Lessons learnt from reading the Richard Pryor Biography...

Don't leave your pet monkeys in the care of a crack dealer called "Dirty Dick"...

Mooney, who begrudgingly watched the animals whenever Shelley and I went out of town, resigned his caretaker post once I added Girlfriend* to the mix. In need of a babysitter for several weeks, I pressed Dirty Dick into service. He was my only option. Still I should've know better.

When I got back, both the monkeys were dead.

"They killed themselves," he said, "committed suicide."

"What?" I asked, shocked.

"Yeah", he said, pointing to a gas burner on the old stove in the middle of the kitchen.

"The accidentally turned it on and suffocated".

Pryor Convictions, (2005) p.118-119

*A female monkey Pryor bought to prevent his male monkey 'Boyfriend' fucking him in the ear all the time with his wee monkey dick.