Phantom Vicar of Ratcliffe Wharf
Hoax perpetrated in 1970, describing a fictitious 18th-century vicar who lured unsuspecting sailors to their deaths.
Hoax
Hoax
Forgery, Hoax
Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Antisemitic hoax and forgery, arguably the most damaging fraud in human history.
Hoax, Witch
Sally the Dunstable Witch
19th-century hoax to shame the rector into repairing his church.
Poisoner and thief whose most audacious hoax was The Prophet Hen of Leeds.
Hoax
The Sleeping Girl of Turville
Girl claimed by her mother to have fallen into a deep sleep from which she could not be roused for nine years.
English woman from Godalming, Surrey, who in 1726 became the subject of considerable controversy when she tricked doctors into believing that she had given birth to rabbits.
Ghost, Hoax
Hammersmith Ghost
Early 19th-century hoax that reinforced the standard white-sheeted ghost look, and set a legal precedent for self-defence.
Hoax, Satirist
Predictions of Isaac Bickerstaff
Pseudonym used by the satirist Jonathan Swift in a hoax predicting the “infallible” death of John Partridge, a well-known 18th-century astrologer and almanac maker, on 29 March 1708.
Hoax
The Bottle Conjuror
18th-century hoax featuring an acrobat inserting his body into an empty wine bottle.
