Visited Jake

We visited Marsh's Free Museum in Long Beach before heading out of town. This is the famous alligator-man. Wellington Marsh Sr bought Jake for $750 in 1967 from Ray Pryor, an antique dealer who bought him at auction when Great Grand-Dad's museum closed in 1965. I couldn't find any stories on the internet, but I read a story on the wall of the museum that seemed like a pretty good fusion of fact and fiction. Supposedly, Great Grand-Dad purchased the mummified corpse from a man named Collins who gained possession of him from the Florida swamps. Collins had traded with the Native Americans of Florida who had original possession. There was the tale of a great alligator hunter named Jake who tangled with the wrong gator. Through the near fatal injuries of both gator and Jake, Jake half injested, their bodies fused together in their comatose states as the bodies tried to heal. I preferred that explanation over the tabloid stories of the "missing link." Anyway, definitely a real curiosity piece. Does Mom have a story?