Except for the grey hair and receding hairline I would have said 'hasn't changed a bit". Haast was born in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1910. The Reptile Centre in Northampton, England, declared him "an inspirational man within the world of reptiles." Mr. Haast closed the serpentarium in 1984 after a 6-year-old boy fell into his crocodile pit and was fatally mauled. He was born in 1910 in Paterson, N.J., to German-American parents -- his father was a mechanic, his mom a housewife. Thank you, Dr. Haast, for all your good works and trailblazing in this still to be fully recognized work.and for the fascinating memories. When young Bill brought his first poisonous snake home to the family apartment, his mother left home for three days, he said. I believe that it was one of the great thrills of my life. Although the boy's father did not blame Haast for his son's death, Haast told reporters he wanted nothing else to do with the Serpentarium and, in any event, would never again house crocodiles there. The emergency services unit celebrated its 10th year recently at the Metro Zoo in Miami. A pair of 911 calls brought both Miami police and Miami-Dade police to 8050 NW Miami Ct. around 4:35 p.m. I, and many other people, really enjoy reading the comments that are left under the photos. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Teen charged with killing 15-year-old in Miami trailer park: cops This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The attackers included cobras, a krait, green mambas, a pygmy rattlesnake, a European asp and a palm viper. I'm 5'2 from s city in north Jersey myself, and the snake was about my size! I don't remember which one was the infamous "Cookie". Copyright 2023 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved. He introduced himself as Col. Spencer, I introduced myself as "I'm Mark and could my brother Dick come too?" My uncle made a point to tell me to look up this site. He would shove the snake's fangs into the top of a vial and watch the venom trickle down. I lived on Homestead AFB 1960-66 and as a kid visited the Serpentarium many times. The Official Website of W.E. "Bill" Haast LIVES SAVED But if a life was lost at the Serpentarium, Haast wants it known that transfusions from his immunized blood to snake victims helped save 21 lives. As he announced at the time, Bill killed the croc because he did not want her to become the inevitable freak show instead of a crocodile.Neither revenge nor stress induced fuzzy thinking was involved. ''It was the best snake show there ever will be,'' said George Van Horn, a frequent visitor who now runs a similar attraction in Central Florida. "Our unit wouldn't be around if it wasn't for him; he's the inspiration," said Al Cruz, the unit's founder, standing beneath the tall branches of a live oak that Haast had allowed to grow through his screened pool patio. Six years later, he returned to Florida and opened the facility . The injections are a routine he began in 1948 -- the year he opened the Serpentarium -- and continued after he closed it in 1984. I would vacation with my parents in Florida in the summer months. Sometimes, you feel useless. I gave Dr. Hasst an iguana that got too large for me to keep and from then on he let me come in for free.. Anyone with information is urged to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS. The animal was of no harm to anyone other than the fool who would allow his self to fall in. I remeber in 1970 when I went to JFK junior high in miami we went on a field trip to the serpentarium I am now 50 years old and never forgot the place.I did make a serious mistake while there that people I tell find hard to believe.there was this hudge round pit with a wall around it, in it was what looked to me like a large stone grey statue of a crcodile well I went in there touched it and one eye opened and I was out of that pit like a rocket.this crocodile was at least 15 feet long it must have been sleeping lucky for me.Bill left a lifetime of memories for a 13 yearold kid the man truely is a legend that has no equal in the reptile world. As a result of the damage, Haast gave up handling venomous snakes, and no longer kept any at his facility. My dad and I still talk about this over 40 years later! June 18, 2011 / 3:12 PM They gave me nightmares. I was probably the first Bill Haast copycat and started self-immunizing with various snake venoms over here in London since the age of twenty. We had an African