As someone who spent time in Ann Arbor in the mid 2000s I think most of the monkeys were very much in the infosec realm and were good ppl. I would be curious to know how it all started if @dugsong is around maybe someone can ping him to learn more :)
If I had to guess monkey.org was started around 1996, and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a BBS before it moved online ;)