Gotcha: Hoaxes - Famous and not-so Famous Quiz

Answer: Sidd Finch

George Plimpton was an American sportswriter well known for writing about his experiences playing against professional athletes in exhibitions (football, baseball, hockey, boxing). He was assigned by "Sports Illustrated" to write about April Fools' Day hoaxes in sports.

He wrote a story about unbelievable exploits of an unknown rookie, Hayden Siddhartha Finch, scheduled to pitch for the New York Mets. Plimpton was despondent with the result of his effort, thinking that his joke fell flat and he would be considered a "national jackass". The opposite occurred. Long-suffering Mets clamored for more information about their savior, newspapers were angry that the Mets had allowed "Sports Illustrated" the scoop, and all the major television networks sent crews to a Mets news conference about Finch.

The mythical Finch retired before pitching in a game to play the French horn. His retirement message said "He's A Pitcher, Part Yogi And Part Recluse. Impressively Liberated From Our Opulent Life-style, Sidd's Deciding About Yoga-And His Future In Baseball." The first letters of these words spelled out "Happy April Fools' Day - a(h) fib".

Answer: Blond gene disappears

Claims that blonde hair would disappear have been made since, at least, 1865. In 2002 the BBC reported that unnamed German scientists claim that natural blonde hair would die out within 200 years because the gene that controls it is recessive and intermarriages are reducing the number of blondes. In 2006 "The Sunday Times" repeated that claim.

Fortunately for girl watchers the rules of genetics will prevail, and the blonde gene will live on in natural blondes and in recessive genes for some others. Anyway the cosmetics industry will rescue us.

Answer: Anastasia Nikolaevna

When Czar Nicholas of Russia and his family were murdered, the acidified bones of the family found in a mine were missing those of the crown prince and one of the daughters. Persistent rumors were circulated that the Grand Duchess Anastasia had escaped with the assistance of one of the guards. Several women claimed to be the missing duchess, but the most successful was Anna Anderson.

Anderson had been institutionalized for mental illness in 1920 in Berlin and claimed to be Anastasia in 1922, a charade that she maintained until her death in 1984. Later research indicated that her name actually was Franziska Schanzkowska, a Polish factory worker with a history of mental illness. Despite the fact that many people close to the Russian royal family contested her claims, she kept many supporters to the very end. Later DNA testing proved the falsehood of her claim.

Answer: Cheating to win the Boston Marathon

Rosie Ruiz was the first woman to cross the finishing line in the 1980 Boston Marathon with the third fastest time ever for a woman, bettering her previous best by 25 minutes. Knowledgeable runners were immediately suspicious. It was extremely unlikely that an unknown runner would win one of the elite races, nor improve by 25 minutes. She did not show typical signs of fatigue after finishing a grueling race and her resting heart rate was much higher than a trained distance runner. She was unfamiliar with racing terminology and couldn't recall earlier landmarks in the race; nor was she seen ever at the front of the race.

After reviewing the race and determining that she had jumped in to the race during the last mile, officials disqualified her. Officials at the New York race, her previous best time, found the same thing had occurred in their race. Unfortunately Ms Ruiz did not learn and was later found guilty of embezzlement and drug dealing.

Answer: Major heir to Howard Hughes estate

Melvin Dumarr was a gas station operator in Utah who claimed to have rescued Howard Hughes in the desert in 1967 and brought him back to his Las Vegas hotel suite. After Hughes' death in 1976 the so-called "Mormon WIll" was found by officials of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) in Salt Lake City that was supposedly the last will and testament of Hughes. This will gave major pieces of Hughes estate to the church and to Dumarr.

The will was suspicious due to numerous spelling errors, naming an executor who was on bad terms with Hughes, bequests to former wives who were barred from claims to his estate, and the use of the term "Spruce Goose" in the will - a term Hughes detested. Questions were raised about including the Latter Day Saints and Dumarr since Hughes had no previous relationship with the church. Even more suspiciously the envelope containing the will had the fingerprint of guess who - Melvin Dumarr.

Courts ruled the Mormon will was a forgery. In fairness to Dumarr, a retired FBI agent in 2005 found evidence that Dumarr's rescue of Hughes may have happened.

