Hostorical Hoaxes have become history. I examine a few of the most successful in the 19th century, one of which has lasting impact
Hostorical Hoaxes have become history. I examine a few of the most successful in the 19th century, one of which has lasting impact
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welcome paranormal, its fringe dwellers and my fellow travelers on the road to and from the unknown. This is paranormal Tales from the tower recorded a paranormal tower in Asbury Park, New Jersey's historic downtown district. Join us for stories of the strange, the unusual and, of course, the paranormal. My name is Kathy Kelly. Welcome the paranormal tower. Sit down, Relax. I have something to tell you. I actually wrote this several years ago as part of a paper, and the reason why I am going back to it is because we're about to start promoting and we'll start working on the Jersey Devil Festival, which will be our third annual Jersey double festival here in Asbury Park. And one of the things that we're going to hopefully talk about is how the Jersey Devil fits with both folklore and with New Jersey history in general, up to and including Lana history. One of the things when I was getting my master's in history that I was fascinated by was how fluid and how flexible history really waas. And that's because sometimes we think of history as being exclusively the truth. But truth in history are not necessarily the same thing. Fax and history are not necessarily the same things unless we include all of the facts. And so things that people do and say that are not true can become part of history and in fact should be taught as part of history, especially when we still deal with the ramifications of the falsification, the lies and the out now hoaxes. And so this is a podcast about hoaxes and about some of the more successful ones and some of the ones that are in our own backyard here in New Jersey. Obviously, some of you guys are from all over the country, and I encourage you to send in your stories to me at Kathy at paranormal books and j dot com. That's Kathy with a K to talk about The hoax is that were perpetrated in your community. It says a lot about the communities at large, but it's also informs who we are today. Hoaxes reveal much about the societies in which they're perpetrated. Gullibility is not the only prerequisite for successful hoax. Many intelligent, educated in shrewd people health fallen victims to hoaxes. For hoax to be successful, there must be a certain amount of willingness to believe, and a desire for that hoax to be true. Those desires convey ephemeral, mystical, spiritual, historical or financial. One or all of these wants must be present, as well as an emotional investment which leads a person and then a community to believe a successful hoax relies in the need of the audience. For the fraudulent information to be true, they feed a desire. Arthur Conan Doyle created one of the most famous fictional characters in world history, Sherlock Holmes. No other character is more closely associated with clinical forensic intelligence and deductive reasoning than the almost preternaturally astute Mr Holmes. And yet his creator, a physician by training Arthur Conan Doyle, fell victim to a hoax perpetrated by two young schoolgirls. In cutting Lee in an effort to convince their elders that they had seen fairies in the woods by their home, the girls took a pair of scissors and a magazine advertising section and the family brownie camera and created photos of themselves playing with these fairies. Doyle, a fervent spiritualists, believed wholeheartedly in the now debunked photographs. He touted and defended the photos even as his reputation was attacked and destroyed. How many asked, How could this man be so easily fooled? The answer is that he wanted the photos to be authentic, regardless of one's belief in spirits or the survival of personality. After battling death, these photographs are easy to dismiss as frauds, even for their time, they were discernible as a hoax. The reason for his ardent belief may be found in Doyle's desperate need for proof that spirits live on after death. This need came in part from his great loss during World War. The death of his son provided the emotional impetus for Doyle to suspend his disbelief and throw himself earnestly behind the validity of these photos. So moved by his devotion and probably a little bit unnerved by the attention there Prank received. Two young girls who perpetrated the hoax waited until the 19 eighties, when they themselves were close to death to reveal the truth North American archaeological folks is for many, they have become part of history themselves, and they present interesting artifacts to reveal a lot about the people in their time. The people who supported these hoaxes and in many cases, some who still to have an emotional need for the hoaxes to be true. An emotional attachment to the story they tell despite the story being fictitious. By the time the United States of America came into being, the