Hoax Museum Blog: Urban Legends

This Day in the History of Hoaxes: August 17

August 17, 1921: S.O.S. Pigeon Note Hoax
A carrier pigeon dropped at the feet of a policeman in Columbus Circle, NYC. Attached to it was a distress note, dated Aug 13, from the naturalist Edmund Heller, saying he was lost in Yellowstone Park and needed help. "Notify Dan Singer, Belleclaire Hotel," the note said. News of this pigeon that had traveled 2000 miles in four days made front-page headlines. But skeptics questioned how a pigeon could have flown so far, so fast, and the story soon was exposed as a hoax. Heller wasn't lost, nor had he sent any note. The stunt was explained by Singer as a "hotel publicity scheme."
Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2014.   Comments (0)

This Day in the History of Hoaxes: August 16

August 16, 1926: Lord Kitchener's Coffin Opened
British war hero Lord Kitchener was killed at sea in 1916, his body never recovered. But in 1926, press agent Frank Power (pictured) claimed he had found Kitchener's body in Norway and was transporting it back to England. British authorities seized the coffin upon arrival, but when they opened it on this day in 1926, they found it was empty. It turned out Power (whose real name was Arthur Vectis Freeman) had staged the stunt to publicize a forthcoming movie about Kitchener.
Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2014.   Comments (0)

This Day in the History of Hoaxes: August 15

August 15, 2008: Bigfoot in a Freezer Hoax
Rick Dyer and Matthew Whitton held a press conference in Palo Alto where they answered questions about their claim that they had found the body of a Bigfoot while hiking in the Georgia woods. They said the creature was 7 feet 7 inches tall, weighed more than 500 pounds, and that they were storing the body in a freezer. Despite widespread skepticism, they indignantly stood by their story. However, when the body in the freezer was finally examined, it turned out to be a halloween costume with roadkill remains dumped on top of it. [Bigfoot Encounters]
Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2014.   Comments (0)

This Day in the History of Hoaxes: August 14

August 14, 1927: The Disumbrationist Hoax Revealed Novelist Paul Jordan Smith, upset that his wife's art was panned by critics as being too "old school," devised an elaborate spoof of modern art. He submitted crude works of his own creation to exhibitions, claiming they were the work of a Russian artist Pavel Jerdanowitch (a name he had invented), the founder of the Disumbrationist School of Art (another invention of his). As anticipated, the works were praised by critics. Smith revealed the hoax in the LA Times on this day in 1927, arguing that it showed that the art currently in fashion was "poppycock" promoted by critics who knew very little about art. More…
Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2014.   Comments (0)

This Day in the History of Hoaxes: August 13

August 13, 1940: The Nazi Parachute Landing Hoax
On this day, numerous German parachutes landed throughout the north of England, but no parachutists could be found. Even after soldiers, special police and Home Guards had conducted a widespread search, no parachutists were located. Eventually the British authorities concluded that the empty parachutes were a Nazi "invasion hoax" designed to create panic.
Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2014.   Comments (0)

This Day in the History of Hoaxes: August 12

August 12, 1965: The Great Yak Fat Hoax
On this day, the Great Yak Fat hoax made headlines throughout the United States. Trucker Leroy Hilt had submitted plans to the Interstate Commerce commission (ICC) detailing his intention to start shipping 80,000 pound lots of yak fat from Omaha to Chicago at 45 cents per 100 pounds. This soon triggered a complaint from railroad companies that his rates were too low. The ICC concurred and informed Hilt it was illegal to transport yak fat at that price. In reality, Hilt did not intend to ship yak fat. He had submitted the plan as a protest to show that "the railroads will jump on anything the small truckers propose." [Pittsburgh Press]
Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2014.   Comments (0)

This Day in the History of Hoaxes: August 11

August 11, 1966: Fastest submarine crosses the Atlantic
Josef Papp was found floating in a life raft near Brest, France. He claimed he had just crossed the Atlantic from Montreal in 13 hours, traveling at 300 mph, in a small, homemade submarine, which had sunk off the coast. French authorities were skeptical, noting that they found a one-way Paris-Brest train ticket in his pocket, dated the day before. They took him to a psychiatric ward and later flew him back to Montreal. Papp later documented his supposed transatlantic journey in a book titled The Fastest Submarine.
Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2014.   Comments (0)

