Morris Cater

Morris Cater, a 65-year-old jewelry wholesaler with offices at 1224 Avenue of the Americas in New York City, is the third person killed by the great white shark off Amity. His death occurs on Sunday, June 20, less than half an hour after the shark attacked and killed six-year-old Alexander Kintner, and it is witnessed by at least fifteen people on the public beach. The attack takes place at approximately 2 p.m., a quarter of a mile down the beach from where young Kintner was seized. Cater is swimming just beyond the surf line when the shark strikes him from behind. He calls out for help, but all attempts to rescue him are in vain. Amity police officer Len Hendricks, who is on the beach in a bathing suit for his first swim in five years, wades in up to his waist and tries to reach the struggling victim, but the fish keeps hitting him again and again. When Hendricks finally reaches Cater, he takes hold of one of the man's arms and pulls; it comes off in his hand, chewed through except for a little bit of skin. Cater is pronounced dead on arrival at Southampton Hospital. The Amity Leader reports that the giant fish struck again and again, savaging Cater as he cried for help, and that the fish gave no quarter. Cater was spending the weekend at the Abelard Arms Inn. His death, coming on the same day as Alexander Kintner's and following the earlier killing of Christine Watkins, forces the hand of the town's leadership. The New York Times runs the story on page one with the headline "SHARK KILLS TWO ON LONG ISLAND," and Chief Brody, who had been pressured by Mayor Larry Vaughan and others to keep the beaches open, finally orders them closed. Cater's death thus marks the end of the cover-up and the beginning of the town's full-scale, desperate response to the shark.