A miniature horse vanished a few years ago from Judy Cochran's cattle ranch in south-east Texas. On Monday, she fired one shot to kill what she says was the likely perpetrator: a 3.6-metre, 260-kilogram alligator in a murky pond on her property.

This act quickly earned Cochran her 15 minutes of fame, and not just because of the animal's size. Cochran, 73, is the recently elected mayor of the town of Livingston, population 5000 or so, as well as a grandmother of three and a great-grandmother of one.

"You have to be a good shot, because he could just come walking up on the banks [if merely injured]," she said in an interview on Wednesday. "They told me to shoot it right between the eyes, and I did."

Being the mayor, Cochran emphasised that the hunt was legal. Polk County, north-east of Houston, is one of a dozen Texas counties that has an alligator hunting season. It runs from September 10 to 30, and Cochran said her property, which has been in the family for more than 50 years, was issued a hunting permit by a state wildlife biologist. With that in hand, a friend rigged a large hook baited with a days-old raccoon carcass over the pond.