Fleecing the Gullible: June 1994 Archives

United States: In September, according to prosecutors, Dan Koenigsberg schemed to harass Mel Henderson, the only black member of the Teaneck, N. J., city council, during a meeting being shown live on local TV. Koenigsberg hired a messenger to dress in a gorilla costume and to bring Henderson a bunch of bananas, a toy monkey, and two balloons with drawings of monkeys on them. Koenigsberg later apologized in a letter to a local newspaper: My intention was not to bring race into the political debate. [Newark Star-Ledger, December 1993, via News of the Weird, 18th February 1994]