Ball Python that had stopped eating, and I remember bringing it with my father to have it fed. But he still wakes up each morning to turn snake venom from across the globe into freeze-dried powder for medical laboratories. When he was 19 he joined a man who had a roadside snake exhibit, and went with him to Florida. The Man Who Injected Himself With Snake Venom - KnowledgeNuts Copyright 2023 Local10.com is published by WPLG INC., a Berkshire Hathaway company. The concrete & stucco cobra was the second icon of the Serpentarium. At the same time his work saved dozens of lives. RESEARCH WAS GOAL For Haast, the bites, the snakes and the Serpentarium were only a means to an end. According to Wikipedia, Haast first developed an interest in snakes as an 11-year- old Boy Scout while at a Boy Scout summer camp. I was 11 in 1972 when my folks agreed to stop at the Serpentarium when our family of seven drove down from Massachusetts to Key West for February school vacation. I said yes, I got to feed his snakes white mice, met his daughter (she had a pet lion), used to catch snakes and sell them to Mr. It was July, 1972, and my family was making our first visit to the Serpentarium. Drivers passing the former site of the Miami Serpentarium on South Dixie Highway. But I always felt I would live this long. Wow the good old days and funny thing is my name is Cookie!!! 38-year-old Francisco Oropeza was firing a rifle in his yard late at night when his neighbors asked him to stop, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said. Miami Serpentarium-Founded by Bill Haast - Waymarking I think one of the two men was Mr. Haast himself. David Mark Wasson was apparently sitting on top of the wall around the pit, dangling his feet during an inter mission between shows when he lost his balance, the authorities said. I rememer Bill Jr. when we rode motorcycles in scramble races out in North Dade. By 1984, interest in such roadside attractions like the Serpentarium had waned. The self-described "poster boy for the benefits of venom" briefly operated a bona fide cancer research laboratory on the property and before invention of . I lived across South Dixie Highway from the Miami Serpentarium. I remember seeing an alligator gulping down whole chickens and being allowed to handle an Indigo snake after Mr. Haast's presentation. After the United States entered World War II, Haast served as a flight engineer on Pan Am airliners flying under contract to the United States Army Air Corps. Join the New Times community and help support He was shot in the upper torso, said Miami-Dade police Detective Angel Rodriguez. He was 100 years old. I remember a Coral snake bit and killed a man digging in his yard in Whispering Pines in 1965. Haast's second wife, Clarita, simply narrated, setting the mood for the audience. Luckily though, I see from visiting one of the links that there is an attraction to view snake milking in St. Miami-Dade police said they arrived to the scene to find a 16-year-old boy who had a gunshot wound to the back of his head. Boy, 3, dies after being shot inside home in Calumet Heights I'm very glad I did. There was a croc that had lost its tail because it had bit at it after thinking it was another croc coming to steal its food. At the time of the TV airing Mr. Haast was 87 years old and quite handsome he looked no older that early 50s. Cloud, Florida and it just so happens that my dad lives there now. During the 1950s, he was bitten by cobras about twenty times. He flew around the world to donate his antibody-rich blood to 21 different snakebite victims. I told my mother how I'd really like to get an Indigo and she kind of shrugged it off. I grew up near the Serpentarium , and played baseball @ Suniland Park..Many times during games , an iguana that had escaped from the serpentarium , would run across the field..As kids , we too ,sold snakes to the facility , and we managed to see the show several times a yearwe would ride our bikes to Parrot Jungle and the Serpentarium and see all kinds of rare wild animals and snakes , and birds , then fish salt or fresh water within a few miles of homegreat place to grow up in the 60's. His take on the matter was generally to the effect that the placement of this variant of the common black racer into a separate subspecies status seemed dubious. Detectives said when they arrived to the scene, people were attempting to take the teen to the hospital. Consequently, the snakes grew to tremendous lengths, by not