"The Ghost and the Darkness"-Man-eaters of Tsavo

I just viewed one of my favorite movies, “The Ghost and the Darkness”. A very good movie with very good acting. An excellent story line based on a true event that occurred in Eastern Africa on the Tsavo River where the British were building a bridge to cross said river. The movie sticks very closely to the actual facts, except in a couple of areas.
The event took place in the year of 1898. The main character was Engr. Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson who led the construction of the bridge which was completed in 1899 after a nine month ordeal of which the movie portrays. The construction of the bridge was interfered with by two man-eating lions from March to December and at one point was halted. Many Indian railway workers were killed and eaten by the two male lions during the construction period, who dragged men from their tents at night and devoured them. The workers built campfires and bomas (thorn fences) around their camp to keep the man-eaters out, but the man-eaters were able to crawl through. Before work could resume, Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson had to "sort it out" as the expression was in the movie. Patterson set traps and tried several times to ambush the lions at night from a tree. He finally shot the first lion on December 9, 1898, and three weeks later brought down the second, ending the ordeal and the movie.
As to the number of those killed and eaten sources differ. One source said the two large male lions killed and ate nearly 140 railway workers. Railway records, according to Paterson's calculations, only recorded 28 deaths. However, Patterson later said in a speech of his account 28 Indians were killed, as well as a large number of native Africans, so the total number is closer to 135. In either case, it was a large number.
Poor burial practices may have also contributed to the Tsavo tragedy. Railroad workers who died of injury or disease were often poorly buried, or not buried at all. A scavenging lion coming across this easy meal might start going after live humans. Another factor could have been an outbreak of rinderpest disease that killed a large number of the animals lions would normally prey on for food causing them to choose the alternative, which there was plenty of, humans.
The movie was an excellent portrayal of this ongoing event. The two main exceptions to the facts were additions to enhance the story line for the viewer. The colorful character Charles Remington, played by Michael Douglas, was added to the story line. Second, the two male lions in the movie had full mains. The real man-eating males were mainless. The mains certainly added to their fierceness and size in the movie.
See the movie for yourself. The photography is excellent and as already stated, Val Kilmer does an excellent portrayal of Patterson.