Hoax!

A landlord claimed that his daughter was haunted, by the deceased wife of a former tenant. Most shocking of all, this ghost was accusing her husband of murder. Ghosts aren't real (most of the time, sorry), but murders plots can be very, very real. But who is the real murderer here?
SOURCES:
Gentlemen’s Magazine archives (by Samuel Johnson)
“Ghostly Hands and Ghostly Agency,” Jennifer Bann
“Missionaries, Methodists, and a Ghost,” Travis Glasson
“We See a Ghost: Hogarth’s Satire on Methodists and Connoisseurs,” Bernd Krysmanski
“Samuel Johnson and Spectral Media,” Rachael Scarborough King
Elizabeth [called the Cock Lane Ghost], Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
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From 1998 to 2001, a man claiming to be visiting our "world-line" on a mission from the year 2036 enthralled a corner of the nascent internet with his explanations of time travel, the world of the future, and the wars to come. While few of his "predictions" came true, his story remains haunting -- who was this enigmatic early forum poster? Why did he claim time ended in 2564? How did he know so much about early computers? And where, or when, did he go?
SOURCES
https://rileyraccoon.substack.com/p/time-travel-tales
https://vimeo.com/11661023
https://web.archive.org/web/20170622161305/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/11945420/Who-was-John-Titor-the-time-traveller-who-came-from-2036-to-warn-us-of-a-nuclear-war.html
https://www.discoveryuk.com/mysteries/john-titor-the-internets-most-mysterious-time-traveller/
https://web.archive.org/web/20260102173511/https://www.postbulletin.com/rochester-magazine/john-titor-who-was-the-time-traveler-that-visited-rochester
https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/john-titor-time-traveler-predictions-story
https://johntitorresearch.wordpress.com/
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Anastasia Romanov inspired a play, an Academy Award-winning movie, and a Dana-and-Lizzie-loving animated feature. But the legend of the missing princess is stranger and more involved than a movie with a talking bat might have led you to believe.
SOURCES:
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/february-6/anastasia-arrives-in-the-united-states
https://phys.org/news/2018-07-fresh-dna-authenticate-bones-russia.html
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19600212&id=tuUlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EncDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7046,629353&hl=en
https://www.nytimes.com/1958/08/24/archives/anastasia-grand-duchess-or-grand-hoax-the-last-act-in-the-drama-of.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20250331152750/http://www.readthehook.net/86004/cover-jack-amp-anna-remembering-czar-charlottesville-eccentricshttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/68616
https://blog.newspapers.com/anna-anastasia-anderson/
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/grondahl-anastasia-or-imposter-local-author-12950650.php
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In one of the most famous and widely-reported UFO sightings of all time, a Florida man witnessed, photographed and even interacted with alien beings from another planet several times over the course of many months, sparking a frenzy of speculation and excitement. Then again...a Florida man...
SOURCES:
War of the Words by Craig R Meyers
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/02/16/congress-uap-obama-aliens-real-podcast/88699039007/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ufo-files-released-scientists-trump/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/09/10/ufo-hearing-video-hellfire-missile/86073340007/
Professor Andrew Fraknoi
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A girl showed up at a town near Bristol in 1817 wearing a turban, and everyone went nuts.
SOURCES:
"The Caraboo Hoax," Margaret Russell
John Matthew Gutch's narrative
English Eccentrics, by Edith Sitwell
"Devonshire Characters and Strange Events"
"British Performances of Java," Matthew Isaac Cohen
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