Elephant Crushes Vacationing Businessman

A retired Culver City businessman who had spent parts of the last nine years traveling to the far reaches of the world was killed last week in Thailand when a rampaging elephant flung the 72-year-old man to the ground and crushed him.

Jerry Burton is believed to have died instantly, his longtime friend Charles Perelman said. Perelman, 61, and Burton’s wife, Elaine, were able to escape the charging elephant and returned to the United States on Sunday.

“It still seems kind of unreal,” Perelman said Tuesday.

The accident occurred Oct. 13 in a mountainous region of northeastern Thailand near the city of Chiang Mai after the three travelers had gone to bed in one of the village’s bamboo huts, said Perelman.

“All of a sudden, we heard these shouts, ‘Elephant, elephant, run, run!”’ Perelman said. Though Perelman said it took the three only a minute to scramble out of their sleeping bags and pull on some clothes, the four-ton elephant had reached their elevated hut and began tearing up its outside walls.

As Jerry Burton jumped out of the hut, Perelman said the elephant “grabbed him with its trunk, threw him on the ground and laid on him.”

Perelman said it appeared that the elephant had broken his friend’s neck.

To protect themselves, Perelman said he and Elaine Burton hid under the hut in the dark while the elephant continued its rampage.

“It’s amazing how fast and quiet (the elephant) was,” Perelman said. “All we could do is sit under the hut while it continued wandering the camp looking for people.”

Meanwhile, the rogue elephant threw an Israeli tourist to the ground before the man escaped by climbing a tree.

Finally, a villager fired a gun and the elephant bolted, Perelman said.

An official at the Los Angeles County Zoo said violent behavior among male elephants during musth, an increase in testosterone in the blood, is not uncommon.

During musth, a cyclical hormonal change, the temporal glands of male elephants swell on the sides of their head, said Les Schobert, the zoo’s general curator.

“I would liken this to having a tremendous headache,” said Schobert. “Even normally tractable elephants become uncontrollable, unpredictable and extremely dangerous.”

The elephant was one used for transporting tourists and for heavy lumber work, said Perelman. The animal was allowed to roam free at an elephant camp. Its owner has not been located, Perelman said.

Burton, is the former co-owner of Burton’s Magnacoat, a silver and gold-coating business in Culver City. The Burton’s sold the business five years ago, Perelman said.

Burton was also a longtime member of the Culver City Rotary Club, where Rotary President Rob Barber described him as “a quiet, warm, giving person.” Burton was involved in the group’s literacy and CPR programs, said Perelman.

Besides traveling, Burton liked to play tennis, and he finished the Boston Marathon in 1980 at age 60.

A memorial service for Burton, who was cremated in Thailand, was held Wednesday afternoon in West Los Angeles.