Society Max, the bull who swam to Bayonne

The escape and chase

The clipping says Society Max got away from a Staten Island rodeo and swam the Kill Van Kull into Bayonne. Police then pursued him for roughly 40 minutes through Bergen Point. By the time the bull reached Ninth Street and the Boulevard, the commotion had drawn a crowd reported at more than 2,000 people.

Ronald Smith, identified as a 17-year-old who lived at 202 Broadway, ultimately lassoed the bull. The animal was secured to a utility pole until rodeo personnel arrived to return him to New York.

What witnesses remembered

A 2020 discussion in the “Bayonne Retro: Always Here To Remind You!” Facebook group preserved several recollections. MaryAnn O’Sullivan remembered seeing the bull near a telephone booth at Ninth Street and the Boulevard. Don Toye recalled watching it pass the Boulevard between Fourth and Seventh streets; Lorraine Walsh remembered waiting nearby for a bus with her mother. Raymond Kiesnowski placed the animal around Eighth Street and Avenue C, while Mike F. Bonner also remembered the capture at Ninth Street and the Boulevard.

One participant, posting as Dee Dee, associated the incident with her wedding on October 20, 1963 and remembered the bull near St. Andrew’s Church. That recollection supplies a promising date, but the surviving clipping shown in the discussion has no visible dateline, so the date remains provisional. Other comments disagree about whether parts of the route followed Avenue C, Broadway, or the Boulevard.

People and places

Named in the clipping

Ronald Smith, 202 Broadway

Named witnesses or discussants

Maureen Badaracco, MaryAnn O’Sullivan, Don Toye, Lorraine Walsh, Dee Dee, Susan Bachley, Raymond Kiesnowski, Mike F. Bonner, Billy Kellner, Frank Matthews, Brianne Boyle Schatz, Maryann Dunn, Joseph Elia, Christine Dougherty Funk, Thomas Blankenship, Anne Whalen Cerchio, Adrienne Roake and Edward Roake

Places

Kill Van Kull; Staten Island; Bergen Point; Ninth Street; Kennedy Boulevard; Avenue C; Broadway; Fourth, Fifth, Seventh and Eighth streets; St. Andrew’s Church