What happens when a Hot-Headed German Woman learns the Art of the Trapeze?  She joins the circus.  This was true of Lillian Leitzel.   Apparently, she was quite amazing in gymnastics, trapeze and aerobatics.   Quite unique and amazing, Lillian was.  She would dislocate her shoulder and flip again and again… more than 100 revolutions in a single performance.   She was a standout, to say the least.

But as mentioned… she had a bit of quick fuse.  As fate would have it, she met and fell in with another hot-headed wild card. His name was Alfredo Codona…. a guy from Mexico…. and also a circus performer.  They married, and had a tumultuous partnership in life.  Yet, all their friends said the were made for one another.

A life filled with passion and loathing.  But as circus performers, they were the big tops. Lillian and Alfredo were STARS.

Then.  One night…. Leitzel was performing at Valencia Hall in  Denmark….  and Codona  in Berlin.  Leitzel  ascended into the air to begin her infamous one-arm planges (the flipping over thing).

But.  On that night….. bad luck would be there.  You see….. the brass swivel on the rope crystallized and broke. Lillian fell over 20 feet to a hard, concrete floor. She suffered a concussion and spinal injuries in the fall.

Yet.  She was a tough cookie her whole life.  The doctors were confident she’d recover. Codona rushed to her side.  She insisted she was fine and urged Codona to return to Berlin to finish his engagement.

Then…… Leitzel boarded a train with him and the pair headed back to Berlin ……. when she died 2 days later.

Codona was devastated by her death.  Miserable.

Yet… as time went on… he married another aerialist named Vera Bruce.  Well… their marriage was worse than horrible.

Unfortunately, Codona started getting reckless in his performances.  He was distraught and unsettled.  And one day… he suffered a bad fall as a result. He was done.  The injuries in his shoulder would prevent him from ever performing again.  He was “grounded”.   The Great Trapeze Performer would fly no more.

Divorce from Vera Bruce was next.  The stress of Leitzel’s passing and the end of his circus career drove Codona to desperate measures. While discussing divorce proceedings in Vera Bruces attorney’s office, Codona asked if he could speak to his estranged wife in private.

Well wouldn’t you know… that  goofball of an attorney obliged and as the door closed behind the attorney, Codona pulled a pistol from his coat pocket and shot Vera Bruce before turning the gun on himself.   This all happened in the very early 1900s…. when this circus was pretty young.

Ta-Da.  The Dark Side of the Circus.  The Barnum and Bailey / Ringling Brothers Circus.

“When It’s Darkest, Men See the Stars.”  – Ralph Waldo Emerson