by Maisie Allison
Chris Jones reconstructs the events surrounding last fall's Zanesville Zoo "incident," when dozens of exotic animals were killed after being released by their owner, Terry Thompson. Thompson killed himself after letting the animals loose:
When [Sargeant Steve Blake] began pushing open doors, his shotgun at the ready, he was suddenly filled with the fear that Thompson had booby-trapped his house with something other than animals: a dead man's line tied to a door knob, explosives wired to a light switch. The screaming of the monkeys followed Blake everywhere, breaking his concentration. "Those monkeys, raising hell," he says, shaking his head. "It was just unreal." Room by room he and [volunteer caretaker John] Moore searched the rest of the house. They came up empty. They returned to the car and Blake once again headed down the driveway. "Stop!" Moore shouted from the backseat, looking out the window to his right. "I think Terry's down there."
They got out of the cruiser, and they both saw Terry Thompson, down a short embankment, bloody and lying flat on his back. There was a pistol on the grass; Blake didn't see the blue bolt cutters that were lying about ten feet away. A tiger — a white tiger, a genetic mutant — was gnawing at Thompson's head. Most of the top of his head was missing; other parts of him had also been eaten. Now the white tiger dragged Thompson around, puncturing his throat with its teeth.
Esquire is promoting the magazine article with a video trailer (above). Justin Ellis explains the strategy here. Dish coverage of the bizarre tragedy here.
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