Georgia Monkey Hoax of 1953

Back in July 1953 three pranksters left the hairless/tailless body of a monkey lying in the middle of a Georgia highway. When a policeman came along, they told him it was the body of an extraterrestrial that they had accidentally run over. Its friends had escaped moments before in a spacecraft. The prank managed to make national headlines. (I describe it in greater detail in the Hoax Archive.)

MSNBC has an article (with picture) about the Great Monkey Hoax. The occasion for it is a visit by an AP reporter to the museum of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, where the body of the monkey is still preserved.

Seven years ago, when I was writing the book version of The Museum of Hoaxes, I spent some time on the phone trying to track down this monkey. I had heard that the GBI still had it, but I wanted to confirm the info.

I eventually reached a woman who worked in the archives of the GBI and asked her if they still had the hairless monkey. I explained the history of the prank to her, but she had no clue what I was going on about. From her tone of voice she evidently thought I was playing a prank on her. She swore to me that the GBI had no such monkey. Looks like she was wrong. They do still have it!

Extraterrestrial Life Pranks

Posted on Wed Jul 30, 2008



Comments

How do you not know you have a monkey in a jar.
Posted by alucard_lugosi  on  Wed Jul 30, 2008  at  11:07 PM
Back in 1953, the popular image of visiting extra-terrestrials was of little green men. But today the most common image is more like this 'hairless monkey,' white, slender with long arms and big black eyes. Makes you wonder.
Posted by Phred22  on  Thu Jul 31, 2008  at  09:22 AM
That poor monkey.
Posted by Sakano  on  Sat Aug 02, 2008  at  01:42 PM
My grandpa did that
hahahahah funy
Posted by bishop payne  on  Fri Dec 19, 2008  at  11:36 PM
That was my Great great uncle who did that!!
Posted by Dalton  on  Sat Sep 19, 2009  at  07:13 PM
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