Franklin Park Zoo

This guide to Franklin Park Zoo in Boston centers on the evening of September 28, 2003, when an eleven-year-old gorilla named Little Joe cleared a twelve-foot moat, crossed an electrified wire, and vaulted a low pane of glass to walk out of the Tropical Forest exhibit. It recalls his brief escape six weeks earlier that nobody took seriously, then follows what happened once he was loose in the streets of Dorchester, stopping to rest at a bus stop on Seaver Street a few blocks from here. Fifty police officers and zoo staff eventually converged on the search.