fate of Native Americans was all but sealed. It was apparent toe white people, at least that the inevitable end of the native peoples was at hand. Illness, progress, destiny. And, of course, the will of God were working to bring about the destruction of Indians. The 19th century saw the rise of quote, the noble, savage imagery and the great literary lamentations that the end was near. Despite the fact that honoring existing treaties and curtailing insatiable hunger for adventure and conquest would undoubtedly have stopped the destruction of Native American life, the end was considered utterly inevitable. What Europeans arrived in the New World in the late 16th century and early 17th century, they found a landmass of enormous size populated by millions of people and complex and ancient civilizations. Thes people had divers, languages, cultures and histories. This discovery created an enormous problem for the Christian world that had stumbled upon it. This land of these people were new to them in a way that was extremely problematic. The Bible was considered the literal historical record of the world for the people in the 16th century, and it made no mention of the Americas or the people living there. This was potentially world shattering, and scholars, clergy and everyday people struggled to make sense of the implications. If these people were fully human than something was missing some piece of information that the Bible had not revealed to them, and this was an unacceptable conclusion. As time passed and there were more interactions with the Indians, it became apparent to most people that these natives were in fact human. Although perhaps a primitive model not fully realized and certainly deficient in specific ways. According to the European, this realization did not prevent them from being enslaved and treated with incredible cruelty. Our it was Pope Paul, the third, who finally decreed their humanity and their ability to receive the teachings of the church on June 9th, 15 37 when he issued the Bulls Supplements Day as quote seek with all our might to bring those sheep of his flock were outside into the fold, committed to our charge. Consider, however, that the Indians are truly men, and that they are not only capable of understanding the Catholic faith, but according to our information they desire exceedingly to receive it. That the Indians were primitive was accepted by virtually all white people, however, is white. People moved further inland and began to explore the continent to a greater degree. They discovered large earthworks that defied this judgment. Thes large earthworks were amazing feats of engineering. These Earth and pyramids were burial grounds in some areas, platforms for religious events and sacred sites and others. And some were older than the pyramids of Egypt to the European settlers, colonists and early Americans. It was preposterous that the Native Americans they encountered were capable of such building. Because of this belief, an entire myth of pre Columbian history was created and lasted well into the 19th and early 20th century's. The belief that Indians of the contact era and later lacked the ability and capacity to create such things of mounds led to the creation of a mythology surrounding an unknown civilization of pre Columbian American known as the mound builders. Many theories would put forth as to who these mysterious people may have been, including that they were survivors of Atlantis, all theories relied upon the assumption that the ancestors of the post Colombian Indians had savagely destroyed that advanced culture. When evidence of these mysterious mound builders proved elusive, several hoaxers took it upon themselves to provide that evidence. Thes hopes there's varied in success somewhere, accepted as factual until very recently, somewhere revealed as frauds very quickly. Still, many have become part of our history, complicating and illuminating it to varying degrees. The new nation in America was complex. By the early 19th century, the U. S had a purpose and a reputation to its leaders. Expansion was its manifest destiny. When Jefferson said Lewis and Clark on their expedition, he wanted to understand the scope and breath of his purchase. But he also understood that to truly own it, the continent must be settled. Jefferson saw the United States spirit as one oven irrepressible sense of adventure and an insatiable desire to conquer and set of the lands between these two oceans. As the 19th century wore on, more of the land was settled, displacing native peoples. Two primary reasons for the proliferation of archaeological folks is in the United States were to reinforce the pre Columbian history, which negated the rights of existing Native Americans and to solve the guilt over their horrific treatment and to create a more complex and satisfactory history to compare with European history. In effect, the cultural inferiority complex that the young United States bore when compared to the old world, encouraged, allowed and rewarded these