Inside The Wild New Theories About The Siegfried And Roy Tiger Attack

Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn of legendary magician group Siegfried and Roy had a long and epic run. Even in death, the two pulled a dramatic one-two punch, with Fischbacher dying in January 2021 from pancreatic cancer per The New York Times, just eight months after Horn died from coronavirus complications at age 75. "From the moment we met, I knew Roy and I, together, would change the world," Fischbacher said in a tearjerker statement to Page Six. "There could be no Siegfried without Roy, and no Roy without Siegfried." 

The wildly successful duo attracted and delighted tourists for decades until a fateful mid-show tiger attack in 2003, per NBC News. Hours after Horn celebrated turning 59 on October 3, 2003, per the New York Post, a 400-pound Bengal tiger named Mantecore mauled Horn to the point of partial paralysis. Freezing all foreseeable performances then, Horn told Las Vegas Weekly 10 years later that Mantecore was actually trying to help him. "I had high blood pressure at that time, and because of the energy level of the show, I got excited and passed out onstage and fell," Horn explained. Mantecore got "confused, and so he picked me up by the neck. He brought me to the side so he could attend to me."

Whatever the case, the pair retired in 2010, and posthumously, new theories about Mantecore's seemingly random act of violence have surfaced.

A shocked and saddened public watched the fallout from Roy Horn's 2003 tiger attack, but as Siegfried and Roy's high-grossing illusionist show at the Mirage shut down permanently in 2010, rumors began to percolate that Horn's beloved Bengal, Mantecore, turning on him was not a random act. "There were theories that... somebody triggered the tiger," Steven Leckart, host of the Apple TV+ podcast, "Wild Things: Siegfried & Roy, told the New York Post. "You wonder why somebody would try to turn a tiger against a magician."

The "Why" is exactly what Leckart explores in his podcast, examples ranging from animal rights activists to homophobia to an attempt to cripple Las Vegas' economy (the Siegfried and Roy act grossed $45 million a year, per the Post.). Leckart clarified that the incident was treated like "an actual crime," specifically "a potential hate crime... Motives that were explored seemed bananas — and they are." The Mirage had, for instance, received a cryptic email that read, "If there is audio & video of the tiger attack it should be analyzed for far-UV and or high ultra-sonics, as well as other triggers that might be the work of a terrorist aiming at a high profile GAY target." The tip was not taken lightly, and like others, was dutifully filed into a government report investigating the attack.  

As Leckart admitted, "It was the wildest case investigators ever worked on."