The Hoboken Monkeyman showed up in the local folklore sometime around the 1980s, from what I've read. He was the local 'bogeyman', used to warn kids about going off alone or misbehaving. He is still said to be 'out there', according to some people.

Later on, he showed up on the Travelling Wilburys album in a song called "Tweeter and the Monkey Man" as a drug dealer.

For me, the Monkeyman/Bogeyman phenomenon is all about conformity, willful self-delusion, and isolation.

He is Anawim- cast out- an 'other' who becomes a monster to the 'normals'.

The normals are unhappy, fearful, stressed and hurt by the system they inhabit, but they project their angst, pain, and fear onto him, the guy who reminds them of their real terror- the threat of not belonging.

He becomes the repository of their cast-off darkness because he doesn't fit in with their torturous society.

As such, he is not a human being worthy of compassion, he is not welcome into their world, he is the embodiment of human evil.

But think about it: if this all grew from an actual unhoused person, a cast-away man on the street, then perhaps their perspective of what "monstrous" is could use some tweaking.

All windows/ no doors: I see you out there, and you're not welcome in here.