Text: Anonymous, “The Monkey Assassin,” Centre Reporter (Centre Hall, PA), vol. XI, no. 39, September 26, 1878, p. 1, col. 4

[page 1, column 4:]

THE MONKEY ASSASSIN.

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Tragic Scene in Venezuela Mining Camp A Huge Red Ape Murders His Master and la Burned at the Stake.

One of the most famous of the weird, short stories of Edgar Allen Poe is “The Murder of the Rue Morgue, In that most ghastly yet entertaining narrative a monkey is the author of an assassination, The simian criminal has now found a rival in real life.

Early in 1877 the leading mine owners at the Caratal gold fields, in Eastern Venezuela, fitted out an expedition to prospect for some reputed cinnabar deposits on the Brazilian border of Guayana, The command of the party was conferred on an adventurer named Seiler, 8.11 old resident of Venezuela, a skilled miner, a naturalist by predilection, and very well known to European and North American scientists through the valuable collections he had made for various museums of natural history.

The expedition was a failure, the cinnabar existing only in the brain of the mendacious Indian who had reported it, In place of specimens of the precious quicksilver ore, Seiler only brought back a cargo of prepared skins, stuffed birds, curious animals, skeletons, and an enormous red ape of the araguato, or howling species. These monkeys, in their natural state, are little less ferocious than their great African brethren, the gorillas, and are almost as untamable. The native Venezuelans call them “Wood Devils,” and stand in holy horror of them. Seiler's specimen, which was as big as a ten-year-old boy, and as deep-voiced as a fog horn, was no exception to the rule, and in a short time it became the terror of all Caratal. Chained to a ring-bolt in the wall of his master's house, which stood at the intersection of the only two streets of tha little village, the red ape would squat all day long on the peak of the tiled roof, mouthing at the passers-by, hurling whatever missiles he could lay hands on at them, and gushing his great teeth like a fiend. At night he charmed the somber hours by howling incessantly. Horses and mutes would stampede at sight of him, Onildren fled from him in terror. Every miner was careful to pass Seiler's house on the other side of the street, and with a wary eye on the sentry on the roof. Even the buzzards deserted to Callao, the opposition mining center, for the ape had developed a great fondness for capturing them whenever he could, then proceeding to pluck them and tear them to pieces alive. In fine he became such a public abomination tha the authorities were applied to. Accordingly the alcalde waited on Seiler and laid the case before him. He might as well have spoken to the ape himself. Though the rainy season was at band and his roof was almost denuded of tiles which the arguato had torn off to throw at people; though the brute ate as much as ten men, while his master, who had taught him to eat meat till he would touch nothing else, had to starve himself to feed him; though he himself was a walking mass of scars received at the paws of his ungrateful pet, still Soiler elung to the worthless hide of “El Demonio Colorado, or the red demon, as people had come to call the ape, with an unfaltering devotion. He swore that Mango, as he had christened him, should remain as long as the house held together, which, considering the rapidity with which it was being converte1 into projectiles, was certainly not an eternal prospect. When the alcalde insisted Seiler drew his attention to a fine example of Smith and Wesson's revolver manufacture, and the argument ended abruptly. People now took the law into their own hands, but with equally poor success, The red demon seemed to bear a charmed life, He dodged silver bullets with the greatest ease, and one genius who melted down two ounces of gold into a slug to make sure of him, had the satisfaction of seeing Seiler pick the precious metal out of his wall and purchase rum for himself and raw meat for Mungo with it, just at a juncture too when his credit had collapsed and given rise to a hope that the ape would starve to death after all. As for poison, the brute revelled in it. Paris green seemed a sweet morsel under his tongue, Strychnine only improved his digestion. He devoured arsenic like sugar, and swallowed enough mercury to salivate a regiment without starting as much as tear, At last his enemies gave up in despair.

At the beginning of the present year, Seiler was struck down by a fever, contracted from repeated drenchings during the rainy season, which drenchings were solely due to Mungo's having unroofed the house to such an extent that there was not a dry corner in it. Unpopular as the sick man's defense of his abominable pet had made him, his neighbors were still miners with the warm hearts and open hands that never refuse sympathy or aid to distress, and they doctored and nursed the invalid faithfully into convalescence. Mungo, however, they positively refused to succor, and after devouring all the garbage within the limit of his chain, the red ape was reduced to an open air diet, and grew more meager and vicious every day.

On the night of the 5th of February last some teamsters from the Orinoco, who had arrived too late to find shelter, camped in a corral behind Seiler's house. The night was a dark and rainy one. For a wonder, Mango was making no noise, Toward midnight a commotion in the house attracted the notice of one of the wagoners, but, as it soon subsided, he paid no particular attention to it. With daylight, however, he discovered that Mungo's chain was broken, and that the monkey was missing, and knocked at the house door, intending to inform Seiler of it. Receiving no answer to his repeated summons, the man became alarmed and forced the door. As he pushed it open a startling and unearthly howl greeted his ears, In the middle of the room, surrounded by the wreck of what little furniture the place had contained, was the corpse of Seiler. Squatting on the breast of the body, his hair glued in patches with clotted gore, and his long arms and hideous head besmeared with blood, was the red ape. His lips were glued to a gaping wound in his master's throat, and he was sucking the blood from the jugular vein, stopping occasionally to utter a low howl of satisfaction, and beat the ground with the fragment of his broken chain.

It was not until he was fairly riddled with pistol bullets and rifle balls that Mungo abandoned the body of his victim. The corpse except, for the wound in the throat, was unmutilated.

The ape, driven frantic by hunger, must have descended on his master through a break in the roof while he slept, and fastened his teeth in his windpipe. Weak as he was from his late illness Seiler could probably offer but a slight resistance, which was insufficient to shake the powerful brute from his deadly hold.

In spite of his wounds the monkey murderer was yet alive. A rope was made fast to his legs, and he was dragged into the middle of the plaza, where he was fastened to a stake and burned.