Four Interesting Discovery Hoaxes

In 2007, Michael Sermer showed photos of what he said were UFOs to members of the public, when he proved to those who had believed him that they were in fact hoaxes, most of them seemed to be disappointed, which I think this shows that we all want these theories to be true (whether we do believe them in the end is a different matter.) I think these four hoaxes are interesting but also only possible because people wanted to believe them, in the first place.  

The Cottingley Fairies

In 1917 two cousins took pictures of what they claimed proved the existence of faeries. Elsie Wright borrowed her father’s camera and took pictures of her cousin, Francis Griffiths surrounded by what appeared to be real fairies. The story received public attention after Elsie’s aunt attended a Theosophical meeting on fairies in 1919 and mentioned that her niece had photographic evidence of faeries. By the end of 1920, well-respected theosophist Edward Gardener and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle were involved and the story had been covered in such magazines as Strand Magazine and The Westminster Gazette. In 1981, the girls admitted that they had faked 4 out of the 5 pictures they took, however they claimed that they did see fairies and that the fifth picture was genuine. They faked the pictures by taking photographs of images of fairies balanced up by hat pins. The pictures used are probably from Claude A. Shepperson’s Princess Mary’s Gift Book.

The Surgeon’s Photo of the Loch Ness Monster

The first and most famous of the Loch Ness Monster photos is the Surgeon’s Photo taken in 1934. It was called, the surgeon’s photograph because it was believed to have been taken by a gynecologist, Robert Kenneth Wilson, who refused to have his name associated with the image.

The image most people will recognize is a close up, which makes the monster seem quite large, but in the full image it is only two to three feet long. In the 70’s it was believed to be an elephant, and in the 80’s some thought it was an otter.

The hoax was revealed in 1994 to be a toy submarine made by Christian Spurling. Spurling’s father-in-law Marmaduke Wetherell had been ridiculed by the Daily Mail, and Spurling claimed they had devised it as a revenge plot.

The Cardiff Giant

One of America’s best known hoaxes, The Cardiff Giant is a ten foot “petrified man” which was ‘discovered’ by well-diggers on a farm in Cardiff, New York on 16th October 1869. It was created by George Hull, an atheist who had argued with a priest over a passage in Genesis (6:4) that claimed there had once been giants on earth.