Cruella De Vil is one of the most popular and feared villains in Disney’s universe. She’s known for her disturbing obsession with Dalmatian puppies, which she sought to use for making luxurious coats. The character was created by author Dothie Smith for her novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians, which was published in 1956 and Disney later adapted into a successful film.
However, the inspiration for Cruella De Vil may have come from the true story of Juliet Tuttle, a wealthy New York socialite who concealed a shocking secret. She was a ruthless serial dog killer. Unlike Cruella, Tuttle had no specific breed preference and was also known to kill cats who were unfortunate enough to cross her path.
Miss Tuttle, the Loving Protector of Animals
According to The Atlantic, Tuttle was seen as a charming widowed heiress in the eyes of 1930s New Yorkers. She inherited the fortune of her husband, Charles. He had made his wealth by founding a newspaper in New Haven, Connecticut, but unfortunately fell ill with tuberculosis and died just two years after their wedding.
With no ties and her financial situation assured, Tuttle moved into an upscale apartment on Park Avenue and purchased a summer house in Larchmont, a village north of New York City. She was always accompanied by a maid and a chauffeur.
Tuttle was active in the Women’s League for Animals and took a stand against the slaughter of domestic birds during a psittacosis outbreak, known colloquially as “parrot fever,” in 1930. Although the illness only caused mild flu-like symptoms in humans, it led to a significant culling of parrots and other domestic birds throughout New York.
Tuttle was often portrayed in the press as a “friend to birds.” She worked closely with another widow, Helen Bethune Adams. The New Yorker described Adams as the person who “supervised the merciful destruction of a dog some boys had thoughtlessly dipped in green paint” at the Ellin Prince Speyer Hospital for Animals in New York City.
Münchhausen Syndrome in the Animal World
In 1931, while serving as the leader of the Women’s League for Animals, Tuttle raised alarms about the growing population of feral cats. She claimed that these cats, once effective at controlling the rat population, had now turned into a “plague of homeless, half-starved, abandoned cats, carriers of disease and a disgrace to humanity.”
Tuttle told reporters that she spent “six days a week and about nine hours of each day” riding in the back of her limousine, picking up “all the stray alley cats and homeless dogs she [could] find and [take] them where they [would] receive care or merciful destruction.” Her chauffeur witnessed her efforts firsthand.
However, the reality was darker. Many of the animals didn’t arrive alive at the Ellin Prince Speyer Hospital for Animals, where they were supposed to be treated or euthanized. The ruthless widow used chloroform-soaked bags to asphyxiate the animals. Others were gassed.
Tuttle’s ability to kill animals without consequence ironically stemmed from her intention to provide them with a merciful death. In 1894, New York passed a new animal-control law known as Chapter 115. This law prohibited dog catchers, which were individuals who captured stray or sick dogs, confined them in cages, and disposed of them in the river.
The new law established that stray dogs should be placed up for adoption. Only the sickest or most aggressive dogs were to be euthanized “in as humane a manner as possible.” As a result, organizations responsible for animal care built execution chambers.
Juliet Tuttle: Unleashed
Apparently, Tuttle developed a taste for something more sinister and became dissatisfied with simply caring for stray animals. She felt compelled to kidnap pets by snatching them from their gardens. Eventually, she outgrew Manhattan and relocated her hunting grounds to her suburban home in Westchester County.
There, her chauffeur drove her limousine for hours, delivering Tuttle to “feed” hundreds of dogs that played in gardens. One day, in April 1937, the millionaire widow got out of her limousine and approached some dogs playing by the curb. Taking a bag from her pocket, she fed the dogs something to eat. A woman waiting for the bus, along with her dog, witnessed the scene.
Just a few hours later, the woman’s Irish setter at the bus stop was dead. One of the dogs Tuttle had fed was also dead, while another was struggling for its life. Alarmed, the woman called the police to report that someone was poisoning dogs in the neighborhood.
The police quickly followed the trail of the luxury limousine. Officers had received more than 75 reports of dog poisonings along the route that Tuttle’s chauffeur claimed to travel every afternoon with the millionaire widow.
The New York Times published the news on page 25 on May 19, 1937. The outlet reported, “Mrs. Juliet Tuttle of Larchmont and New York, known for many years as an animal lover and a worker in humane societies, was at liberty in $500 [equivalent to about $10,000 today] bail today following her arrest last night on a charge of poisoning four valuable dogs last Saturday afternoon in the California Ridge section of Eastchester.”
A month later, The New York Times also reported that this seemingly adoring millionaire had been convicted of poisoning a German shepherd.
Cruella De Vil captured Dalmatian puppies to make coats out of their fur, while The Simpsons’ Mr. Burns crafted loafers from “former gophers.” So, what were Tuttle’s dark intentions that led her to become the most prolific pet killer in history?
Image | Harjinder Cheema
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