hoaxes. While there were dozens of recognized hoaxes and likely even more than that that went under the radar, I will deal primarily with three that illustrate the distinct methodology and purpose. The first, and perhaps worst, is the wall, um olam hokum, a written history of the Delaware Indians. The second is the Newark Holy Stones artifacts with Hebrew writing that supports the theory that a lost tribe of Israel populated the continent and the last of the Cardiff Giant, a massive sculpture purporting to be the petrified remains of a 10 foot tall Caucasian male. The wall of olam hokum has a long and complicated history. It first appeared in 18 36 when it was presented to the public by Constantine Samuel Refa desk as a translation of pictographs that represented the history of Lana pay people. This series of pictographs depicted their arrival in history in the Delaware region. It tells the story of the Lana P people originating in a place further north, traveling over a frozen river, fighting and defeating existing inhabitants and settling the Delaware region. Robin esque claimed to have received the pictographs from a Dr Ward who had received the planks of payment for services rendered to a Delaware tribe. Story coincide with Raffin esque, strong held belief that the Indians had come to the North America over a frozen Bering Bridge. Rafa desk was a man of some talent and knowledge in Indian history. The story is convenient in many respects. First, it provides written evidence that a civilization existed before the line appease arrived in North America. This reinforced the belief that the contemporaneous native people were not descendants of the people who built the mounds and massive earth and works discovered across the continent. Mysterious mound builders were considered superior to the Indians that white settlers and early Americans met the mound. Builders had been a peaceful and advanced civilization, according to the early interpretation of white anthropologist scientists in the enthusiasts, those who dug in the mounds, it was impossible to consider that the Indians that inhabited American the 19th century, where the original inhabitants of the lands they must have conquered the peaceful, advanced mound builders and caused their destruction Ah less advanced group of people destroying a civilized people was evidence, of course, of savagery. This opinion was useful on several levels. To Europeans, conquest was the name of the game, but it might have felt a little bit thuggish. To gather Gauri Clea destroyed an entire civilization of cultured people. If these beings were human and Pope Paul the third had got out of his way in the mid 16th century to say that they were, they were lesser humans than were the Europeans, The noble savage, the American Indian was close to nature and ill equipped for the modern world. The hyperbole was thick in every quarter, as people of the 19th century lamented the necessary and inevitable death of the American Indian. However, the wall a Mowlam was inconvenient as well. The view of the Indian, a savage with little or no understanding of his own history, was based in part on the European opinion that a lack of a written record to noted a lack of civilization. And while there's ample evidence that many Indian nations maintain their historical heritage with oral traditions and use of pictographs, there is also evidence of records being kept using wampum and ropes. For many people who came to the New World, the lack of biblical mention of the land and the people was difficult to overcome. It became important to find a historical basis for the people of North America, as well as the engineering feats that they found. It had been accepted that Native Americans were inferior. But westward movement was providing more evidence of civilization. Many theories abounded for who brought such skill and intelligence to the continent. Romans, Egyptians counts, Vikings, Phoenicians, even Atlantans. For many of the obvious and most acceptable answer was the lost tribes of Israel. One of the tribes had, according to their theories, traveled into the New World and people, the continent. This satisfied to mysteries. In 18 60 in Newark, Ohio, a series of artifacts were discovered in an Indian burial ground that would excite the lost tribe of Israel proponents. David Wyrick, a retired land surveyor suffering from severe rheumatoid arthritis, hired a few men to assist him in his endeavor to excavate an ancient burial mounds at the Newark earthworks. It was during this excavation that he discovered the Newark Holy Stones. The first discovery was called based on its shape, the keystone it's inscribed with heave your letters with four Hebrew phrases. Six months later, we're discovered the deck log stone. It's a black stone with a carving of Moses on the front and the 10 Commandments inscribed in Hebrew. The discovery was, of course, welcomed by those who believe the lost tribes of Israel theory. But almost immediately, cries of hoax arose. Some believed Wyrick