In “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, detective C. Auguste Dupin concludes that an “Ourang-Outang” (orangutan) is the killer of two women. He places an advertisement in the newspaper asking if anyone has lost such an animal, and a sailor arrives looking for it. The sailor offers a reward, but Dupin is interested only in learning the circumstances behind the two murders. The sailor explains that he captured the orangutan while in Borneo and brought it back to Paris, intending to sell it, but had trouble keeping it under control. When he saw the orangutan attempting to shave its face with his straight razor, imitating his morning grooming, it fled into the streets and reached the Rue Morgue, where it climbed up and into the house. The orangutan seized the mother by the hair and was waving the razor, imitating a barber; when she screamed in fear, it flew into a rage, ripped her hair out, slashed her throat, and strangled Camille. The sailor climbed up the lightning rod in an attempt to catch the animal, and the two voices heard by witnesses belonged to it and him. Fearing punishment by its master, the orangutan threw the mother’s body out the window and stuffed Camille into the chimney before fleeing.
First Appearance “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” in Graham’s Magazine (1841)
First Publisher Graham’s Magazine
Appearance List Collections: Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1923). Films: At least four films of the early silent era, including Sherlock Holmes in the Great Murder Mystery (1908), The Phantom Thief (1914), Who Killed Olga Carew? (1913), The Orang-Outang (1915). The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1914), The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), Phantom of the Rue Morgue (1954).
Description In “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, detective C. Auguste Dupin concludes that an “Ourang-Outang” (orangutan) is the killer of two women. He places an advertisement in the newspaper asking if anyone has lost such an animal, and a sailor arrives looking for it. The sailor offers a reward, but Dupin is interested only in learning the circumstances behind the two murders. The sailor explains that he captured the orangutan while in Borneo and brought it back to Paris, intending to sell it, but had trouble keeping it under control. When he saw the orangutan attempting to shave its face with his straight razor, imitating his morning grooming, it fled into the streets and reached the Rue Morgue, where it climbed up and into the house. The orangutan seized the mother by the hair and was waving the razor, imitating a barber; when she screamed in fear, it flew into a rage, ripped her hair out, slashed her throat, and strangled Camille. The sailor climbed up the lightning rod in an attempt to catch the animal, and the two voices heard by witnesses belonged to it and him. Fearing punishment by its master, the orangutan threw the mother’s body out the window and stuffed Camille into the chimney before fleeing.
