Georgia Man Arrested: Charged With Impersonating a Gorilla

Georgia sheriff says gorilla-man terrified a group of young people on their way to a costume party.

Atlanta April 17, 2010

A Georgia man in an unincorporated community 20 miles S.E. of Atlanta, depicted in the accompanying police photo, was arrested and charged with impersonating a gorilla. The man, who apparently only intended to frighten a group of teenagers when he saw them in costumes, jumped out from behind a fence, roared and began beating on his chest while making menacing moves towards the young people.

One of the women, 16 year-old Beverly Merkle, fainted from the shock. Another, apparently trying to imitate the actress, Fay Wray, who starred in the original King Kong movie, tried to leap into the "gorilla's" arms but was summarily dropped to the sidewalk by the gorilla-man, who was beginning to show alarm as he realized at least some of the youngsters actually thought he was an escaped gorilla. He tried to explain the misunderstanding but one of the teenagers pulled out a handgun and pointed it at him, at which point the gorilla-man fled. Police discovered him later a half mile from the scene of the incident, trying to hide inside a dumpster in the parking lot of an apartment complex. He offered no resistance and was led away to a waiting police van and transported to the county jail for arraignment. He was brought into court in heavy shackles by several armed deputies, one with a tazer.

When the man began to speak and presented his identification (drivers license, credit cards, voter registration) to the magistrate, he was ordered released immediately from the shackles and then was released on his own recognizance, pending a hearing to be set later in the month, to determine his guilt or innocence to the charges of impersonating a gorilla and menacing. The latter, a more serious charge, is a felony, and carries penalties up to five years in state prison.

In a brief statement after the arraignment, the magistrate, Judge Felix Lambert, who requested not to be identified, said this was a case of first impression for him and that he previously was unaware of the statute making it a crime (misdemeanor) to impersonate a gorilla. "What about Halloween?," said the judge. "And what about a gorilla impersonating a man? Is that a crime, too?"