himself was responsible for the placement as well as the discovery of stones. In a letter just prior to his death, Wyrick himself seemed to believe the Stones were hoax on lamented the whole thing. Writing the Hebrew Stones, I fear, has done the evil I wish to God someone else had found them than myself. The evidences figured here of the immense antiquity of these works, and that too long prior to the Hebrew or Jewish dispensations has always raised a fear in my mind that someone has been trying tow hooks me, especially as my opinions have been strong and firmly held this, he wrote to Joseph Henry, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Wyrick died in 18 64 of an overdose of laudanum. In the years following his death, two more relics were found. The stones Since lost, we're almost immediately acknowledged as a hoax. A local dentist, John and Nickel, claimed to be responsible for the two new stones. Thes he carved, he claimed, to discredit the earlier stones. Nickel stones, the inscribed head and the Cooper Stone were obvious hoaxes as Nichols signed them using beaver letters. They were of a very different nature than the original stones. And yet Nichols was successful in casting doubt on the original stones as well. There is still much doubt of the authenticity of the Newark Stones. Still, proponents of there being ancient stones, although perhaps place later than the burial mound suggested. Yet the fact that they survived his unique examples of proposed history argues against their authenticity. In this case, absence of evidence does equal evidence of absence. The 19th century was filled with archaeological frauds designed to support one theory or another, or to capitalize on the public's newfound passion for artifacts and archaeology. A huge number of these artifacts were discovered between 18 60 1900. In all the years since, despite advances in investigative techniques and improvement in technology, not one scrap of evidence has been discovered. No settlement, no town, no further stone carving or tablet to support the ancient Hebrews. In America's theory. As Bradley Leper points out, Old World colonists would have carried with them far more than a few enigmatic stone carvings and quote they would have carried with them the illnesses that the Spanish brought in the 16th century. Had the Indians met with these ancient Hebrew, Asian or Africans, the catastrophic death that they experience after contact would have occurred much earlier and would not have repeated itself. They would have been gone. The last of our hoaxes is the most obvious. The most aptly named hoax, the Cardiff Giant, is undeniably a hoax. It's perpetrators acknowledged. It's fraudulence and capitalized on it. What makes the Cardiff giant interesting is how well it exploited the American public's desire to find scientific proof of a biblical story and material proof that humans giants even walked the lands of America before the Indians that the giant was created with European features was no accident. That those features help to enhance the appeal and keep the hoax alive long beyond its natural span is also obvious. Two men were digging a well in upstate New York on October 16th 18 69. 11 of them felt his pick shovel hit something hard about three feet below the surface. What he discovered would catch the nation's fancy and make tens of thousands of dollars for its creator before being exposed as a fraud. It would then continue to make money, although it a lesser clip. The men. They believe that some old Indian has been buried here and dug up the 10 foot giant. Digging up Indian graves have been something of an American pastime for quite a while. It was not terribly unusual to find remains on a farm or a field. But the 18 sixties digging up in examining Indian burial grounds was common practice for the advancement of knowledge, said some. And for others, it was a moneymaking proposition. Quote. Indian relics became a passion, and a considerable traffic sprang up. The great firm of Tiffany and Company had its small beginnings in the sale of Indian implements and became a jewelry company on Lee, after partner named Young added a watch repairs table to the shop and began to sell in expensive jewelry. Indian skulls and burial goods could make someone a pretty penny. This Indian was different, however. Aside from being 10 feet tall, he did not bear with them Woods to other Indians. In fact, he will Caucasian. As he lay there in his grave, the men stared at him and wonder, and the world was introduced to the part of Giant. Immediately, a tent was set up around the figure scaffolding was built on signs went up to accommodate the curious public. 