This Day in the History of Hoaxes: August 10

August 10, 1840: The Fortsas Bibliohoax
Numerous book collectors arrived in Binche, Belgium, hoping to attend the sale of the library of the Comte de Fortsas, advertised as taking place on this day (Aug 10) in 1840. The Fortsas library only included 52 books, but each book was absolutely unique — the only copy of the title known to exist. But soon after their arrival, the collectors discovered there was no Comte de Fortsas, nor any of his books. The entire auction had been arranged by a local antiquarian, Renier Hubert Ghislain Chalon, as an elaborate practical joke. More…
Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2014.   Comments (0)

This Day in the History of Hoaxes: August 9

August 9, 1962: The Hastings Rarities Fraud
Taxidermist George Bristow had a reputation for being able to find rare birds, which he stuffed and sold at high prices to collectors. But on this day (Aug. 9) in 1962 (15 years after Bristow's death) the journal British Birds published a study arguing that it was statistically impossible for anyone to have found that many rare birds in one small area, Hastings, of southern England. It's suspected that Bristow had imported frozen birds from abroad, then he had claimed to have found them in England, where their presence was unexpected, which allowed him to sell them at high prices. [Hastings Museum]
Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2014.   Comments (1)

This Day in the History of Hoaxes: August 8

August 8, 1903: Trial of Thérèse Humbert Begins
Thérèse Humbert declared herself to be the sole heir of an American millionaire whom she had saved from food poisoning, and on the basis of this was able to obtain loans from leading French bankers for millions of francs. She kept the scam going for a quarter-century before being exposed. Both the inheritance, and the American millionaire, were fictitious. Given the magnitude of her fraud (she was referred to as the "swindler of the century" at the time) it was remarkable that she received only a 5-year sentence. [wikipedia]
Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2014.   Comments (0)

This Day in the History of Hoaxes: August 7

August 7, 1926: The Midwife Toad Fraud Exposed
Biologist Paul Kammerer had observed that when he forced "midwife toads" to mate in water (they usually mate on land) their offspring, several generations later, had developed black traction pads on their forelimbs, which made water-mating easier for them. He offered this as proof of Lamarckian inheritance. But on this day in 1926, Dr. G.K. Noble reported in the journal Nature his discovery that the black traction pads were merely injected ink. The revelation destroyed Kammerer's reputation. He committed suicide less than two months later. More…
Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2014.   Comments (0)

This Day in the History of Hoaxes: August 6

August 6, 1969: Naked Came the Stranger Revealed
The novel Naked Came the Stranger, credited to Penelope Ashe, had sold a respectable 20,000 copies. But it sold many more copies after 25 reporters from Newsday revealed, on this day in 1969, that they were all the true authors, having written it as a team in a deliberate attempt to produce a terrible novel. The satirical purpose of the hoax was to demonstrate that sex, rather than literary standards, sells books. Although, of course, the book's generous marketing budget, which included ads that ran in the New York Times for several weeks before its publication, didn't hurt either. More…
Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014.   Comments (0)

This Day in the History of Hoaxes: August 5

August 5, 1934: The Oldest Ear of Corn Debunked
After displaying an object for 20 years that it had believed to be the "oldest ear of corn" in the world (supposedly fossilized corn several thousand years old), the Smithsonian Institution admitted on this day that the object, upon closer examination, had been revealed to be a clay rattle shaped like corn. The museum had acquired the corn from a "collector of curios" in Peru. The rattle itself was interesting, as an ancient artifact, but it had no biological significance. More…
Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014.   Comments (0)

