Joy and George Adamson raised Elsa the lioness in Meru, released her into the wild, and wrote Born Free, the book that made wildlife conservation a global cause. The film followed in 1966, cementing Kenya as the place where humans and animals could coexist. But the marriage was bitter, the conservation work isolating, and both Adamsons died violently. Joy was murdered at Shaba in 1980, likely by a former employee. George was killed by poachers in Kora in 1989. They gave their lives to the work, and the work consumed them.