50 cents would buy you time with an amazing wonder. The first scientific evidence that giants had indeed walked the Earth in 18 69 a decade after Darwin's origin of the species. The American public was intrigued by the natural sciences. Anthropology and archaeology were developing science, and the American public was looking to them for evidence of both the past of the land and proof that the New World artifacts were not inferior to European ones and challenging the priority of native Americans that lands. In other words, they were seeking for these sciences to prove the white Europeans had a right to take the lands from Native Americans like the Wall of Poland before it, and the Newark Stones, the Cardiff giant, presented a willing public with evidence that the land has first been settled by people other than the Indians, the Indians that were being displaced, being pushed ever further west and then into reservations and subdued at every turn by 18 69. But the public still wanted in craved evidence to justify their removal. They wanted proof that what America was doing to the Indians was okay. The card of Giant played perfectly into that desire. There was something almost spiritual in the way people felt about it. All of one's feelings. Quote. Persuade one to accept it as a human being. His Caucasian features were noted sometimes in advertising. They desperately wanted him to be riel. Quote. This is not a thing contrived of man, but it is the face of one who lived the earth, the very image of a child of God. End quote, close instruction made others doubt this sentiment. If you could not be a real giant. The Cardiff giant was then a remarkable work of art. Quote of Caucasian origin and designed by the artist to perpetuate the memory of a great minds and noble deeds. End quote art then, but certainly ancient. But of course it was. Neither Giant was the brainchild of George Hall, Connecticut Tobacco, former and cigar maker who wanted to poke the gullibility of the religious community. He had found. A large piece of gypsum hired some partisans in Chicago to carve the giant aged it, using sand and water. The original sculpture too closely resembled him, so he had a beard removed and Poor's driven into the face using a hammer. Once it was complete, he shifted back to New York. People noticed the large great being moved by wagon, but made up their own stories to account for it. Contraband tobacco Jeff Davis. The figure was buried behind the barn of a local farmer and brother in law to haul stub Newell. It stayed there for one year under the time was right for it to be found. The two men were ordered to dig a well in exactly the right spot to discover it, and the excitement began and whole was no fool. You mean thousands upon thousands of dollars from people who came to see the giant. As more and more people began to question its authenticity, home made overtures to remove the giant and take the show on the road. It was at this point that a group of local businessmen and politicians purchased the giant in order to keep it, and the tourists in Cardiff Hall knew what he was doing, and he got out of it before it all fell apart. Paul had more than money in mind when he planned and executed his hoax after an argument with the minister over the minister's acceptance of quote. There were giants on the earth in those days and quote as a literal truth whole, determined to create a prank that would illustrate the foolishness of religious extremists. Each of these hoaxes had different perpetrators, but a similar purpose, with the exception of the Cardiff Giant, which was created with the intent to prove the gullibility of people hoaxes intended to support a pre Columbian history that European peoples found acceptable and explaining the indigenous people of the Americas. This prehistory was a myth created to keep true the biblical teachings they knew and to allow the subject nations of the continent. Beginning with the assumption that Indians were uncivilized and therefore not equal, Europeans were able to justify their ultimate destruction. The catastrophic impact of contact on indigenous people cannot be overstated. In addition to the almost unfathomable loss of life, history and traditions were lost as entire generations of people died without being able to pass on the stories and the information of their forebearers. The subsequent forced removals and haphazard placement of peoples and reservations and camps further destroy their ability to preserve and share their ceremonies, traditions, histories and culture. One might say, when hearing of a hoax, what's the big deal? So they really do so much damage. And the answer, of course, is a resounding yes. Aside from the financial huckstering of people like P. T. Barnum, who made a copy of the Cardiff giant and travel the country with it, the damage is more than just a few pennies in an afternoon lost on a fake. The damage might not be obvious, but it's there. Each hoax reinforced for some of false belief. Each hoax undermined the people in its history and in many cases, many people's each hoax wasted time and energy that could have been spent seeking truth, even closed lines of inquiry that may have been open at one point and perhaps the most poignant and in perhaps the most damaging, sad and poignant example that of the wall, um, olam hokum. The damage is still very riel. Many young Lynam pings