For the first time, Indonesians heard about Mankiman in April 2003. Reports about this unusual creature appeared in the police chronicle, and then in the national press. The descriptions of the Monkey-Man are not very diverse. This creature, according to eyewitnesses, resembles a big cat with burning eyes. Some witnesses claimed that his eyes burn with orange fire, and there is an additional pair of eyes on his chest, or just glowing dots that shine with green fire. Other witnesses said that he looked like a monkey, in any case, the monster was given the nickname Monkey Man. He runs fast, is very agile, according to some eyewitnesses, he wears something like a helmet on his head.
Monkey Man appeared on April 2, 2003 in the vicinity of the city of Mangala in Sumatra. He was shouting and jumping up trees not far from the women who were washing clothes on the stream. At first, the women thought it was a monkey. The monster jumped out of the thicket and ran straight across the wooden catwalk. When he got close to the women, he started jumping and waving his paws as if threatening them. One of the witnesses, a thirty-year-old peasant woman Miriam Sotavi, described the appearance of an unusual creature: “He jumped and screamed like a madman. He was about the height of a large monkey, about a meter 20 centimeters. The eyes burned with an ominous green light, the paws seemed to be made of iron and with huge claws. He jumped in front of us for about ten minutes, and then ran into the woods.”
One of the women was pregnant, was terribly scared and began to give birth ahead of time. She was taken to the hospital in Mengala, but the woman in labor died from blood loss.
In the next two days, the police received thirteen calls from local residents who complained that they were attacked by a hairy creature with iron claws. In the next two weeks, the Monkey Man attacked two women and three old men. He scratched the faces of women, hit one old man on the head and chest, after which the unfortunate had a heart attack.
Police patrols went to the scene of the incidents, but could not find the hooligan and only collected testimony from witnesses.
On April 25, Mankiman was seen hundreds of kilometers from the place of his first appearance, in the north of Sumarta in an agricultural area near the town of Pematangsiantar. And again, the monster scared mostly women and old people. This time all the witnesses said that he had some kind of headdress on his head. One teenager got into a fight with a Monkey Man, as a result, he broke his rib. Interestingly, in all cases, the monster attacked either in the early predawn hours, or in the evening, at dusk. For this reason, all the victims of the attack could not properly consider their abuser. As a rule, after the attack, he quickly retreated.
The press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not give any official comments. However, various versions of what happened appeared in the press. It was claimed that the Monkey Man is a man in a mask and a special suit, judging by his height, a teenager, that is, simply a hooligan who has fun scaring people. A friend of the hypothesis is a tamed monkey who escaped from a zoo or a private house, who put a stolen hat on her head and gloves with metal inserts on her hands. These are sometimes worn by motorcyclists. Absolutely unthinkable assumptions were put forward that a killer robot sent to Indonesia by foreign intelligence was hooliganism, or it was an alien who flew to Sumatra in a flying saucer.
It is impossible not to notice that the descriptions of Mankimen resemble the Hindu god Hanuman, the king of monkeys. Hanuman is often depicted holding a mace in his hands (let’s remember metal paws).
The panic in Sumatra was growing, partly due to the mass media, which only whipped up fear.
Several people with bite marks were taken to hospitals. According to the victims, they were attacked by a Monkey Man. However, doctors quickly determined that the patients had been bitten by rabid dogs.
Reports of attacks by the monkey-like monster began to arrive from different places – from cities and rural areas. Allegedly, the Monkey Man was seen even on the streets of Pedan. This happened in early May. Eyewitnesses claimed that it was more of a man than a monkey, with a dark face, glasses and a hat. In the vicinity of Pidan, people detained and brought to the police a tramp named Jamir. He inspired suspicion by the fact that he was very small in height, only 1.4 meters, and also very dark skin color. The latter fact was explained by the fact that Jamir turned black from sunburn, as he walked in one loincloth. The tramp was beaten, although he was a completely harmless creature, a wandering monk.
It should be noted that two years earlier, a MankiMan, or a creature very similar to him, had been rowdy in India. The descriptions are similar – a creature resembling a monkey, a cat or a bear cub with glowing eyes and metal paws. However, there was more panic in India: at least a thousand people saw the monster there, the last time a Monkey Man was seen in Sumatra in early June 2003. Nothing has been heard from him since. His secret is not solved. Skeptics say that it was a mad monkey. Cases of monkeys attacking people are known. Iron paws and a hat on his head are, perhaps, only the conjectures of very frightened people.
