Literary Hoaxes - The Art of the Prank

March 6, 2009December 15, 2023

LiteratEye #4: The Fix Is In: Planted Documents

Here’s the fourth installment of LiteratEye, a new series, only on The Art of the Prank Blog, by W.J. Elvin III, editor and publisher of FIONA: Mysteries & Curiosities of Literary Fraud & Folly and the LitFraud blog.

LiteratEye #4: The Fix Is In: Planted Documents
By W.J. Elvin III
March 6, 2009

Monk Transcribing Scriptures The recent fuss about President Obama”s birth certificate started me thinking about the broader topic of “planted” documents. Three modern cases, involving murder, fraud and theft came to mind.

The first case features a brilliant fellow, for a time a highly respected document dealer, who concluded his career as an expert forger by committing two murders.

It is the dream of every “picker” to be rummaging through the bargain bin of a second hand bookstore only to discover a real rarity. That actually happened for Mark Hofmann. The twist was that Hofmann had planted this particular document in the bin in the first place. Continue reading “LiteratEye #4: The Fix Is In: Planted Documents”

February 27, 2009January 15, 2019

LiteratEye #3: Really Great Sermon, Sir; Could I Have Your Autograph?

Here’s the third installment of LiteratEye, a new series, only on The Art of the Prank Blog, by W.J. Elvin III, editor and publisher of FIONA: Mysteries & Curiosities of Literary Fraud & Folly and the LitFraud blog.

And, as an added treat, here’s an article about author, W.J. Elvin III, from the Cumberland Times-News that appeared this week.

LiteratEye #3: Really Great Sermon, Sir; Could I Have Your Autograph?
By W.J. Elvin III
February 27, 2009

jesus-autograph-200

It began with an innocent question posed on one of the “ask the expert” sites. Someone wanted to know the value of a Superman autograph. The kindly expert explained that Superman was a fictitious character, and that there might be some value to autographs of persons who had played the role.

That got me thinking about fictitious autographs. Not fake autographs of real people but those of, say, Sherlock Holmes or Paul Bunyon or Nancy Drew. I wondered if anyone had tried to sell such a thing.

I asked around. Oddly, the name that came up most often from dealers was “Jesus.”

Now, that poses a dilemma. Continue reading “LiteratEye #3: Really Great Sermon, Sir; Could I Have Your Autograph?”

February 20, 2009January 15, 2019

LiteratEye #2: Author Keven McQueen Recalls A Master Prankster of Yesteryear

Here’s the second installment of LiteratEye, a new series, only on The Art of the Prank Blog, by W.J. Elvin III, editor and publisher of FIONA: Mysteries & Curiosities of Literary Fraud & Folly and the LitFraud blog.

LiteratEye #2: Author Keven McQueen Recalls A Master Prankster of Yesteryear
By W.J. Elvin III
February 20, 2009

It is quite possible that the name “Joseph Mulhattan” does not set bells ringing and lights flashing in the minds of modern readers, even if those readers seriously appreciate pranks and hoaxes. Keven McQueen may correct that regrettable state of affairs one day, when he finalizes his book on one of the master pranksters in journalism history.

Mulhattan’s bizarre news articles – perhaps hundreds – were often swallowed whole by the press and public of his era. “Mulhattan convinced our ancestors that a lost race of Aztecs had lived in Kentucky, that a meteor had demolished a sizable portion of Texas, that trained monkeys were a threat to American labor and that two moons orbited the earth. The last two hoaxes even fooled some scientists,” McQueen told me, adding: “Some of his tall tales survive today in the form of what we now call urban legends.”

