We’ve all heard the longstanding tales of alligators running rampant in the sewers of New York City. The logic goes that baby gators were purchased as pets, either in local pet stores or by tourists vacationing in Florida. After quickly outgrowing the confines of their owners’ apartments, they were flushed down toilets and into the sewer system, where they soon bred and infested the labyrinthine network of pipes tunnels beneath Manhattan.

What isn’t largely known, however, is the origin of this famed urban legend, as recorded in the 1920s and 30s by – of all sources — the New York Times. Between 1927 and 1942, the paper ran twelve articles concerning alligator sightings – though in most instances they were in outlying areas beyond the city proper, such as Westchester County and New Jersey, and spotted in rivers or lakes, rather than drainpipes.

The craze got its first shot in the arm on June 28, 1932 when “swarms” of alligators were seen swimming in Bronx River. It was, however, later decided that the witnesses had in fact seen snakes or lizards –- but only after police had reportedly conducted a farcical search involving large quantities of beef liver and butterfly nets.

The sewer component first entered into the myth three years later, after a gang of teenage boys spotted a moving shape beneath them as they shoveled snow into an open manhole cover near the Harlem River. Using a makeshift lasso, they were able to snag the animal’s neck and haul it to surface – where they quickly realized they caught a live alligator. The gator lunged and, in response, the boys beat it to death with their shovels. After dragging the carcass to nearby garage, it was determined that the beast weighed 125 pounds and measured some seven-and-a-half feet in length.

Such up close and personal encounters, however, were few and far between. The legend broke wide in 1959 after the release of Robert Daley’s The World Beneath the City, which detailed the history of New York’s subterranean plumbing and electrical systems. A brief portion of the book recounted the story of Teddy May, the former superintendent of the city’s sewers. According to Mays’s account, after receiving numerous reports of sewer alligators – which he and others believed to be false – he commissioned an investigation in 1935 to squash the stories once and for all.

When no gators turned up, May decided to take a look for himself. Upon visiting an undisclosed location somewhere in the five boroughs, he stumbled upon a so-called “colony” of the creatures – which measured roughly two feet apiece — living in the sewers’ shallow waters. Highly distressed by his discovery, May claimed that he had all of the animals exterminated, though no corroborating account as ever emerged to verify his story.

From then on, embellished stories of an alligator infestation in New York City’s sewers have been propagated far and wide, turning up everywhere from Thomas Pynchon’s 1963 novel V. to a B-side released by British band Radiohead in 2001. Biologists, however, generally doubt the reptiles’ ability to survive a New York City winter and no sewer employee in recent memory has ever reported an encounter with the one of the elusive beasts.

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Tags: 1927, 1930s, 1932, 1935, 1942, 1963, 2001, alligators in Manhattan, Alligators in New York City, Alligators in sewers myth, Bronx River, Harlem River, History DVDs, History Store, June 28, Radiohead, replica guns, Replica Swords, Robert Daley, scale model kits, Teddy May, the novel V, The World Beneath the City, Thomas Pynchon, urban legends