Appendix — The Attacks, in Detail

Earlier in this book these deaths appear briefly, as lessons. Here they are set down more fully — with the names of the people who died, because they were real and their loss was real. The details are drawn from public news reporting and, where they exist, official findings. They are recounted with care, and with genuine sorrow.

Lane Graves — Walt Disney World, Florida, 2016

On the evening of 14 June 2016, two-year-old Lane Graves was playing at the edge of the Seven Seas Lagoon at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort, filling a bucket in ankle-deep water while his family sat close by. An alligator seized him. His father reached him within seconds and fought to free him — and was bitten by a second alligator in the attempt — but could not break the grip. Lane’s body was recovered the next day; he had drowned. Afterward the resort added the barriers and the explicit “alligators and snakes” warning signs that had not been there before. It happened at one of the most controlled, manicured places on earth, which is precisely the lesson: any warm fresh water in the American South is alligator habitat, no matter how tame the shoreline looks, and small children must be kept back from the edge as if their lives depend on it — because they do.