PHOTOS: The saga of Annie and her skull
Jerry Snapp at home with the remaining bones of an Asian elephant named Annie whose skull he had listed for sale on Craigslist. He bought the bones at a rendering plant in Vernon after Annie had died at the Los Angeles Zoo. Snapp wasn’t sure that selling the skull constituted a violation of the federal Endangered Species Act. He was found guilty and sentenced to three years’ probation with home detention. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Ed Newcomer, a special agent with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, looks at Annie’s skull, which now resides in a storehouse in Torrance. He asked that his face not be shown because of ongoing criminal investigations. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Snapp in the yard of his home. Bones had always fascinated him. He could remember running through Denver’s natural history museum as a little boy, staring up at the mastodon, the mammoth and the 75-foot-long brontosaurus. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Snapp with his “Trolls Garden” sign, among the assorted oddies of his Wunderkammer, the Cabinet of Curiosities, which he took on the road to renaissance fairs and craft shows. He figured the elephant skull would fit right in. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Snapp next to the ossuary wall he constructed at his home. The recession prompted him to try to sell the elephant skull, which was nearly 4 feet all and weighed close to 200 pounds. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Snapp’s collection also includes a rhinoceros skull. Although special agents with the Fish and Wildlife Service confiscated this particular specimen, they were forced to return it when it was determined that it belong to a southern white rhino, not the more imperiled northern white rhino that is listed in the Endangered Species Act. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