being hunted by the indians, and were probably fed leftover game to achieve the fantastic length. Great stories were told on our nightly walks, stories of Africa in the "War" , Safaries, snakes hey we like snakes , Dick gets in troule all the time with his snakes. Man who killed 5 neighbors in Texas 'could be anywhere - Yahoo Senseing this the king made an immediate move toward the door to challenge. In the late 40's and early 50's I lived in Marathon on the Keys. The seller's address: Eureka, Fla. Haast knew he had to head south, to a warmer climate favored by snakes. Every so often the evening news would announce "Bill Haast had been bitten by a poisonous snake AGAIN." Mr. Haast was bitten at least 173 times by poisonous snakes, about 20 times almost fatally. Thank you Diana, and all the other folks who have posted, for posting your personal memories of Bill Haast and your insights that the general public would never know about if you hadn't written in. He moved his venom-gathering operation to Utah. Six years later, he returned to Florida and opened the facility in Punta Gorda, where he raised and milked snakes but did not resume his snake show. But I remember leaning over the small wall to look closer at that croc when my feet slipped and I pitched forward towards the pit. On two trips to Florida in the late 60s, my parents took me to The Serpentarium. ( Because they wouldn't let me move here by myself.) And modern medical researchers are proving him right snake venom fractions are becoming recognized as potent medicines. From Dadeland areafor you have info, on this still. "If I live to be 100, I'll really make the point.''. As people gathered close Bill unlatched the door on the end of the cage. This subspecies, restricted to the Florida Keys, obviously was named for Bill Haast. joe pylandgrew up at sunniland park two blocks from the serpentarium.Remember it well..Billy..the grandson ran over my arm in 1962 with his bike..breaking it and I missed the 1st 6 weeks of Khoury League.Remember Haast tamping alsoThis man was incredidle and brave. Anyone can read what you share. haven't they grown ending explained. boy killed by crocodile at miami serpentarium. The Official Website of W.E. "Bill" Haast On the way from the Fontainebleau Hotel we heard that President Kennedy had been shot. After the fight ended, the victim walked away, at which time Cox pulled out a gun and shot at the victim, striking him in the head, authorities said. "I just have a curious nature," he said. 76. Soon after opening the Serpentarium, Haast began experimenting with building up an acquired immunity to the venom of King, Indian and Cape cobras by injecting himself with gradually increasing quantities of venom he had extracted from his snakes, a practice called mithridatism. Haast remained director of Miami Serpentarium Laboratories near Punta Gorda until his death. I have watched tv programs about him on Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel. Nevertheless, researchers have continued to work on drugs made from venom in the hope of using it to treat cancer, Alzheimers and other diseases. Besides the mayor's key, they gave him a firefighter's helmet bearing the unit's name: Venom 1. I've tried to keep up with him from time to time. I still miss the animals. By then Cookie, the 12-foot, 2,000-pound crocodile, had the boy in its mouth. I'd fainted at the realization of a whole baby pig inside that snake! haasti is different from the parent species only by virtue of an unusual configuration of white coloration on the head and chin. MIAMI (CBS4)- The man who mesmerized generations of paying customers from 1947 to 1984 by extracting venom at his Miami Serpentarium as a spine-tingling South Florida attraction is dead. I'm sure they still carry around enough guilt, even after all this time, without you adding to it. When my family came to Miami in1961, they left me in Lakeland, Florida with my aunt and uncle, who happened to be an avid hunter/fisherman. Mr. Haast and a Miami doctor treated more than 6,000 people with a snake-venom serum that they and their patients contended was effective against multiple sclerosis and arthritis. boy killed by crocodile at miami serpentarium Two men came to our house, & they had a hook on the end of a pole, & a cloth bag, & they soon had the brightly colored but deadly snake in tow. As a young Canadian boy back in the 1960`s. I still have his autograph and some great snapshots of that meet & greet. On Thursday, members