I remember hearing a story years ago that some crazy lady had managed to jump into either the tiger or the lion enclosure at the National Zoo after the park had closed for the night and ended up being killed by the animal. Can anyone confirm if this really happened or even made the papers?

If such an event HAD happened, it would have been something like 20-25 years ago.



I've looked around online for information, but of course something like that would probably be very hush-hush.


So was this incident fact or fiction??

Oh, you mean the National Zoo located in downtown Fairfax?

No, Eastern Fairfax, sort of like how Lorton is considered "Alexandria South."

Besides, it would be "of interest" to Fairfaxers, even if it was over the border in that not-a-state place.

During that time frame, I had a next door neighbor who was an Animal Handler
at the National Zoo and he never mentioned it. I think he would have if
something like that had happened. He used to travel the world to pick up
animals to bring to the zoo and I used to really enjoy some of his stories.
If you cant find anything, ask an elephant. I hear their memories are quite
good.

I've been around here for 24 years, and I've spent a lot of time in the District, including at the Smithsonian Institutions (The Zoo included). I never heard of that story before, but there are plenty of crazy scenarios which I did hear about, and a few I witnessed myself. This area does have a lot of action, despite what some think.

I do remember that story. I was kid and I remember seeing the the diagram of the tiger pen where she was found in the Washington Post. If I remember correctly they said that she had mental problems and was just let out of facility/treatment. I wanna say they may have been White Tigers that ended up mauling her to death, mainly on the head and arms and then they got bored with her. I think they found her the following morning.

That's funny that you remember that. I hadn't thought about that story in years, but I remember reading the story as a kid.

BTW, this is "Sculler". Why am I getting a message that "The name that you entered is already registered by another user"?

I don't really know Wrote:
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> Besides, it would be "of interest" to Fairfaxers,
> even if it was over the border in that not-a-state
> place.

Kind of like a chemical plant explosion in Colorado would be of interest to "Fairfaxers." I agree with you, let's just get rid of the Off-Topic forum and let everyone post any shit they want in the Fairfax forum. After all, if it is tangentially interesting to you, it MUST be interesting to all of the "Fairfaxers."

March 5, 1995/Washington, D.C.: A woman was fatally mauled by lions after climbing into their enclosure at the National Zoo. The body was so battered and shredded so violently that her fingerprints were gone and her face unrecognizable.

That maybe it. But I agree with you when I say that I feel like that happened earlier and it was tigers.

RESton Peace Wrote:
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> Oh, you mean the National Zoo located in downtown
> Fairfax?


She was mauled to death by a pygmy goat at the Reston Zoo.

The Real Sculler Wrote:
---------------------------------------------------
>>> > BTW, this is "Sculler". Why am I getting a message that "The name that you entered is already registered by another user"?


Some moron probably registered the name Sculler to prevent you from using it or so they could post bogus messages under that name. Stuff like that happens on here and I'm pretty sure Cary has banned idiots in the past for doing that. That's why it's a good idea to register a user name ,you don't even need to use a real email address. I think Cary might get the name back for you if you can get a hold of him, he's done stuff like that before too I think.

....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/2015 10:10PM by WingNut.

Was he related to Borf?

.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/2015 10:09PM by WingNut.

Only if the chemical cloud was drifting this way. Last chemical plant I saw was being saved by Jack Bauer. But since you asked, what is it about those fumes as you drive through Northern Jersey on the Turnpike?

The National Zoo is different... most Fairfaxians have been there and a surprising number care about panda sex.




pgens Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Kind of like a chemical plant explosion in
> Colorado would be of interest to "Fairfaxers." I
> agree with you, let's just get rid of the
> Off-Topic forum and let everyone post any shit
> they want in the Fairfax forum. After all, if it
> is tangentially interesting to you, it MUST be
> interesting to all of the "Fairfaxers."

Like I said, I'm agreeing with you... post whatever you want.

I really don't know Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
what is it about those fumes as you drive through Northern Jersey
on the Turnpike?

Dutch Boy Paints in Perth Amboy.

