Croaking Ape-Man is Captured; Man of Mystery

Pittsburgh, 1920

Ape is Captured; Man of Mystery

Has Terrorized Greensburg and Homestead for Weeks. Will Not Talk.

Pittsburgh, Aug. 26. — The supposed ape that has terrorized Greensburg and Homestead for two weeks is believed to have been captured Wednesday in a heavy wooded thicket in Baldwin township. It is a man and, nearly nude, with matted hair on his face and head six inches long, so closely resembled an ape that the officers who came upon him unawares were in doubt for several minutes in what category to class him. When captured the man was sleeping beside a fire. On being awakened he sprang at Constable Risenbarth and attempted to sink his teeth in the officer's throat. It took several minutes to subdue him. Apparently unable or unwilling to speak, the man sits moaning in a cell in the Hays police station, occasionally giving utterance to deep guttural sounds resembling the croaking of a huge frog.

The ape-man first appeared in a section of West Virginia bordering on the Monongahela River. For several days depredations committed there were laid to his door. His next appearance was in Westmoreland county, in the vicinity of Greensburg, where he came unawares onto a quiet poker game in a small shanty and, after scaring the players away, quietly disappeared with the "kitty." After terrorizing several families in Westmoreland, the ape-man appeared in the vicinity of Homestead, where the killing of sheep and dogs and the milking of cows aroused the entire countryside. Several posses thought they had him cornered in an abandoned mine, but Tuesday the ape-man appeared near Carrick, and attacked Mrs. Netti Schaffer, who as picking elderberries near her home. Her cries for help brought aid and the ape-man fled.

—The Gettysburg Times, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, August 26, 1920, page 2.