Don't Be Fooled: Strange Hoaxes That Endure

Joe Nickell and Matt Nisbet

NUMBER 1: Roswell Incident

In 1947 a "flying disc" crashed near Roswell, New Mexico. Rancher Mac Brazel described the debris as foiled paper, sticks, string, and tape consistent with a radar reflector, once thought part of a weather balloon but now identified as a Project Mogul spy balloon. Over time the story has prompted many hoaxes, including the "MJ-12" documents (forged papers which supposedly proved presidential involvement in a cover-up of the UFO crash), stories of aliens stored at secret installations (tales largely spread by a raconteur, "professor" Robert Carr), and an "alien autopsy" (broadcast on the Fox television network and featuring an obviously rubber humanoid-type figure). Despite well-documented evidence exposing the Roswell hoax, the tale persists as part of the American consciousness. A 1997 Gallup poll revealed that over 80% of Americans have heard of the Roswell incident, and 31% believe that a spacecraft from another planet did indeed crash at Roswell in 1947. In addition, the UFO-government conspiracy lore ignited by the hoaxes has inspired major plot themes in the mega-popular X-Files television series and films like Independence Day and Men in Black.

NUMBER 2: Spiritualism

Belief in communicating with the dead is ancient, but modern spiritualism began in 1848 when two girls , Margaret and Katherine Fox, apparently received messages from the ghost of a murdered peddler. He responded to their questions by knocking a certain number of times to signal yes, no, or other simple answers. Soon, assisted by an older sister, the girls traveled all over the United States to promote their "Spiritualist" society. Four decades later, however, the sisters revealed to a theater audience how they had tricked the world. Margaret Fox demonstrated how she had slipped her foot from her shoe and snapped her toes to make the rapping sounds. In the meantime, as well as later, spiritualists were caught producing fake phenomena— from bogus spirit writing on slates to ghostly entities that proved to be mediums or their assistants in disguise. The most recent incarnation of spiritualism arrives in the form of psychic-medium James Van Praagh, whose book Talking to Heaven is currently atop the best-seller lists.

NUMBER 3: Psychic Networks

Fortunetelling is an ancient deception now updated for popular mass consumption. Just as gypsy seers practiced clever techniques such as cold reading (an artful method of fishing for information while watching the listener for subtle reactions), modern "psychics" use shrewd methods to appear clairvoyant. For example, many of their responses are phrased in question form, which may, if correct, be considered a "hit" but otherwise will seem an innocent query. Just keeping the caller on the phone, since the psychics are paid by the minute, is an obvious ploy. Some analysts predict that the psychic networks will be a $2 billion industry by the end of the decade. In February, however, mismanagement and competition forced the industry's pioneer network, Psychic Friends, to file for bankruptcy—an event that 2000 psychics employed by the network failed to foresee.

NUMBER 4: Shroud of Turin

Perhaps the world's most notorious religious hoax is the purported Holy Shroud of Jesus, now kept in a cathedral in Turin, Italy. It bears the imprints of an apparently crucified man, but modern forensic tests show the image was done in tempera paint, and radio carbon testing yielded a date between 1260 and 1390. This is consistent with the earliest written record of the cloth, a bishop's report to Pope Clement that an artist confessed he had "cunningly painted" the image. The "shroud" had been part of a phoney faith-healing scheme to bilk credulous pilgrims. Stories of the shroud's authenticity are sure to resurface this spring at the 1998 Shroud Exposition in Turin where the "relic" will be on display to the public for the first time in twenty years.

NUMBER 5: Cottingley Fairies

In 1917 two innocent-seeming English schoolgirls, 13-year-old Elsie Wright and her 10-year-old cousin Frances Griffiths, launched a deception that fooled many people over the following years, including the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. While playing in Cottingley Glen, the girls took close-up photographs of winged fairies dancing amid the foliage. The girls then made each other's picture with the wee creatures, and photo experts said the images were not double exposures nor had the negatives been altered. In fact, it was the scene, not the photos, that was faked: the girls had simply posed with fairy cutouts to make the "authentic" pictures. Some sixty years later, the aging Elsie and Frances confessed to what had begun as a prank but soon got out of hand as the story was publicized. Paramount Pictures recently revived the case with the magical release Fairy Tale: A True Story. Unfortunately, the film fails to provide modern audiences with many of the incriminating details of the Cottingley hoax.

