value, OG Leo once ran into a couple of burglars who would rob banks and stash the money in the warehouse where Leo’s famous roar was set to be filmed. On this particular occasion, Leo was said to have caught the crooks in the act and mauled one of them to death. The accomplice supposedly then ran away and got hit by a police car on its way to the bank they’d just knocked off.

And if that doesn’t sound bad enough, another tale about ol’ Slats started circulating a little while later, and according to this one, he actually killed his own trainer, along with two assistants. However, as Snopes helpfully pointed out in 2012, both of these stories are completely bogus, having evidently been spread by a number of websites looking to pass off nonsense as factual information, for whatever reason. In fact, not only did Slats not kill his trainer (whose name was Volney Phifer, by the way), but the trainer outlived Slats by decades.

People feeling the need to spin yarns about the MGM lion, of all things, is especially weird because there are some legitimately interesting real stories they could be telling instead. The third Leo, who was named Jackie, for example, miraculously survived a plane crash in the 1920s. Jackie managed to stay alive for four days in the Arizona desert prior to getting rescued. This was reportedly one of several accidents Jackie lived through that earned him the nickname “Leo the Lucky.”