It'll Sell Like Hot Cakes - I Promise! Quiz

Answer: The Moon

The creatures, dubbed Vespertilio-homo (bat men), were described as "covered, except on the face, with short and glossy copper-colored hair, and had wings composed of a thin membrane, without hair, lying snugly upon their backs." The faces of these creatures, Dr. Grant remarked, were "of a yellowish flesh color, was a slight improvement upon that of the large orang outang."

The 'news' caused "The New York Sun's" circulation to nearly triple for a time, and the possibilities of life on the moon were widely discussed, with newspapers throughout America country picking up on the story and writing their own articles.

Answer: New York

"The New York Herald" published the outlandish story of a Central Park Zoo animal breakout after editor Thomas Connery witnessed a leopard nearly escape during a cage transfer. After a long article with stories of various animal atrocities and even lists of dead and injured people, Connery's article ended with:

"THE MORAL OF THE WHOLE
Of course the entire story given above is a pure fabrication. Not one word of it is true. Not a single act or incident described has taken place. It is a huge hoax, a wild romance, or whatever other epithet of utter untrustworthiness our readers may choose to apply to it. It is simply a fancy picture which crowded upon the mind of the writer a few days ago while he was gazing through the iron bars of the cages of the wild animals in the menagerie at Central Park."

Answer: Woolly mammoth

The story went on to say how naturalist Mr. Conradi returned to the location with Tukeman to retrieve the carcass, which then made its way to the Smithsonian Institute. The narrator H. Tukeman stated that "the most generally accepted theory heretofore has been that Mr. Conradi found the carcass frozen in an iceberg in the Arctic Ocean. The measurements exactly as taken by me, were handed to the Smithsonian, and accepted without question as his own."

The hoax story was widely believed, _even though_ the magazine listed the story "The Killing of the Mammoth" as pure fiction in the table of contents. Eventually, the magazine had to print a statement, "'The Killing of the Mammoth' by H. Tukeman was printed purely as fiction, with no idea of misleading the public, and was entitled a story in our table of contents. We doubt if any writer of realistic fiction ever had a more general and convincing proof of success."

Answer: 40 years

Even though there was (almost) immediate response refuting Dawson's claims - as early as 1913 - it was not until "Time" magazine published an article in 1953 that it was accepted by the general scientific community that the finding was, in fact, a fraud. The article cited proofs from Kenneth Page Oakley, Sir Wilfrid Edward Le Gros Clark, and Joseph Weiner that finally ended discussion on the subject.

The skull was revealed to be a combination of three things - the skull of a modern human combined with the mandible of an orangutan, and the teeth of a chimpanzee (filed down to match the teeth that a hominid would have for their diet).

Answer: Orson Welles

Welles adapted Wells' 1898 work to air on October 30th, 1938 as part of the radio show "The Mercury Theatre on the Air". Even though Welles introduced the premise of the radio drama at the beginning of the episode, citing it as an adaptation of H.G. Wells' novel, a large number of people would have missed the introduction and only heard the series of 'news broadcasts'.

Many panicked, fleeing their homes.

Answer: A Capuchin monkey

Friends Ed Watters, Tom Wilson and Buddy Payne perpetrated the ruse because of a bet. On a $10 bet that he could be featured in the paper inside of a week, Watters acquired a Capuchin, killed it (with chloroform), removed its hair with a depilatory, then cut off its tail. For the poor policemen who came upon the scene it seemed realistic enough, but the alien was quickly studied and determined to be what it was ... a hoax.

Ed Watters made his $10 from his friends, but had to pay out $50 to purchase the monkey, as well as a $40 fine from the police for blocking the highway.

Answer: Adolf Hitler

In their efforts to keep their purchase a secret, "Stern" magazine did not follow due diligence in confirming the authenticity of the supposed 'Hitler Diaries'. In all, it is estimated that the magazine spent approximately 9.3 million Deutschmarks in pursuit of their scoop.

The forger was eventually revealed to be Konrad Kujau, who had made a living since the 1970s selling fake Nazi memorabilia to unsuspecting collectors.

Answer: Crop circles

The two men claimed to have been inspired by the Tully, Australia 'saucer nest', in which similar markings were discovered. On a lark, they decided to have some fun and see what sort of hype would come of it.

Despite Bower and Chorley's confession, many 'true believers' dismiss what they said and/or did as inconsequential. Even if they did as they said, it still did not explain similar phenomena found all around the world, so it is said.

Answer: Stand outside with a lit candle

Regardless of whether or not NASA would make such a request, it was a hoax in that it would be impossible for such a thing - even if more than 200 million people participated - to be visible from space.

With the advent of the internet, email and web-based hoaxes have become commonplace. Perhaps there is none more prevalent than the email about the large sum of money from some overseas person that needs to be transferred, and only YOU can do what needs to be done... for a small transfer fee, of course.

Answer: George Parker

George C. Parker (1870-1936) did not limit himself to selling the Brooklyn Bridge. He also managed to sell the Statue of Liberty, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Madison Square Garden and Grant's tomb. After being convicted of fraud for his third time, Parker was sentenced to Sing Sing in 1928 for life. He died eight years later.