Florida's Top Gator Trapper Captures His Last Reptile

Florida's top gator trapper captures his last reptile

By KRISTEN KRIDEL
kristen.kridel@heraldtribune.com

John French straddled an 8-foot alligator as pain gripped his chest Monday. No time for a break.

Not even a massive heart attack could stop the trapper of 20 years. French wrapped tape around the reptile's snout, disarming his last gator. He died 12 hours later on Tuesday morning.

"I couldn't pick a better way for him to go," said French's daughter, Dawn Hansen. Just last week, "he grinned and said, 'I sure love huntin' these alligators.'"

French, of North Fort Myers, Florida, spent the past two decades trapping thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of gators, said Gary Morse, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. He was the main trapper handling the territory from Lee County to Venice.

And he relentlessly sought his gators, even if it meant returning to the same spot again and again, said FWC spokeswoman JoAnne Adams.

His next stop Monday would have been the DeSoto Marina, said Tracy Hansen, French's son-in-law and a fellow trapper. A 13-footer has been stalking the shoreline since last year.

French tried to catch the reptile, known by locals as Harry, at least seven times.

On Monday, residents spotted Harry lurking once more near a sea wall. "He was going to get Harry" this time, Tracy Hansen said.

French started hunting gators because his neighbor was one of the state's original licensed trappers. When his family sold its small furniture business more than 20 years ago, French took on the task full time.

French, who was married for 43 years, supported his family by selling the hides of the alligators he caught. And his son-in-law and grandson learned to love the trade as well.

His hunting partner Monday was his 11-year-old grandson Jacob Hansen. Once in a while, French would let the boy tape up a gator's snout or load it into the truck, Dawn Hansen said.

Jacob "always thought it was neat if him and his pappy could go gatoring," she said.

During his career, French caught more than his share of killer alligators. French trapped the gators that killed landscaper Janie Melsek, 54, and environmentalist Bob Steele, 81, on Sanibel Island. The fatal attacks were in 2004 and 2001.

He also got the gator that mauled a woman to death in a pond near HealthPark Medical Center in Lee County and the reptile that killed a man in an Englewood lake. French trapped the alligator that attacked an Englewood woman trimming bushes near a retention pond in 2003. The gator had ripped off her arm.

"He basically risked his life every day to help others," FWC's Adams said. "He was really the ultimate professional. He was always there for you, and he would come out at any time of the day and night."

But in a recent interview with a reporter, French acknowledged that trapping gators was getting harder as he got older. French had two heart stents.

On Monday, French tried but could not lift the 8-foot-2-inch gator found at Hunters Ridge in Bonita Springs, Dawn Hansen said. French called his daughter and asked her to come help him pick up the gator. He said he was overheated. After several phone calls, he finally told her that he thought he'd had a heart attack.

On the way there, Dawn Hansen and her mother called 911. When the 911 operator called French's phone, his grandson, Jacob, picked it up and stayed on the line.

A firefighter watched the gator until another trapper arrived to take the alligator away. French's family went to HealthPark Medical Center with him. French died the following morning.

Dawn Hansen said her father lived a good life, and she only wishes she'd had more time with him."Some people have regrets, but fortunately, we have none," she said.

Last modified: June 07. 2006 6:16AM
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