of the rescue unit came to shake Haast's hand. And a bit crazy. With 43 types of antivenin, a diverse enough supply to treat 90 percent of all bites, the unit's antivenin bank supplies the U.S. military and hospitals around the nation -- sometimes the world. Then years later I lived in Punta Gorda on Washington Loop, when Bill Haast moved there. Some questions, like the one a decade ago from Cruz, the venom unit founder, mean the difference between life and death. Bill Jr. eventually left, having lost interest in snakes, but not before he had been bitten four times by venomous snakes. I. Woww! the coolest thing i remember is the sighn bill had on the stage while he was milking his terrorfying snakes "there is nothing more exciting then watching danger from a safe distance". I was devastated, devastated like any other parent. ", By his 95th birthday, he was a bit of a recluse. Of course he would buy the rare Indigo snakes, because they could rear up and spread their neck like a Cobra, but were not poisonous. Friday, his wife, Nancy, put his lifetime tally at 172. Serpentarium was snake place in Miami | Miami Herald They paid my mother something like $10 or more for the snake. He placed a live, non-venomous snake into one of the supposedly empty boxes to be cleaned. i grew -up in south fla. in the sixties through the eighties,reading about bill haast brought back so many great memories.it was a huge treat when my mom and dad would pile all five of us kids in our station wagon a few times a year and spend the day at the miami serpentarium. At the time I envisioned growing up and working for Bill, learning to snatch & milk snakes. But in 1980 the Food and Drug Administration banned the product as useless after saying that numerous deficiencies had been found in Mr. Haasts manufacturing process. Apparently the damaged tail had to be amputated afterwards. Curabitur venenatis, nisl in bib endum commodo, sapien justo cursus urna. boy killed by crocodile at miami serpentarium. 6/15/11 - RIP Mr. Haast! Bill HAAST and the MIAMI SERPENTARIUM Photo I well remember Bill Haast and his snake "milking" shows. My mother took my brother and I to the serpentarium in 1977. When the show headed to Florida, Haast convinced his parents to let him go. Haast. Bill Haast and the Miami Serpentarium - recent news articles I remember reading Bill Haast book Cobras in My Garden, one of the most interesting books I have ever read. I grew up living close to the Haast's in the 60's. He bought his first exotic snake, a diamondback rattler, from a catalog. Using nothing but a thin hooked metal rod. Others joined Haast. Hi, my uncle Ted Kundtz just passed away a few months ago and he told me that he had helped out Mr. Haast when he was younger. For all the time he spent with snakes, Mr. Haast harbored no illusions that they liked him. During World War II, he was aboard flights that delivered food and medicine to Africa and Asia. ''I know some people have said that about Bill, but he is one of the hardest-working, most diligent, focused individuals you'll ever meet,'' said Van Horn, 62, who worked at the Serpentarium as a young man. [3] Haast extracted venom from venomous snakes from the time he was a boy. ``I feel like a man in his 60s.'' And I still do as if it happened yesterday. He respected him very much. This will be of interest to some out there. The cobra that Elliot Arkin made was the one inside the building across from the office. I am a big guy and I thought we could easily hold him still. I will ask him to sign a copy and send it to you and your brother." Nonetheless, the boy, who was battered and submerged, was killed. He received the key to the city.Those same hands that for decades eased venom from the world's most poisonous snakes held the key to the city of Miami on Thursday. 1. canticle of zechariah explained. Police could be seen going through the neighborhood, talking to witnesses and looking for any helpful surveillance video. Search underway for Texas gunman who killed 5 01:46. . The experiments gave encouraging results, but were still in preliminary clinical trials when the Salk polio vaccine was released in 1955. He would free the snakes on a table in front of him, then catch the snakes bare-handed, and force them to eject their venom into glass vials with a rubber membrane stretched across the top. Mr. Haast, who was director of the Miami Serpentarium Laboratories, a snake-venom producer near Punta Gorda, Fla., died of natural causes on Wednesday