Hoaxes through History: II Trivia Quiz

Answer: Geoffroi de Charny

Geoffroi de Charny charged admission to the pilgrims who came to view the shroud, and also sold souvenirs, including tokens struck with the image of the shroud. There's no doubt, however, that he acquired the shroud-- whether he commissioned it as an artwork, or bought it from someone else who believed it to be a genuine relic-- de Charny had profit on the mind. Further, he refused to turn the item over to the Church when requested.

The item is now in the purview of the Roman Catholic Church, and it is the official position of the Church that the item is merely a work of art, albeit one the can inspire faith, and provide focus for meditation on Christian thought, and the life of Jesus. Aside from problems of provenance and the confession collected by the contemporary investigator, the shroud does not match descriptions of the cloth used to wrap the body of Jesus that appear in the gospels.

After de Charny, the shroud's provenance is well-documented. It remained in his family until his granddaughter deeded it to the house of Savoy, and shortly after that, it came to the Roman Catholic Church. It was transferred to different churches, before it went to Turin for preservation, but during that time, it was almost constantly on exhibit. There is little doubt that the shroud now in Turin was the Charny's shroud. Moreover, there are extant souvenir tokens from Charny's exhibition, and the image on them precisely resembles the image on the shroud in Turin.

Answer: Bedford County, Virginia

The decrypted cipher describes the contents of the treasure and the other two describe its location, and list the names of the nearest relatives of the people who owned the wealth that is buried.

Linguistic analysis of the solved cipher and the text of the story that accompanies the ciphers strongly suggests that the same person composed both. Adding to that the fact that modern cryptanalysts, using computers and algorithms only recently available have not been able to decipher the remaining puzzles suggests that the Beale Papers is a hoax; it was just a fiction invented to make money for the original author, which it did. No Thomas Beale of the right age is known to history, let alone one who could have amassed the treasure described, and who was in Virginia during the right time.

Oak Island is the location of a mysterious "money pit," that may be the location of a well-hidden treasure, or may be a natural land formation that has been mistaken for a burial spot. Lake Toplitz, Austria is a known site of some hidden Nazi assets, and a few have been recovered. How much remains is a mystery. Forrest Fenn is the name of a wealthy Texan who claims to have buried a treasure for anyone to find, and has published clues to its location.

Answer: The Loch Ness Monster

This is the famous photo of something vaguely resembling a plesiosaur, sticking its football-shaped head, and long neck out of the water. It has been criticized because of the way it is cropped: it lacks context allowing the viewer to judge the size of the object, or whether it is actually even in Loch Ness. British surgeon Colonel Robert Wilson took the photo, but didn't want his name associated with it, which is how it came to be known simply at "the Surgeon's Photo." Wilson took it early in the morning of April 19th, 1934. Proponents held it up as the best evidence of a large creature living in Loch Ness.

In 1994 Christian Spurling, just before his death at the age of 90, confessed to creating the photo, along with Wilson, and another man, Marmaduke Wetherell. They carved a phony "sea monster" head that was only a few inches high, and attached it to a toy boat. The picture they took was later cropped to hide the size of the object. Wetherell had earlier been humiliated when he was fooled by fake tracks near the lake made (as a prank) with a preserved hippo's foot, which Wetherell identified as "Loch Ness Monster" tracks. Spurling was Wetherell's stepson, who agreed to join his stepfather in what seems to be a plot based solely on spite.

Answer: "Revolution 9"

If you play "Revolution 9" backwards, you do hear something that sounds a little like "turn me on, dead man." That just happens to be what "Number 9," repeated over and over, with an English accent, sounds like backwards. However, it sounds even more clearly like "Number 9" forwards-- so much more clearly, that one has to conclude "Number 9" is the intended text, and "Turn me on, dead man," is a coincidence.

"I am the Walrus" played a part in the "Paul is Dead Rumor" as well: Paul is wearing a walrus suit on the cover of "Magical Mystery Tour," and the rumor included the legend that "walrus" means "corpse" in Greek, which it doesn't. "Glass Onion" was significant because that was supposedly the nickname of coffin handles in the 19th century. At the end of "Strawberry Fields," John says "cranberry sauce" (forwards), which many people misheard as "I buried Paul." The way John pronounced "berry" is identical to "bury," in his dialect, and the vowel is "sauce" is the same as the vowel in "Paul." The rest is wishful thinking, and Americans lack of allowance for the different dialect.

The rumor about Paul's death eventually gained many details, and went something like this: he died in a car crash in 1966, and had been replaced by a double, because the Beatles wanted to keep his death a secret. That made it strange, then, that in the midst of trying to keep this secret, they had inexplicably dropped clues for their more savvy fans to figure out the truth, ensuring that the secret was not a secret.

