"Man Assaults Snakes in MNH Reptile Exhibit," by James A. Peters, in the Smithsonian "Torch," April 1969, pgs. 2 and 4.
"Man Held in Museum Fracas," Washington Post, Times Herald April 6, 1969, Page 10.
Adele Conover, "The Object at Hand," Smithsonian Magazine, June 1995.
Summary:
On April 4, 1969, Lampros Marines attacked the Malayan display in the Reptiles Exhibit of the National Museum of Natural History. Marines smashed through the glass exhibit case with a hatchet and then used a butcher knife to decapitate the reticulated python and king cobra and stab the Komodo dragon. He was apprehended by chief of the museum's guard force, Captain Wilfred L'Abbe, who noted a report that Marines had previously attempted to injure a large snake on display in January 1968. In the 1969 incident, Marines was charged with damage to government property and held on $5000 bond.
