Newspaper clipping: 'Carpenter Kills Huge Coral Snake' with photograph of Chris McEwan

A clipped newspaper article mounted on the album page. No dateline or masthead is visible.

Upper photograph caption (bold):

TEACHER RICHARD WRIGHT AND CHRIS McEWAN

…with coral snake 38 inches long

Kicker:

Shakes Delayed

Headline:

Carpenter Kills Huge Coral Snake

Article body:

Frank Keim had a delayed case of the shakes today and [just] because he killed a 38-inch coral snake yesterday.

“I don’t think I would have been around here very long if I had known it was a coral snake. I hate all snakes,” he claimed.

Keim, 29 E. Winter Park Ave., a carpenter working at the home of O. B. McEwan, 1129 S. Osceola St., said he noticed the reptile in the McEwan driveway but didn’t pay much attention to it.

He later told Mrs. McEwan, and she asked him to kill it. He took his hatchet, chased the snake out of some bushes, then killed it.

The McEwan family had an argument about what kind of snake it was because McEwan didn’t believe a coral snake grew 38 inches long.

Chris McEwan, 13-year-old eighth-grader, took the reptile to Cherokee Junior High School and science teacher Richard Wright now has it on display in his classroom.

Dr. Paul Vestal, professor of biology at Rollins College, said he has heard of a 40-inch coral snake but “38 inches is about as big as they ever get.”

Coral snakes normally reach a 30-36 inch length at maturity. The record for Florida is 49 inches.

Lower inset photograph: A small head-shot of the carpenter, captioned Keim.