It's doubtful that the Beatles or Capitol Records originated the rumor as a publicity stunt, but it's also true that they made money from it, as people bought multiple copies of their records to search them for clues, and ruin them playing them backwards. So it's easy to see why they did little to discourage the rumor. Did they contribute to it after the fact? No one is talking.

Answer: Recovered Memory Therapy

"Recovered memory therapy" is very controversial, and not recognized by most psychiatrists, who consider it a fringe practice, especially when it involves hypnosis, or hypnotic drugs, like sodium amytal, which make people very suggestible. Memory experts like Elizabeth Loftus have demonstrated how very easy it is to implant false memories, and also that traumatic memories usually are not repressed, but rather refuse to stay buried; in fact, a well-recognized and undisputed disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, is caused by the fact that people can't stop remembering traumatic events, and the constant intrusion of these memories causes depression, and other problems with daily functioning. When events are really forgotten due to trauma (usually physical, but sometimes emotional shock as well), they are irretrievable, because they were never there in the first place.

In the case of "Michelle Remembers," Michelle's memories were supposedly restored through hypnosis, but once the book was published, the facts of the memories were quickly debunked. The Satanic cult Michelle's mother was said to belong to did not yet exist at the time Michelle claims she was abused, and it would not exist for eight more years, being officially formed by Anton La Vey in 1966, after the death of Michelle's mother, who was the person said to have taken Michelle to gatherings.

Most importantly, though, was the fact that Michelle "remembered" an 81 day long ritual she was forced to endure, even though her school records show no absences during this time, including her having been present for a school picture.

Additionally, those at what she describes as a very large gathering were said to have all sacrificed their middle fingers as part of the ritual, something that was unlikely to have gone unnoticed, and the 81-day ceremony was said to have taken place outside - again, something unlikely to have gone unnoticed.

"Michelle Remembers" is credited with setting off the 1980s "Satanic Panic," which caused untold suffering as a large numbers of people were falsely convicted in courts across the US and elsewhere of Satanic Ritual Abuse.

Answer: an 8-year-old heroin addcit

In addition to submitting her false article, Cooke had gotten her reporter's job with a resume containing false credentials. She claimed to have graduated magna cum laude from Vassar College, and to have a master's degree in journalism from the University of Toledo. In reality, she had attended Vassar for a year, but had not graduated; she did have a degree from Toledo, but it was a bachelor's degree. She also claimed to have received a journalism award while employed by the "Toledo Blade," another falsehood.

The Pulitzer committee awarded the Cooke's former prize to the runner-up, Teresa Carpenter of The "Village Voice."

Answer: He wore a wireless receiver earpiece, and his wife read to him cards people had filled out ahead of time.

In 1986, James Randi, with the help of crime scene analyst Alexander Jason, used computerized scanning equipment to pick up the radio transmissions from Popoff's wife Elizabeth to the earpiece Popoff wore, and heard her reading details of many audience members, including full names, street addresses, and details of their illnesses.

Unfortunately for Popoff, in addition to the fact that Randi made recordings of the transmissions from Elizabeth Popoff, Randi also put plants in the audience, and so there is footage of Popoff "healing" a "woman," who is really a man in drag, of uterine cancer.

Answer: (Then) West Germany

This isn't the only time the public has encountered a fake band, but usually there are plenty of hints, or the band is tongue-in-cheek. Milli Vanilli was a cynical attempt to make money with two actor-dancers who looked right, whether they could sing or not, fronting two singers, who could sing, whether or not they looked right to be pop stars.

It seemed a logical extension of real singers lip-synching to their own recorded lyrics, to allow them to dance, and not appear out of breath, but the public said no, Milli Vanilli took it to far, and they were frauds, plain and simple.

Answer: Swiss journalist and published author Daniel Ganzfried

The debunking sparked a debate in the literary world, as the book had been said to have literary value beyond its subject, and some claimed it still did, even as a work of fiction, while others said that as fiction, it was nothing but kitsch.

The fact that the story was the memoir of a very small child in a camp other than Theresienstadt should have been an immediate giveaway, as it was policy that children did not survive long enough to be held captive in any of the other camps.

Answer: Spain

Interestingly, of all the things Tania Head lied about, she really did lose her arm and have it reattached, but not in the twin towers, in a car accident in her native Europe.

For a long time, she was among the most prominent survivors in New York City, and in demand as a public speaker. Her sobering message of caution, and the need not to forget, coupled with her personal optimism touched a lot of people, and seemed to hit all the right notes. People were also impressed that a foreigner who was so badly traumatized by an experience in the US chose to stay here because she had been embraced by other survivors, and the public in general, and found it healing. Far from being angry with the US, she loved her adopted country for its swift and united response. It was the perfectly crafted message.

When people found out it was phony, they were naturally resentful, and Head is unwelcome now in many places that once embraced her.