Wasn't it Edison who eloctrocuted the elephant trying to discredit the use of a 110 AC system over his desired 12 volt one??
Everyone at one time or the other has chosen to beleive his way was the right and only way which does not take anything away from Mr Edison's other accomplishments but he was no god either.
From WIKI page "War of the CUrrents":
Edison's publicity campaign
Edison carried out a campaign to discourage the use[24] of alternating current, including spreading disinformation on fatal AC accidents, publicly killing animals, and lobbying against the use of AC in state legislatures. Edison directed his technicians, primarily Arthur Kennelly and Harold P. Brown,[25] to preside over several AC-driven killings of animals, primarily stray cats and dogs but also unwanted cattle and horses. [26] Acting on these directives, they were to demonstrate to the press that alternating current was more dangerous than Edison's system of direct current.[27] He also tried to popularize the term for being electrocuted as being "Westinghoused". Years after DC had lost the "war of the currents," in 1903, his film crew made a movie of the electrocution with high voltage AC, supervised by Edison employees, of Topsy, a Coney Island circus elephant which had recently killed three men.[28]