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MITMH2022
Public Access

Solution to The Thin Pan

Noirleans

Answer: ALAMOGORDO
by Katie Hamill and Kevin Wald

The two investigators hosting the Nick-and-Nora-style dinner party are the chimpanzee scientists Cornelius and Zira from the original Planet of the Apes. Each of their guests is a fictional ape (orangutan, gorilla, bonobo, or chimpanzee) or a human being played by Charlton Heston in a film. (Bright Eyes is what Zira calls Charlton Heston's character in Planet of the Apes, and so she uses the same nickname for the similar-looking human beings here.)

Each guest has committed a crime against some other guest; the bolded words in the accusation clue a word that is a transaddition of the victim's name. The accusation also clues who the perpetrator is; to help in identification, the accusations are in alphabetical order by perpetrator.

In that order we have (using orange, yellow, green, cyan, and blue for orangutans, gorillas, human beings, bonobos, and chimpanzees):

Perpetrator From Clued word Victim Extra letter Accusation
BEAR BJ and the Bear DODGERGRODD E During the three seasons you spent trucking around with your partner, you spread malicious rumors that someone in this very room was a draft evader!
BINGO Banana Splits UNSTONEDDUNSTON E You played drums alongside Fleegle and your other bestial bandmates until your music made someone in this very room hallucinate, even when not under the influence of psychoactive substances!
BOBO Kim Possible EMBOSSMOSES B Back in your days rampaging at Camp Wannaweep, you even dared to put a notarizing seal on a fraudulent affidavit implicating someone in this very room!
CHEETA Tarzan DAUNT UTAN D You had your aristocratic but loincloth-clad colleague summon elephants so their intimidating size would dishearten someone in this very room!
CLYDE Every Which Way But Loose/Any Which Way You Can DELTIC EL CID T You kept improperly signaling for right turns in your partner Philo's truck until someone in this very room, stuck behind you, exploded like dihydroxycyclopropenone!
DUNSTON Duston Checks In INTERBRACHIALTHE LIBRARIAN C You teamed up with a jewel thief at the Majestic Hotel to steal jewelry worn between the arms of someone in this very room!
ED SIMIAN Lancelot Link BORINGBINGO R You imitated a master of ceremonies introducing a band called "Evolution Revolution," but really you were drilling holes in the stage while someone in this very room was trying to perform!
EL CID El Cid MACHETECHEETA M And you, Bright Eyes, when you were fighting in 11th century Spain on your horse Babieca, your really big knife injured someone in this very room!
GORR Marvel Comics RANSOMMASON R You, Goldilocks, used your influence as the valet to the High Evolutionary of Counter-Earth to kidnap someone in this very room, forcing others to offer money to free them!
GRAPE APE Grape Ape MAIDENISHED SIMIAN H You big purple so-and-so, you created a huge disturbance, loudly repeating your own name over and over and offending the young, innocent, ladylike ears of someone in this very room!
GRODD Marvel Comics HORNETTHORN E You used your mental powers to convince a stinging insect to sting the Flash, but instead someone in this very room got stung!
JELANI Ape House (novel) OOZIESTZOOTIE S When you were just an adolescent show-off on that reality show, you, Sam, Makena, and the rest broke out of the house and smeared someone in this very room with the most slimy substances you could find!
KONG King Kong JAWLINEJELANI W You may be the king of your own island, but that hardly gives you the right to punch someone in this very room, bruising their mandible's edge!
MASON Madagascar ERBIABEAR I When you and your friend Phil and all those others went on a cargo ship to Africa, you took along ten tons of the oxide of element 68 rightfully belonging to someone in this very room!
MOSES The Ten Commandments TOOTHOTTO H As my lovely wife would say, and you, Bright Eyes, you climbed up a mountain, came down with stone tablets, and threw them directly at someone in this very room, breaking a dental appendage!
OTTO Endangered (novel) OKINGKONG I We read all about how Sophie rescued you in that National Book Award finalist, but what they left out of the story was you giving the go-ahead to an elaborate con game against someone in this very room!
THE LIBRARIAN Discworld RIGORGORR I As you were managing the Unseen University's book collection, you reedited a math text by someone in this very room so its proofs had less logical exactitude!
THORN Soylent Green CLAYEDCLYDE A And you, Bright Eyes, just this year, you got suspicious about the "plankton wafers" we've all been eating, went digging where you shouldn't, and now someone in this very room is covered with adobe!
UTAN Vandread (anime) BOOBYBOBO Y After you and Rabatto tried to steal Hibiki's Bangaata, you pinned your attempted crime on the blue-footed bird of someone in this very room!
ZOOTIE Babe 2: Pig in the City PAUPERAGEGRAPE APE U You met up with your porcine pal in the urban area where you live, missy, and then you broke into the home of someone in this very room, and stole everything they owned, leaving them in a state of poverty!

The criminal acts form a giant loop; these provide an ordering, with Bobo (as noted after his accusation) being the first perpetrator and last victim:

Perpetrator Extra Letter Victim
BOBO BMOSES
MOSES HOTTO
OTTO IKONG
KONG WJELANI
JELANI SZOOTIE
ZOOTIE UGRAPE APE
GRAPE APE HED SIMIAN
ED SIMIAN RBINGO
BINGO EDUNSTON
DUNSTON CTHE LIBRARIAN
THE LIBRARIAN IGORR
GORR RMASON
MASON IBEAR
BEAR EGRODD
GRODD ETHORN
THORN ACLYDE
CLYDE TEL CID
EL CID MCHEETA
CHEETA DUTAN
UTAN YBOBO

Taking each group by itself, and taking the groups in "folder order," that is, ordered by genetic closeness to the chimps Cornelius and Zira, we have:

Group Folder number Letters in group
Orangutans 1 CITY
Gorillas 2 WHERE
Human beings 3 HAM
Bonobos 4 IS
Chimpanzees 5 BURIED

The answer is the city where the "space chimp" Ham (who did indeed die of natural causes) is buried: ALAMOGORDO.