Mystery AtlasFamous Hoaxes
History's great deceptions — Piltdown Man, the Cottingley fairies, the Hitler diaries, Balloon Boy — the mechanics, motives, and unmasking of each.
Questions
What Were the Hitler Diaries, and How Was the Forgery Exposed?
What the Hitler Diaries were: Konrad Kujau's forgery, how West German magazine Stern paid millions for it, and the forensic tests that exposed it in days.
What Happened to the Flannan Isles Lighthouse Keepers?
What happened to the three lighthouse keepers who vanished from the Flannan Isles in 1900, the storm evidence, and the fabricated 'final log entry' legend.
What Made Borley Rectory 'the Most Haunted House in England'?
Why Borley Rectory earned its 'most haunted house in England' reputation, Harry Price's investigation, and why later researchers found much of it fabricated.
Does Bigfoot Exist?
Does Bigfoot exist? Where the legend came from, what the Patterson-Gimlin film shows, what DNA testing found, and why the Sasquatch debate continues.
Is the Loch Ness Monster Real?
Is the Loch Ness Monster real? What the sightings, the famous photograph, sonar sweeps, and the 2018 DNA survey of the loch actually found.
What Was the Piltdown Man Hoax?
The Piltdown Man hoax: how a human skull and an orang-utan jaw passed as the missing link for 40 years, how tests exposed it, and who the forger was.
What Were the Cottingley Fairies?
The Cottingley fairies: the 1917 photographs, why Arthur Conan Doyle championed them as real, and the 1983 confession that confirmed the hoax.