FRAUDS AND HOAXES


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Frank Searle and the Loch Ness Monster There have been hundreds of supposed sightings and photographs of the Loch Ness Monster. The most prolifi c hoaxer of all was former army sniper and Nessie obsessive Frank Searle, who moved to Loch Ness in 1969, spending three years in a tent and 11 years in a caravan – which he called the Frank Searle Loch Ness Investigation Centre. After 38,000 hours searching for the monster, Searle claimed to have seen it on 38 occasions and photographed it 20 times. However, all of the pictures were shown to be fake – one of them even had a UFO in the background.


JAMES ‘OSSIAN’ MACPHERSON Perhaps the most controversial ‘hoaxes’ in this list were the translations of ancient Gaelic poetry ‘discovered’ by James Macpherson in the 1760s and 1770s. The poems told of early Gaelic mythology, and included the epic, Fingal, all apparently written in the third century by the poet Ossian. However, the literati were divided as to their authenticity and it was suggested that they contained more of Macpherson’s lines than the originals. However, the public lapped up the poems and made Macpherson his fortune.


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THE GERMAN ATROCITY LETTERS On Wednesday 16 September 1914 the Dumfries and Galloway Standard published a letter sent from a nurse, Grace Hume, to her sister in Dumfries: ‘Dear Kate, This is to say Goodbye. Have not long to live. Hospital has been set on fi re. Germans cruel. A man here has had head cut off, and my right breast taken away…’ Whilst most people were outraged, it was with confusion that Grace Hume read the letter, since she was living and working in Huddersfi eld at the time. The letters were in fact written by Grace’s 17-year-old sister, Kate, who was arrested and charged with forgery.


REVD THOMAS H CLIFFORD In October 1910 the members of one congregation in Newton-upon- Ayr received a shock when their minister was arrested for fraud. Thomas H Clifford had arrived in the town in 1909 as a protestant preacher and established his own evangelical mission. However, his credentials as an ordained minister were questioned, and in spite of producing a forged certifi cate, he was eventually tried for four offences. He was given 18 months hard labour.


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Arthur Furguson Furguson’s fi rst con was in 1923, when he convinced an American tourist to pay £6,000 for Nelson’s column. In the following two years Furguson sold Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, the Eiffel Tower and even the White House, before he was arrested during negotiations to sell the Statue of Liberty. However, as there is no record of his capture, or his trial, it seems that the whole Furguson tale is itself a hoax.


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