[user104658]

"One stormy day during the Napoleonic Wars, a French ship was wrecked off the coast of an old fishing village clinging to the north-east coast of England.

The only survivor was the ship's mascot, a monkey that was washed ashore.

The people of Hartlepool had never seen a monkey before - nor, for that matter, had they ever set eyes on a Frenchman.

Mistaking its chattering for the language of the enemy, they convicted the monkey of being a French spy and hanged the animal on the beach.

Or so the story goes."


Very apt for this thread really, I have a feeling this is a cautionary tale about the mindlessness of "mob mentality".