RICHARD FREEMAN: The Monsters of Prague (part one)

THE HAIRY MAN
This creature is supposed to resemble a cross between a gorilla, a bear and a primitive hominid. It lurks in the sewers and occasionally emerges from the stinking waters of the River Vitava and once is said to have strangled several prostitutes in a brothel on Konviktska Street. The police investigated but did not catch the creature.

One theory is that it was a spirit angry because the brothel stood on what was once the site of St John's Church. It is possible that the legend is based on an escaped chimpanzee brought to Prague by a traveller or early collector of exotic animals.

The story may have inspired Edgar Allan Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue.