Have you heard of Mr T’s tree massacre? Well we should say massacres, because he has done the same thing to trees twice. In short, I pity the foo’. However, once you read about both instances you will be surprised, and probably shaking your head in disbelief.
It seems as though this famous man of muscle has an affinity for tree destruction and environmental vandalism. Over two occasions he has overseen, and personally carried out the cutting down of a significantly large number of trees. But although he purposely carried out the destruction, he was blissfully unaware of what he was actually doing.
Mr T’s first tree massacre
The first instance happened when he was in the army in July 1976 while he was in a training camp at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin. His platoon sergeant sought to punish him for an unspecified reason. The platoon sergeant ordered Mr T to chop down trees, as in with an axe. But the sergeant failed to specify how many to cut down. Between the hours of 6:30 am to 10:00 am, Mr T had single-handedly chopped down in excess of 70 tree. The massacre with the axe only ended when a major stumbled upon the plateau of destruction and superseded the sergeants orders.
His second massacre
In 1987, only eleven years later, it seemed that trees once again crossed Mr T’s path. This time though he was not in the army, and he was not ordered to. He did this off his own accord.
By 1987 he had become one of the biggest and most recognized celebrities on television. His amazing debut in Rocky III and subsequent role as Sergeant Bosco “B. A.” Baracus in The A team saw his star rise and shine. Everyone knew who he was, and every boy wanted to be him. He was about as famous as you could get. But the fame wasn’t the reason for his wanton attack on the foliage this time round. It was for fitness, and has become known as The Lake Forest Chain Saw Massacre.
As a Snopes user has recounted, as a resident of the area at the time, it wasn’t out of spite as so often quoted. The old rumor says that he cut down trees in spite of the local county not allowing him to display a huge T on his garage door. He cut down the trees as part of a workout regime that he devised himself, perhaps something that he had picked up eleven years earlier. He managed to cut down over 100 oak trees on his personal estate before the locals started to gossip at the eyesore. It was then that he stopped the destruction.