This Day in the History of Hoaxes: August 4

August 4, 1972: Female Wanted to Become Pregnant
An ad placed in a Philadelphia paper sought a "female to become pregnant" in return for a "$10,000 fee plus expenses." A reporter who called the number reached Leonard Goldfarb, who claimed he was representing a childless couple. But when news of the ad got picked up by the national press, prompting hundreds of women to apply, Goldfarb admitted there was no child-seeking couple. He was actually an "economic mathematician," and he had placed the ad in order to gather data about "what price pregnancy" as well as to "pinpoint a serious sociological problem."
Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014.   Comments (0)

This Day in the History of Hoaxes: August 3

August 3, 1965: Rex Heflin Photographs a UFO
On this day in 1965, highway maintenance worker Rex Heflin stopped his truck as he was driving outside Santa Ana, CA and took a series of photos that he claimed showed a UFO hovering in the sky. The photos gained widespread publicity, and have come to be considered classic UFO photos. However, they were soon labeled a "hoax" by the Air Force's Project Blue Book, and the Air Force was almost certainly correct. Heflin apparently created them by dangling a toy train wheel on monofilament fishing line out of his truck window. [The UFO Iconoclast]
Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2014.   Comments (1)

This Day in the History of Hoaxes: August 2

August 2, 1967: Please Don't Douse Your Phone!
The British Post Office, in charge of the nation's phone system, issued an alert about a recent spate of phone calls in which a man, posing as a telephone engineer, informed people that in order to cure a fault on their line they had to drop their phone in a bucket of water. Several people had fallen for this ruse before it came to the attention of the Post Office. The alert also noted that, earlier in the year, a prankster had enjoyed "considerable success" by calling people and saying in an authoritative voice, "Get a large pair of scissors and cut the wire between your telephone and handset receiver. There is some danger."
Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2014.   Comments (0)

This Day in the History of Hoaxes: August 1

August 1, 1956: I, Libertine Revealed
In the 1950s, bestseller lists were partially based on the number of requests for a title at stores. Nighttime deejay Jean Shepherd hatched a plan to throw a wrench in this system by having his listeners descend on bookstores en masse and ask for a non-existent book titled I, Libertine. Requests for the title eventually made their way to publisher Ian Ballantine who (once he figured out what was going on), decided to publish I, Libertine as an actual book. A month before the book's release, the Wall Street Journal revealed the hoax, and the resulting publicity helped boost its sales. More…
Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2014.   Comments (2)

This Day in the History of Hoaxes: July 31

July 31, 1952: Suicide Rescue Hoax
Medal of Honor winner Maynard H. Smith was praised for his heroism when he dramatically rescued 21-year-old Ernestine Whomble on this day as she tried to commit suicide by jumping off the sixth-floor ledge of the YWCA building in Wash. DC. But praise turned to condemnation when Whomble later confessed the rescue had been staged as a way to gain publicity for Smith who hoped to run for the governorship of Virginia. Smith denied the charge but couldn't satisfactorily explain why he had been in the YWCA at that moment. He was convicted of causing a false police report to be filed and fined $50.
Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014.   Comments (0)

This Day in the History of Hoaxes: July 30

July 30, 1999: The Blair Witch Project Opens
The Blair Witch Project opened on this day in 1999 and quickly became one of the most successful independent films of all time. It owed much of its success to a marketing scheme centering around the blairwitch.com website, where web surfers could view detailed historical information about the legend of the Blair Witch. It was all so convincing that many people were fooled into believing that the Blair Witch was a real historical figure, which she wasn't. The entire tale was fictitious. More…
Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2014.   Comments (0)

This Day in the History of Hoaxes: July 29

July 29, 1955: The MacNab Photograph
Bank manager Peter MacNab took this photo on a "hazy, warm" July afternoon in 1955. However, he didn't share it with the world until October 1958 on account of "diffidence and fear of ridicule." It quickly came to be considered a classic Loch Ness Monster photo. However, MacNab distributed two slightly different versions of what he claimed was the original negative, leading many (even Nessie believers) to suspect a hoax, because if MacNab did doctor the original image (either painting in the monster, or painting out a boat) he may created multiple "original" negatives during this process.
Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2014.   Comments (0)
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