Answer: Hitler's diaries

As Nazi rule was ending, ten planes were flown from Berlin to Hitler's Alpine retreat. The last plane, containing items selected by Hitler's valet, crashed, leading to the tantalizing prospect that personal papers of Hitler may have been on board.

In the meantime Konrad Kujau, a petty criminal from East Germany, had established a cottage industry of selling real and forged memorabilia from the Nazi era. Among theme were forged notes and paintings attributed to Hitler.

In the early 1980's Kujau forged 60 volumes of journals supposedly written by Hitler. He used reference books to avoid blatant historical errors, techniques to age the paper, and was skilled in forging signatures. With the help of businessman Gerd Heidemann he sold rights to the diaries to the German magazine "Stern", which sold rights to serialize the journals to other organizations, such as "The Sunday Times" and "Newsweek". The forgeries were good enough to convince many experts, such as Hugh Trevor-Roper and handwriting experts.
Eventually further analysis determined that modern ink had been used, and factual errors were present in the journals, proving that they were forgeries.

Answer: East Sussex UK

In 1912 Charles Dawson uncovered sections of a human skull in gravel beds near Piltdown in East Sussex. Later finds near that site included additional bone fragments linked to the same individual, including a jawbone, teeth, and primitive tools.

Dawson contacted Arthur Smith Woodward of the Natural History Museum, who theorized that they belonged to a human ancestor from 500,000 years ago, given the name Eoanthropos Dawsoni (Dawson's dawn of man). Although some anthropologists accepted the find as genuine, more were skeptical. Eventually scientists were able to prove that the bones were from a medieval man and the teeth were from an orang-utan.

Answer: Playing chess

The Turk was a fake chess playing machine which was built by Wolfgang von Kempelen to impress Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. The Turk was a mechanical illusion that allowed a knowledgeable chess master to hide inside the device. It was constructed so that the operator could move within the automaton as various sides were opened for inspection by the audience. The Turk defeated a majority of its opponents during its 84 years, including Napoleon and Benjamin Franklin.

The machine included a life-sized figure of a man dressed in Ottoman robes. The chess pieces had small magnets attached so that the operator was aware of moves made by the opponent. An ingenious device was present within the device to allow the operator to move the pieces with the Turk's left arm. By use of a letter box the Turk could answer spectators' questions.

The Turk toured Europe for a while, but then sat dormant for many years. After Kempelen's death it was sold to Johann Malzel, who started a new tour including America.

Answer: Howard Hughes

Clifford Irving was an American investigative reporter and writer, who conceived the idea of creating an autobiography of Howard Hughes with Richard Suskind, a writer of children's stories. Both thought that Hughes, being a recluse, would not be aware of the book, nor want to come out in public to fight it. The publisher McGraw-Hill paid Irving an advance of $100,000 and a fee of over $700,000 to H R Hughes, which Irving's wife cashed at a Swiss bank under an account for Helga R Hughes.

When representatives of Hughes protested that the autobiography was fake, the last reporter to interview Hughes thought that the book was genuine, handwriting experts thought that letters that had been forged were written by Hughes, and a lie detector of Irving was inconclusive. Swiss bank experts eventually discovered that Hughes wife had cashed the check for Hughes, and the fraud was exposed.

Answer: Cardiff Giant

The Cardiff Giant was supposed a ten foot tall petrified man found behind the barn of William Newell near Cardiff, New York (not Wales!). Actually Newell's cousin George Hull had bought a large block of gypsum and commissioned a sculptor to create the giant. He sent it to Newell, who buried it and commission workmen to dig a well in that spot.

The Cardiff Giant was a huge success and eventually Hull sold the giant to a group of investors headed by David Hannum. Seeing the success of the Cardiff Giant, Barnum offered to buy it, but was refused. The spiteful Barnum decided to create his own version of the giant out of plaster and called the earlier Cardiff Giant a hoax - saying his was the true Cardiff Giant. This episode spawned a number of "discoveries" of petrified men over the next 40 years.

The Wild Men of Borneo were a pair of mentally disabled dwarves, who were exceptionally strong. The claim by Barnum that they had been rescued from Borneo was patently false.