Mulhattan was a very successful traveling salesman by trade but it was his sensational “news” that secured a position in the national spotlight. According to McQueen, Mulhattan was as well known in his day as Mark Twain or Jules Verne. He convinced many readers that the bodies of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were to be exhumed and put on display, viewable for a fee, in celebration of the Centennial in 1876. A story attributed to him about David Lang, a Kentuckian who disappeared in thin air before witnesses, still appears today as a “strange but true” report. His tale of trained monkeys replacing farm laborers provoked angry editorials and brought hate mail to the innocent farmer whom Mulhattan mischievously credited with the innovation. Continue reading “LiteratEye #2: Author Keven McQueen Recalls A Master Prankster of Yesteryear”

February 17, 2009January 15, 2019

A LiteratEye Extra: The Mystery of the Missing Fake Author

A LiteratEye Extra

Editor’s Note: W.J. Elvin III’s LiteratEye column about literary hoaxes is featured here, and only here, every Friday.

News Analysis: Who Wrote the Real Stuff in a Fake Book By a Fake Author Now Presumed Dead?
by W.J. Elvin III

[Editor’s note: See bottom of post for an update on this story]

Philip Sessarego may actually be dead this time. But before confirming that a decomposing body found in a garage in Antwerp, Belgium, is indeed that of the author of Jihad!, a book about secret commando operations in Afghanistan, detectives want to see the results of DNA testing.

The test results are vital because Sessarego, who wrote the now-discredited best seller under the name Tom Carew, has previously been reported dead. He was subsequently discovered in hiding in Belgium under the name Philip Stevenson.

It has been seven years since the BBC, in a confrontation that turned violent, challenged Sessarego’s claims about participation in clandestine SAS operations. The author punched a cameraman, made threats and ran away. The SAS could be compared to the U.S. Army’s Green Berets, though to suggest that in either sector would likely get one flattened like roadkill.

For that matter, it is the pride and anger of those who actually served in the SAS operations Sessarego wrote about that may have spelled his doom, according some who knew him. Sessarego had many enemies including specially trained warrior-types who resented his cashing in on false claims about the SAS.

What has puzzled knowledgeable observers is the accuracy of his depictions of those secret Afghan operations. Much has been made of the “uncanny” way in which Sessarego described situations and events that he couldn’t have known about. Continue reading “A LiteratEye Extra: The Mystery of the Missing Fake Author”

February 13, 2009January 15, 2019

LiteratEye #1: George Washington Lied About Taxes

We’re pleased to announce the debut of LiteratEye, a new series, only on The Art of the Prank Blog, by W.J. Elvin III, editor and publisher of FIONA: Mysteries & Curiosities of Literary Fraud & Folly and the LitFraud blog.

Literary deception is John’s “beat” and he has agreed to send us a “casebook” dispatch each week for the foreseeable future. Says John, “When literary fraud is exposed it’s usually pretty well covered in the mainstream press, but seems to me they often overlook a good story in who dug it out and how. Sometimes it’s forensics but other times it’s just chance, someone remembers something that puts the work in a questionable light.”

Here, in honor of President’s Day, is John’s first post:

LiteratEye #1: George Washington Lied About Taxes
by W.J. Elvin III
February 13, 2009

Prepare to be shocked and appalled

Minute Book 1756 page 463 Few believe, surely, that George Washington never told a lie, or even that he confessed to chopping down one of his father’s cherry trees, as his early biographer Parson Mason Locke Weems suggested. Weems saw nothing wrong with a bit of fabrication when it served his purposes. Neither, for that matter, did Washington.

Well, if that’s so, what lie did George Washington tell? Name one. No doubt revisionist historians could provide a few dozen, but up until recently I certainly couldn’t have done it. I ran across this little nugget while researching other matters in old newspapers, the sort of thing I do in putting together Fiona, a magazine about literary fraud and folly.

I ran my discovery past Rick Shenkman, editor of History News Network, and he replied that there is no mention of it in the papers of George Washington. I don’t know if that means “and therefore it’s a crock,” or perhaps “good for you, you’ve rescued a valuable anecdote from the dustbin of history.” Possibly neither.

At any rate, evidence in colonial court records, stolen during the Civil War from Fairfax Court House in Virginia but since recovered, indicates that George Washington once faced charges of “swearing a false oath” – that is to say, telling a lie in order to dodge taxes. Continue reading “LiteratEye #1: George Washington Lied About Taxes”