A Lucky Strike man, Gilbert “Baldhead” Usher, received a dangerous dose of venom in his face around noon today as he was showing off his fer-de-lance viper (known locally as “yellow-jaw Tommy Goff,” a venomous snake) to a tourist family in front of his home in the village on the Maskall Road (Belize District).
Usher had two snakes on display. One, a large boa constrictor (wowla), was wrapped around his neck, looking almost docile; the other, a sleek fer-de-lance that kept moving and coiling around Usher’s hand as he explained how dangerous the bite from this snake could be.
Usher, according to his fellow villagers, has been living in Lucky Strike for the last eight or so years since he was deported from the United States. But it was only over the last three or four years that he began to earn money from tourists as Lucky Strike’s resident “Snake Man.”
The Tommy Goff that he had on display was a snake that he had caught in Shan Jones’ yard about two months ago. Although he was repeatedly warned about the danger of the Tommy Goff, Usher could not be persuaded to leave it alone.
The tourists listened with keen interest to Usher as he continued to explain his deadly pet’s nature. But the snake would not keep still. It kept moving, sliding around his neck, as he reached out to change hands and put the snake on his chest. From his chest, it began to make its way toward his face, then under his chin.
Suddenly, it was in front of his nose, and something must have clicked in its cold-blooded brain, as it positioned itself into a striking stance—in a flash it struck Usher on the nose.
The show was over. Usher rushed up his broken steps and into his house with his two snakes. But before five minutes had passed, he was falling off his feet—he was alone upstairs, where he lives with his snakes.
In less than twenty minutes, the Snake Man of Lucky Strike was being carried out of his house to a waiting vehicle that would rendezvous with an emergency ambulance somewhere on the Northern Highway.
One of the two children who had witnessed the deadly strike was in tears, and had to be quickly taken away. The lesson about one of Central America’s deadliest snakes was brought home to them in the most graphic terms.
Up to press time tonight, Gilroy “Baldhead” Usher has been transferred to the Intensive Care Unit of the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, where he is listed in a critical condition.