gravitated to it and accepted. It is truth because they created the connection with their historical past. In the case of the wall, um, all, um, hokum damages poignant and still very, very riel. Many young wannabes gravitated to it and accept it as truth because they crave a connection with their historical past. This connection had been broken through smallpox through forced relocation and the ravaging of their social structure. In the wall a Mowlam hokum. They heard the voices of ancestors long gone in 1993. A new translation was published by David McCutchen. And in the forward to the text are the words of Linda Pola, grand chief of the Delaware Nation Grand Council of North America, and she says, quote, it is an old song by an ancient people. I believe it was sung by the grandfather's. I believe it was sung by many, many and for many times for many, many centuries. I believe it was sung by my ancestors as they traveled through thousands of miles in search of that place where the sun wakes up. I pray that this song of the lineup will be heard. Listen, End quote. In 1994 historian David Ostrich ER published a definitive reputation of the wall. Um, all I'm poking, proving once and for all that it was beyond doubt and in fact, a fraud. No doubt, the effect of this revelation, although long suspected, was still very, very painful for the people who long for those voices of their ancestors. By stealing and falsifying the history of the Luna pays by selling them, Ally Roughen esque committed the cruelest of crimes. He took not only their history, their past, but he stole the time they needed to correct it. Generations were lost to the genocide of smallpox, and their loss led to the loss of oral tradition. What Rafa desk did was make certain no correction could ever be made, and to me, that is a cruelty almost unmatched. Thank you for listening to paranormal tales from the tower from Asbury Park's historic downtown district. My name is Kathy Kelly. If you enjoy this podcast, please go to iTunes and give us a five star rating and a review. If you could, every little bit helps. Please don't forget to subscribe. You could visit us on all of our social media at Paranormal, NJ, on Twitter at Paranormal New Jersey, on Facebook and at the Paranormal Museum on Instagram. If you have any questions or you have a subject that you'd like us to delve into, please feel free to send us an email that Kathy at paramount books NJ dot com. I look forward to hearing from you Welcome. The damage is still very riel. Many young lineup is gravitated to it and accept that it is truth because they create the connection with their historical past. In the case of the Wall, Amal, um, hokum, the damages poignant and still very, very riel. Many young wannabes gravitated to it and accept that it is truth because they craved a connection with their historical past. This connection had been broken through smallpox through forced relocation and the ravaging of their social structure in the wall a Mowlam hokum. They heard the voices of ancestors long gone in 1993. A new translation was published by David McCutchen. And in the Forward to the text are the words of Linda Pollak, grand chief of the Delaware Nation Grand Council of North America. And she says, quote it is an old song by an ancient people. I believe it was sung by the grandfather's. I believe it was sung by many, many and for many times for many, many centuries. I believe it was sung by my ancestors as they traveled through thousands of miles in search of that place where the sun wakes up. I pray that this song of the Luna Bay will be heard. Listen, End quote. In 1994 historian David Ostrich ER published a definitive reputation of the wall, um, Fulham hooking, proving once and for all that it was beyond doubt and in fact, a fraud. No doubt the effect of this revelation, although long suspected, was still very, very painful for the people who long for those voices are their ancestors. By stealing and falsifying the history of the Luna pays by selling them a lie. Ruffin esque committed the cruelest of crimes. He took not only their history, their past, but he stole the time they needed to correct it. Generations were lost to the genocide of smallpox, and their loss led to the loss of oral tradition. What Rafa desk did was make certain no correction could ever be made. And to me, that is a cruelty almost unmatched. Thank you for listening to paranormal tales from the tower from Asbury Park's historic downtown district. My name is Kathy Kelly. If you enjoyed this podcast, please go to iTunes and give us a five star rating and a review. If you could, Every little bit helps. Please don't forget to subscribe. You could visit us on all of our social media at Paranormal and J on Twitter at Paranormal New Jersey, on Facebook and at the Paranormal Museum on Instagram. If you have any questions or you have a subject that you'd like us to delve into, please feel free to send us an email that Cathy at paramount books NJ dot com. I look forward to hearing from you