NUMBER 6: Crop Circles

Since the late 1970's, mysterious swirled patterns have been appearing in southern English grain fields—invariably during nighttime. Some thought the depressions were caused by "wind vortexes," while others, plying their dowsing rods, believed they had a mystical origin, and still others opted for an extraterrestrial explanation: perhaps the designs were communications from alien beings. However, in 1991 two elderly men, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, demonstrated how they had made the first circles, which others copied and elaborated to produce the stylized "pictograms" that became known around the world.

NUMBER 7: Amityville Horror

America's most famous haunted house is located in Amityville, New York, where in 1974 a man murdered his parents and siblings. A year later the house was bought by George and Kathy Lutz who soon claimed they were driven out by spooky events, including demon tracks in the snow and damage to doors and windows. Investigation showed the events never transpired, and the murderer's lawyers confessed how, for money, he and the Lutzes had "created this horror story over many bottles of wine." Despite the admission, the story spawned the best-selling book Amityville Horror and a franchise of successful horror films that continue to be released on video today.

NUMBER 8: Piltdown "Missing Link"

In December of 1912 a major scientific discovery was announced: the long- sought-after "missing link" between man and his prehistoric ancestors was recovered near Piltdown Common in England by an amateur fossil collector named Charles Dawson. In response to skeptics, Dawson sought and found another set of bones, dubbed Piltdown II. The archeological revelations appealed to English pride, since previous discoveries relating to man's origins had been made in Europe and Asia. Piltdown Man quickly became the subject of numerous scientific articles and was enshrined in the British Museum. In 1953, however, the hoax was finally discovered. Eoanthropus dawsoni ("Dawson's Dawn Man") turned out to be a combination of human cranial pieces and the jawbone of an orangutan, stained to appear ancient.

NUMBER 9: Psychic Surgery

Among the most outrageous—and dangerous— hoaxes is a phoney healing procedure in which a practitioner appears to reach into a patient's body, without benefit of scalpel or anesthesia, to remove "tumors" and other diseased tissue. Common to Brazil and the Philippines, psychic surgery is actually produced by sleight of hand. Animal tissue and blood are used to give a realistic appearance, while a patient's fleshy midriff helps create the illusion that the surgeon's fingers have actually penetrated the body. Tragically, many of the patients, or victims, of the psychic surgeons have died within a year or so of the trick procedure.

NUMBER 10: King Tut's Curse

The "boy king" Tutankhamen ruled Egypt from the age of nine until his death at eighteen, during the twelfth century B.C. His tomb was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter, but a curse written over the entrance began to take its toll, resulting in the death over the years of many associated with the excavation. Or so it was claimed. In 1980 the tomb's former security officer admitted the story of the curse had been circulated to frighten away thieves. In fact, ten years after the tomb was opened, all but one of the five who first entered it were still living, and Carter himself lived until 1939.

Other paranormal hoaxes include the Cardiff Giant (a nineteenth-century "petrified man"), P.T. Barnum's notorious "mermaid", UFO and Bigfoot hoaxes too numerous to mention, and many more, including weeping religious icons. Even ten examples, however, are sufficient to illustrate that the will to believe is part of human nature, and that hoaxes are not limited to April Fool's Day but are, in fact, a year-round occurrence.

Unfortunately, with the exception of the Piltdown case, people worldwide continue to be fooled by the hoaxes and in some cases, like the Roswell incident and psychic networks, the numbers continue to grow. Too often the explanations or criticisms of these fabricated claims go unheard in the media, while movie makers, television producers and book publishers draw on these hoaxes to weave top-grossing fiction that is often treated as real. Until the media provide more critical presentations of the paranormal, a word of warning is the only known antidote.