Fact from Fiction
The story as told in the film is basically accuratis basically accurate. However, I would like to point out some of the 'embellishments' that Hollywood, as usual, has added to the story.
First and foremost, the two lions, both male, were unusual in that they did not have manes. They are of normal lion coloration. However, the reissue of Patterson's book, 'The Man-Eaters of Tsavo', that was done for the movie, claims on the back cover that the two lions were 'white as snow' and 'black as the night'. (Hence the name, 'The Ghost and the Darkness'.) No where is this mentioned in the actual text of the book. Nor do the pictures of the lions in the book show anything like this. To make matters even more confusing, the lions in the movie are maned males of normal coloration!
Colonel Patterson reports that the first man-eater was 9 feet, 8 inches long, nose-to-tail. He also states that the second man-eater was 9 feet, 6 inches long nose-to-tail and 3 feet, 11 1/2 inches tall. These sizes are consistent with normal male lions.
No professional hunter was involved in the real story. Unless, that is that you would want to consider Colonel Patterson as a professional hunter. He was an excellent hunter in his own right, with details of many an expedition recorded in his book. In any case, Colonel Patterson shot both lions by himself. The first lion was almost a lucky shot from his rickety Machan.The second lion required many shots over 10 days to kill it. Both lion kill it. Both lions were, oddly enough, killed over nonhuman bait.
In the movie, it is alleged that the lions were killing for sport. This does not often happen in the real world. Even man-eaters normally kill only what they need to survive. Killing for sport by lions is not mentioned in the book. Indeed, the killing pattern recorded is very consistent with normal lion hunting patterns. There were no mass-slaughters as depicted in the film. Interestingly enough however, a leopard killed all 30 of Colonel Patterson's sheep and goats in one night! Where 'killing for sport' has been observed among the big cats, it has been when a quantity of prey animals was available, and in an unusually vulnerable situation. A good example would be a pen full of defenseless goats. Man was probably considered by the lions as easy to kill, but still quite dangerous.
Most of the attempts at capturing the lions, such as the boxcar trick and the hospital trick, were actually done, but were significantly overdramatized in the movie. (Some were not, such as the adventure on the Machan, a rickety platform from which the first man-eater was shot. But even this event is not completely free of tampering. For instance, the bait used in the film was a live baboon. In the real story, it was a donkey the lions had killed and partly eaten the day before. Also, Colonel Patterson never fell off the machan, as he did in the movie.
Inhe movie.
In any case, a reading of the true story is an absolute must for anyone who enjoyed the film. Is is more interesting, and in some ways even scarier than the movie. The book also describes a lot of other adventures in the African bush. The movie-companion edition of the book also discusses the many other adventures of Colonel Patterson, a most remarkable man. Check out the Tsavo Maneater Resources page for more information about the book. (The title of the book is 'The Man-Eaters of Tsavo', and is one of two books Colonel Patterson wrote. The second book, 'In the Grip of the Nyika: Further Adventures in British East Africa' was published in 1909. Unlike it's predecessor, it never became very popular, and is long out of print.)
Amazon has Capstick's edition, so it must still be in print.