{"id":4826,"date":"2014-04-07T19:16:24","date_gmt":"2014-04-08T00:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=4826"},"modified":"2014-04-07T19:16:24","modified_gmt":"2014-04-08T00:16:24","slug":"morbid-fact-du-jour-for-april-7-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=4826","title":{"rendered":"Morbid Fact Du Jour for April 7, 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s Suicidal Yet Truly Morbid Fact!<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are many reasons why animal experts might consider it unsuitable to keep a primate as a pet, but an episode from the 19th Century provides a particularly bizarre warning. \u00a0Rockwell Syrock had a hobby. Jocko rather liked it too. \u00a0Together they toured the towns of Victorian North Carolina, whiling away the empty days before the invention of Twitter by joining the crowds of spectators at public executions. \u00a0Jocko was a monkey – a cheeky one by all accounts, who was quite a favourite with children for miles around their Goldsboro home. Like his owner, Jocko took a keen interest in the gruesome rituals of capital punishment.<\/p>\n

On a summer’s day in 1880, the flamboyantly-named Mr Syrock had been cheerfully looking forward to the hanging of a convicted murderer when the state governor thwarted his plans by postponing the execution. \u00a0If Mr Syrock was downhearted he made the best of the situation, grabbing the opportunity to take a closer look at the gibbet which was ready and waiting for its indisposed victim. \u00a0Jocko, of course, joined him, watching the workings of the scaffold and trap with especially studious eyes.<\/p>\n

Back home, the primate scurried off to busy himself in his master’s barn. The result of his private endeavours was nothing less than an evolutionary breakthrough. Alas, it was almost instantly annulled by what the Liverpool Echo called “one of the most novel suicides of the century”. \u00a0Jocko was found dead, suspended by a clothes line to one of the rafters of the building, a victim of his own ghoulish experimentation. \u00a0So ended one of the most dismal episodes in 19th Century pet care.<\/p>\n

Culled from: BBC News Magazine
\n<\/a>Generously submitted by: Katchaya<\/p>\n

I’m inspired to make a t-shirt with a hanging monkey that says, “Monkey See, Monkey Do” on it. \u00a0Any buyers???<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s Suicidal Yet Truly Morbid Fact! There are many reasons why animal experts might consider it unsuitable to keep a primate as a pet, but an episode from the 19th Century provides a particularly bizarre warning. \u00a0Rockwell Syrock had a hobby. Jocko rather liked it too. \u00a0Together they toured the towns of Victorian North Carolina, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-facts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4826"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4827,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4826\/revisions\/4827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}