Mandrill Attack

Assignment Houston One/Creative Commons

Critic Steven Pleithman mentions a news item that may have helped inspire Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue," in which an orangutan invades a Parisian house through a window. In the news article, the invader is not an orangutan, but a mandrill, then known as a "rib-faced baboon."

"New Mode of Thieving"

Mrs. S. retired to her bedroom, and before her husband had desisted from his supper enjoyments, some of the family was alarmed by a scream from her bedroom, and one of the inmates (a female) proceeding thither, was attacked on entering the door, by a monkey (or a Ribbed-face Baboon) which threw her down, and placing his feet upon her breast, held her pinned firmly to the ground. The screams of Mrs Smith brought up her husband, who, seeing the condition of the prostrate female, assailed the monkey, and compelled him to quit his hold on the female, and thereby drew all his vengeance upon himself. The brute took up his position on the wash-basin stand; and every attempt to dislodge him brought to the ground some fragile articles of furniture. . . till, on Mr Smith attempting to go into another room for his pistols, the monkey leapt on his back with the speed of lightning, made various attempts to reach his throat, broke his watch guard asunder in rage, and, dropping to the ground, bit his leg, and again fled to the basin-stand. . . . But where did did this Baboon come from? The animal had been danced through this town two or three days by itinerant showmen; and had either escaped from them or been let loose for the sake of his plundering. . . . It appears he had dropped from the eaves of the house to the windowsill of Mrs. Smith's chamber, and got into the room through the window, which as left partly open. The owner recovered the animal from the housetops next morning, and escaped to Ludlow.

--from the Ipswich Shrewsbury Chronicle (August 22, 1834)

Despite the cynicism of the Ipswich writer, it seems highly unlikely a mandrill would be trained for thievery. For one thing, they aren't particularly good at going unnoticed. This account reads a lot like modern reports of macaques and other monkeys raiding urban kitchens in Asia. 


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