I found this story (with a black and white photo) in the `The East Hampton
Star`, a New York newspaper of April 23rd 1959, front page. The headline, in the
top left hand corner of the page was `Police Baffled by Case of Dead Lizards.`
The caption under the photo was `The Lizards are examined by Paul Rickenbach,
Star reptile editor and house musician.`
" The Case of the Monster Lizards,opened by the discovery of two dead
giant reptiles on the beach at Two Mile Hollow Sunday morning, remains unsolved
on the books of the East Hampton Village Police.It is a mystery which will
thrill readers of Fu Manchu and bring morbid chuckles to Charles Addams fans.
(Charles Addams was a dark-humoured cartoonist from whence the famous or should
that be infamous Addams Family T.V series got its name.)
Dominick Grace of East Hampton made the grim discovery while strolling on
the beach at about 9.30 Sunday morning. A wooden crate, with a mesh grille on
one side, rested on the sands .Mr Grace peered into the combination coffin-raft;
saw the two bodies; and hurried off to tell the police.
The police came ,and opened the crate, spilling the two corpses to the
sand. One was about 6 1/2 feet long, the other about 7. Both were spotted with a
thin pattern of green and yellow spots on a brownish background;had long,thin
tails; and were sticking long forked tongues out at the investigators. Two metal
feeding trays were inside the cage, which was marked " Made in Japan.."
"Singa..." and had other scribblings in oriental script. The curious gathered,
and speculated. What tales could be heard if dead lizards told tales?
Amateur naturalists consulted the encyclopedias and concluded that the
beasts fit the description of the monitor lizard family of southern Asia . "They
are all rapacious and some reach a length of ten feet", commented the
dictionary.
Most observers agreed that they had been tossed overboard from some passing
freighter. But why? Had they sickened, and died? Or had some sailor tired of
their rapacity and given them the deep six
( A nautical
expression indicating a water depth of 6 fathoms (36 feet, 10.97 metres) as measured by a sounding line; "deep six" acquired its
idiomatic definition because something thrown overboard at or greater than this
depth would be difficult, if not impossible, to recover. Marks on a sounding
line were traditionally placed at 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 13, 15, 17, and 20 fathoms.
The "leadsman" called out the depth as he read it off the line. If the depth was
at a mark he would call "by the mark" followed by the number; if the depth was
between two marks, he would call "by the deep" followed by the estimated number.
Six fathoms would therefore be reported as "by the deep six".
Wikipedia.)
...No inquest was
held, and the police allowed benevolent citizens to remove the bodies for decent
burials.The case remains open. (The lizards could have been Mangrove Monitors
which have lived in Japan since the 1940s or the Malayan Monitor which is found
in Singapore.)
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