There is the off chance that he could have been bitten by a monsterous specimen but the local indicated means it was A.c.mokasen (Northern Copperhead) which is renounded as a one of the smallest sub species. This can be misleading for the largest copperhead ever recorded came from White Plains New York, well into A.c.mokasen's range. The norm however is that Northern Copperheads are one of the smaller sub species.

For the record, this incident occured in Madison County, Texas which is located in the east-central part of the state between Houston and Dallas. To my knowledge, the Northern Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix mokasen) does not even occur in the state of Texas, unless you are looking a a very old text (ie. Brown, 1949). The copperheads occuring in Madison Co. Texas are intergrades between the Southern Copperhead and the Broad-banded Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix contortrix x laticinctus)

Other than the above I think that some of the possobilities you mentioned could have very well been factors in the victim's death. I had been casually acquainted with Mr. West, but had had no contact with him since I moved from Texas five years ago, so I can not vouch for his health conditions at the time of his unfortunate accident. I also think that the fact that his death occured very shortly after being bitten and the fact that the bite occured on an ankle where there is normally a minimal amount of flesh leaving arteries and veins just beneth the skin certainly leaves open the very real possibility that the bite went diretly into an artery or vein. But these are all things that we will not know until and IF the autospy report is ever made public.

But regardless, Jim West was a fine gentleman who will be sorely missed by his family, friends and colleagues.
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Gerald Keown
The Venomous Snakes of Texas

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