Page 17 - 200810 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - October 2008

17 Ten Horror Hoaxes 17 Ten Horror Hoaxes Ten horror hoaxes that 2004 Horror marketing The 1897 Cow The 1897 Cow Ten horror hoaxes that 2004 Horror marketing The US press fell for a Sci Fi channel spooked the masses mockumentary in which Sixth Sense director M Abduction Hoax Abduction Hoax spooked the masses Night Shyamalan discussed his childhood 1448 Birth of the Devil’s child 1448 Birth of the Devil’s child relationship with a dead boy whom he had Ursula Shipton was so ugly that nobody watched drown. The film included footage of the director required further proof that her mother had been storming out of interviews in response to seduced by the devil. A biographer wrote that she had “pimples of diverse colours, as red, upsetting questions. The hoax was designed to plug blew, and mixt, which like Vapours of Shyamalan’s next horror film, The Village, Brimstone gave such a lustre of the Night”. which was released a month later. Ironically, the The nation, including King Henry VIII, believed she had inherited the ability to tell the horror marketing was probably a better success than the film. future. Needless to say, her predictions were as good as her poetry: 2004 Derren Brown's séance 'The world to an end shall come, in 2004 Derren Brown's séance eighteen hundred and eighty one'. Despite the fact that Brown is a self- April 23, 1897, a Kansas newspaper, the confessed illusionist, he managed to spook the Yates Center Farmer's Advocate, reported an 1661 The Ghost drummer of of 1661 The Ghost drummer nation with his live Ouija board séance, incredible story. On the evening of April 19, broadcast on Channel 4. local rancher Alexander Hamilton, his son, and Wiltshire Wiltshire He held the event at Eltham Hall, a hired man saw a giant cigar-shaped UFO In the 17th Century, the poor were claiming the location had a history of hovering above a corral near the house. victims of hoaxes invented by the eccentric and paranormal activity after 12 people killed Hamilton claimed that in a carriage underneath powerful. themselves in a suicide pact in 1974. the structure were "six of the strangest beings I A bitter John Mompesson of Tedworth Participants, all agnostics and atheists, were ever saw." Just then, the three men heard a calf took a drummer to court, accusing him of petty moved to tears. Channel 4 received third highest bawling and found it trapped in the fence, a rope crimes. The drummer had his drum confiscated number of complaints in TV history before the around its neck extending upward. "We tried to but was released. Mr Mompesson was allegedly show was even broadcast. get it off but could not," Hamilton said, "so we haunted by drumming and legend spread cut the wire loose to see the ship, heifer and all, throughout England that the drummer had 2007 South Asia's gory mobile rise slowly, disappearing in the northwest." 2007 South Asia's gory mobile conjured an evil spell to haunt the man’s house. The next day, Hamilton went looking for hoax In truth, Mr Mompesson just wanted to hoax the animal. He learned that a neighbor had fulfil a vendetta against the drummer. The poor A paranormal mobile phone killer was found the butchered remains in his pasture. The drummer was charged again and found guilty of dismissed as too Japanese-horror-film to be neighbor, according to Hamilton, "was greatly employing an evil spirit. believed. The “virus” was thus explained with mystified in not being able to find any tracks in science: an unknown caller would ring and the soft ground." 1730 Prank witch trial project a high-pitched screech through the Hamilton's statement was followed by 1730 Prank witch trial The Pennsylvania Gazette published a receiver, so loud that it would burst all the an affidavit signed by a dozen prominent tongue in cheek account of a witch trial at blood-vessels in the brain. citizens who swore that "for truth and veracity Rumours of the phone killer began in Mount Holly in which witches were charged Pakistan, where believers thought the killings we have never heard [Hamilton's] word with making people “sheep dance”, among were a sign of God’s wrath. questioned." In the following days, his story other absurdities. was published in newspapers throughout the The amusing article, believed to have United States and even in Europe. Columbia foot British 2008 been written by the satirist Benjamin Franklin, 2008 British Columbia foot Ufologists rediscovered the account in chopper backfired; readers took it as gospel. chopper the early 1960s, and the story rebounded to life When a human foot washed up on the through books and magazines. In 1976, 1867 Supernatural stones shores of British Columbia earlier this year, the however, an elderly Kansas woman came 1867 Supernatural stones By 1867 newspaper readers still weren't sixth in a period of a few months, news stories forward- to say that shortly before the tale was in tune with the satirical humour of journalists. were printed in national papers across the reported in the Farmer's Advocate, she had However, readers of Nevada’s Territorial world. The sick hoax – the result of a quickly heard Hamilton boast to his wife about the story Enterprise cannot be blamed for spreading devised prank, some seaweed in an old trainer - -he had made up. Hamilton belonged to a local rumours about this rather obscure article by Dan is an example of maximum horror hype from liars' club that delighted in the concoction of De Quille. minimum effort. outrageous tall tales. According to the woman, According to the writer, he had found an "The club soon broke up after the 'airship and 2008 Raffles Place CCTV eerie basin in some Nevada mountains 2008 Raffles Place CCTV cow' story. I guess that one had topped them containing perfectly round stones that moved A viral video, footage of a bumbling all." [] about in herds. De Quille was offered $10,000 ghost in an elevator at Raffles Place in to expose the stones. He declined. Singapore, reached inboxes across the world. Eventually the makers, GMP, revealed 1977 The Amityville Horror themselves. The film, part of a campaign 1977 Horror Amityville The printed against working late, cost $100,000 to make. [] printed Still believed by many to be a true story, the haunting at Amityville is probably the most famous paranormal hoax of all time. The terrifying story of the Lutz family home swept America in 1977 and has since been the subject of nine films. One of the key creators of the story, William Weber wrote in a 1979 issue of People magazine: 'I know this book is a hoax. We created this horror story over many bottles of wine'.