POLICE IDENTIFY WOMAN FOUND DEAD IN D.C. ZOO'S LION EXHIBIT

WASHINGTON, March 7, 1995 - A woman found dead in the lions' pen at the National Zoo over the weekend was identified as an Arkansas resident with a history of mental-health problems.

A Metropolitan police detective said yesterday that the woman, whose body was discovered early Saturday morning by a zookeeper, was Margaret Davis King, 36, of Little Rock. A homeless mother of three suffering from schizophrenia, she had come to Washington with the apparent intent of getting back the custody of her children. Having spent the day in a fruitless effort to obtain the information she sought from a government clerk, who was bewildered by her calm but bizarre behavior, she took herself to the National Zoo, scaled the three and half-foot fence that surrounded the lion enclosure, lowered herself down a nine foot wall, swam the moat that further separated the lions from visitors to the Zoo and climbed onto the grassy terrace where the lions normally fed. When discovered by a zoo worker the following morning, her arms and hands had been gnawed off and bite marks covered her body. The medical examiner listed the cause of death as “sharp-and blunt-force injury associated with massive blood and soft tissue loss” and ruled the death a suicide.







'The Woman at the Washington Zoo'

The saris go by me from the embassies.

Cloth from the moon. Cloth from another planet.
They look back at the leopard like the leopard.

And I. . . .
     This print of mine, that has kept its color
Alive through so many cleanings; this dull null
Navy I wear to work, and wear from work, and so
To my bed, so to my grave, with no
Complaints, no comment: neither from my chief,
The Deputy Chief Assistant, nor his chief—

Only I complain. . . . this serviceable
Body that no sunlight dyes, no hand suffuses
But, dome-shadowed, withering among columns,
Wavy beneath fountains—small, far-off, shining
In the eyes of animals, these beings trapped
As I am trapped but not, themselves, the trap,
Aging, but without knowledge of their age,
Kept safe here, knowing not of death, for death—
Oh, bars of my own body, open, open!

The world goes by my cage and never sees me.
And there come not to me, as come to these,
The wild beasts, sparrows pecking the llamas' grain,
Pigeons settling on the bears' bread, buzzards
Tearing the meat the flies have clouded. . . .

               Vulture,
When you come for the white rat that the foxes left,
Take off the red helmet of your head, the black
Wings that have shadowed me, and step to me as a man:
The wild brother at whose feet the white wolves fawn,
To whose hand of power the great lioness
Stalks, purring. . . .

               You know what I was,
You see what I am: change me, change me!

  - Randall Jarrell (circa 1960)

anyone know? wrote:
"I remember hearing a story years ago that some crazy lady had managed to jump into either the tiger or the lion enclosure at the National Zoo after the park had closed for the night....."
_________________

That sounds like something Spunky might do.

After the incident, it was reported that one of the lions was overheard saying (damn she tasted just like chicken)




POLICE IDENTIFY WOMAN FOUND DEAD IN D.C. ZOO'S LION EXHIBIT

WASHINGTON, March 7, 1995 - A woman found dead in the lions' pen at the National Zoo over the weekend was identified as an Arkansas resident with a history of mental-health problems.

A Metropolitan police detective said yesterday that the woman, whose body was discovered early Saturday morning by a zookeeper, was Margaret Davis King, 36, of Little Rock. A homeless mother of three suffering from schizophrenia, she had come to Washington with the apparent intent of getting back the custody of her children. Having spent the day in a fruitless effort to obtain the information she sought from a government clerk, who was bewildered by her calm but bizarre behavior, she took herself to the National Zoo, scaled the three and half-foot fence that surrounded the lion enclosure, lowered herself down a nine foot wall, swam the moat that further separated the lions from visitors to the Zoo and climbed onto the grassy terrace where the lions normally fed. When discovered by a zoo worker the following morning, her arms and hands had been gnawed off and bite marks covered her body. The medical examiner listed the cause of death as “sharp-and blunt-force injury associated with massive blood and soft tissue loss” and ruled the death a suicide.

This story is true and the time is correct too... My father was one of the first people on the scene and I remember him telling me all about this... At the time I was 9 and it seemed bad... not so much now..