Hartlepool Monkey Faced Spy Trial

According to a Hartlepool legend, a French ship sank off the northern English town during the Napoleonic Wars, leaving a monkey dressed in a miniature military-style uniform as its only survivor. Most townspeople had never seen a Frenchman, while contemporary cartoons sometimes depicted French people as monkey-like figures, so the locals allegedly mistook the animal for an enemy spy. They tried the monkey, found it guilty, and hanged it in the town square. Although no one knows whether the story is true, it has endured for more than 200 years and earned Hartlepool residents the nickname "monkey hangers."

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