Monday, Jun. 05, 1944

Lion Killer

In the most daring of sports he was one of the most daring. But he was virtually unknown in the U.S. Even his family had not heard of him for years. All they knew for certain last week was that Alfred John Klein, perhaps the mightiest lion killer of modern times, had died in his home near Nairobi, British East Africa.

News of his death came as a shock to most big-game hunters. Klein had tracked for many of them -- F. Trubee Davison, Paul Rainey, Archibald Harrison, the Aga Khan, Lady MacKenzie, Philip Plant. In over 30 years of following game trails, he captured or killed thousands of birds, snakes and beasts, from diminutive dik-diks to giant bull elephants. He stopped counting his lions in 1928, when the British limited each hunter to three kills a year. By that time he had bagged 120.

Pint-Sized Paradox. To the few who knew Al Klein well, his career and his person were a paradox. Born in Germany 61 years ago, he was brought to the U.S. as a child, trained to follow his father in interior decorating. Full-grown, Al was 5 ft. 4 in. tall and weighed 120 Ib.

Klein sharpened his marksmanship on grouse and rabbits near his home in New York's Rockland County. He quit interior decorating when he reached his majority and went to work for Manhattan's American Museum of Natural History. There he devised the technique of mounting animals in lifelike poses, with wire and plastic molds, which became the standard for modern museums.

The Vocation. In 1909 Klein, hearing the adventures of a museum associate, could no longer resist Africa. He returned only twice, most recently in 1927 to marry his childhood sweetheart and take her back to the jungle.

With a 14-lb., double-barreled elephant rifle, Klein made hunting history. Together with another white hunter named Leslie Simpson, he led a safari of man-drawn oxcarts into virgin territory in Tanganyika, discovering what later became known as the "Lion Pasture," the best lion country in the world.

Klein hated fanfare. After guiding Hollywood's Trader Horn expedition, he swore he would never again take another job like it. He never wrote a book or magazine article. His phenomenal lore leaked out in dribbles around the firesides of jungle camps.

Hunting de Luxe. Rich sportsmen, who paid $2,000 a month for Klein's services, remember him best for streamlining the safari. He blazed motor paths to first-class hunting grounds, organized the East African Guides Association to staff his fleets of cars and trucks. Barring the chase itself, his expeditions became as comfortable as weekend fishing trips.

"There is something cruel about Africa," he once said, "yet I have never known anyone who stayed there for any length of time who did not burn to go back. . . . Once it gets you, you belong to it for good and all."

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