Ice-skating animal trainer’s harrowing ride across America with a serial killer — and a chimp — is now a movie

Evanston native Dave Pitts and his “wonder chimp” Spanky, seen here in the 1960s. The pair would later unwittingly take a cross-country road trip with a confessed serial killer. (Pitts family)

Dave Pitts rumbled east in his brand-new 1963 GMC Suburban Carryall — an automobile big enough to haul trunks filled with dozens of costumes, props and his prized possession: Spanky, “the world’s only ice-skating chimpanzee.”

On that May morning in 1964, Pitts and Spanky were heading to Duluth, Minnesota, to begin rehearsals for their third season of Ice Capades, a glitzy traveling show featuring former world and Olympic ice skaters. Pitts and Spanky were among the headliners.