at his home in southwest Florida, his wife, Nancy, said. Access from your Country was disabled by the administrator. Haast, then 66, heard the screams and came. MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. - The person who shot and killed a 15-year-old boy is on the run. Most people working in the biological field take some pride in having a species or subspecies named for them, but Haast seemed to have none of that. BOY KILLED The attraction prospered until a tragedy in 1977. A rare survivor, he declared himself doing "very well, anxious to get back to work.". However, the venom eventually did affect him, and he was taken to a hospital where it took him several days to recover. She was quite a Mom. THIS SOFT SPOKEN WOMAN TURNED TO HER FAMILY AND SAID "I'VE COME ALL THE WAY TO MIAMI TO HAVE SOME SNAKE S__T ON ME". While on my honeymmon in Orlando we rode down to Miami to the Serpentarium and watched Bill milk some snakes. Like I said, we were always grabbing any snakes we came across, and one day finally got a Moccasin. The Roberson Funeral Home of Port Charlotte said Friday that arrangements were incomplete. The substance is an essential ingredient in making a serum to treat snakebite victims. I remember visiting the Serpentarium on a school field trip when I was in kindergarten, in 1971. The bootlegger was arrested, and Mr. Haast found his way to an airline mechanics school. When I opened the box I saw my new pet, a 6 foot beautiful Indigo Snake. View an extensive list of available venoms , William "Bill" Haast (1910 - 2011) was the Pioneer of Venom Production for Venom Research. His next bite, later the same year, came from a four-foot copperhead. He moved his venom-gathering operation to Utah. Detectives said they are hopeful for cooperation and a swift arrest for the teens family. In 1954 Haast was bitten by a common, or blue, krait. William Haast at his Miami Serpentarium in the 1950's. I asked him one evening if I could walk with him he said yes in the baritone of gentle command. It was an experiment, but having received his first venomous snake bite as a teenager, Haast was used to risks. VENOM `POSTER BOY' The medical establishment -- and the Food and Drug Administration -- never bought into Haast's enthusiasm for the lethal snake juice as treatment for multiple sclerosis, lupus, arthritis and Parkinson's disease. MIAMI, Sept. 3 (UPI)A 6yearold boy tumbled into a crocodile pit at the Miami Serpentarium today and a 14 foot, 1,800pound African crocodile snapped its jaws around the child's middle and dragged him to his death in a small lagoon. He was rushed to see a doctor, but quickly recovered without further treatment. In North Carolina, a chemist offered this salute: "Resssssssst in Peace Bill Haast.". I will forever carry fond memories of "Doc" and how he turned my life around. Bill Haast and a cobra at the Miami Serpentarium SW 128th Street and South Dixie Highway, Dade County, Florida Thank you to Alvin Lederer for contributing this old image. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. His dream of creating a snake sanctuary grew nearer. I'm glad I got to experience that part of S. Florida/s history, visiting The Serpentarium, now part of mine. Police are searching for the shooter and the murder weapon used. I also supplied 40 desert sidewinder rattlesnakes for Jim to exhibit in a large glass fronted cage filled with sea sand. He later received commendations from President Gerald Ford and Miami Mayor Stephen Clark. His grey pleated linen trowsers were pressed and as spotless as his egyptian cotton White shirt, topped with a most stunning Pith Helment. I saw the "catch and milk" demos and was fascinated. A cottonmouth bit a finger, which instantly turned black, prompting his wife to snip off the fingertip with garden clippers. I visited the Serpentarium two time back in 1958 and 1967, it was a very interesting place to tour. In fact, his poison-proof plasma saved over 21 people. C.C. I was a nurse in the ICU at Variety Children's Hospital on at least three of Haast's admissions after snake bites. It was 1929. Soon, his quest for exotic snakes stretched around the world. Location. He is truely an extraordinary man. His wife Nancy says Haast died Wednesday evening, June 15, 2011. Mr. Haast's passing reminded South Floridians of a bygone era when entrepreneurs could set up quirky roadside attractions along Dixie Highway, U.S. 1, to thrill both local school kids and wintering vacationers who fled the cold.