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Five great hoaxes in history
Will Robson16 Oct 2009
Following the supposed hoax that a boy was carried away by a weather balloon, we take a look at five other hoaxes that have fooled people everywhere...
Spaghetti trees: On April Fool's Day 1957 the BBC pulled what CNN called “the biggest hoax that any reputable news establishment ever pulled".
In a three-minute report, the programme Panorama talked about the bumper spaghetti crop beside Lake Lugano due to the mild winter in Switzerland and the disappearance of the spaghetti weevil.
Eight million people are thought to have watched the programme at a time when there were only around seven million homes in Britain with television sets.
After the programme the BBC were inundated with calls about the truth of it, where to get a spaghetti plant and how to grow it.
Alien Autopsy: In 1995 the broadcasting of an Alien Autopsy caused an overnight sensation.
The black and white footage supposedly showed an autopsy of an alien life-form carried out in 1947.
In 2006 shortly before the release of Alien Autopsy the Movie, a comedy of the original, Ray Santilli, the producer of the original video admitted that the video was not entirely real.
Although he would not admit it was a complete hoax he said that it was a reconstruction of an original film he'd seen but that had been damaged.
He said that he had enlisted the help of artist John Humphreys to create the alien and other props and had then embedded images of the genuine' film. However he was unable to say which frames these were.
Ali Dia: Possibly the most famous football hoax in history took place at Southampton Football Club in 1996.
Then manager Graeme Souness received a phone call from someone claiming to be former World Player of the Year George Weah who recommended that Souness sign his cousin Ali Dia. Souness believed the caller and took Dia on trial.
Although he was apparently less than impressive during his first training session he was put on the bench for the next game.
He was brought on in the 32nd minute for the injured Matt Le Tissier and in Le Tissier's words looked like 'Bambi on ice' before he was substituted in the 53rd minute.
The whole experience was hugely embarrassing for Souness, especially as Harry Redknapp had had the same phone call and dismissed it as a wind-up.
The Cottingley Fairies: In 1920 the Cottingley Fairies controversy began.
Two girls, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths claimed to have photographs of them with fairies.
The photographs were shown to a leading theosophist Edward Gardner who decided they were genuine and had to be printed.
The issue gathered more weight when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a spiritualist, wrote an article about the fairies and the how the photographs were true.
The article and pictures attracted varied opinions, with many criticising and dismissing them but many people also believing them.
The Cardiff Giant: The Cardiff giant is one of America's most famous hoaxes. In 1869 a large stone man was uncovered on a farm that was thought to be the remains of a petrified giant.
The giant was the creation of George Hull who spent $2,600 having the 10m giant made because he wanted to show how gullible the American people were.
Once it was made and aged with chemicals for authenticity he transported the giant to his cousin's farm and buried it there.
On October 16 1869, when his cousin was having a well dug, the men uncovered the giant.
Although many scientists rubbished the claims that it was real, the public fell for it and Hull, who owned part of the farm, and his cousin made a substantial amount of money out of the giant.
Andrew Carlssin: In February 2003 Yahoo published an article about a man who had been arrested for SEC violations as he had made 126 high-risk stock trades and they had all been successful.
Carlssin was reported to have made $350,000,000 and said that he was a time traveller from 2256.
He then supposedly disappeared as soon as he made bail.
