In the old western “The Man Who Killed Liberty Valance,” there’s a prominent line that says “When the legend comes true, print the legend. “However, printing a legend does not make it a fact: a scenario that has been affirmed. over the centuries, rumors, urban legends, and outright lies have become a story of exchange.
To separate ambitious legends from less-than-stellar facts, here are 10 of the strangest conspiracy theories that have tried (but failed) to reinvent the truth.
Konnichiwa, Jesus-san: Although the conspiracy theories surrounding Jesus’ life are like field lilies, this might be the most unusual. According to this story, Jesus did not die on the cross, this fate belonged to him until now. Little-known brother Isukiri, but instead fled to Japan, where he had already gone at the age of 21. He married, had 3 daughters, and managed an onion farm until his death at age 106.
While biblical scholars refuse to adopt this conspiracy theory, the site of the Tomb of Christ in the village of Shingō in Aomori Prefecture is one of the most popular tourist destinations in northern Japan.
The Empress and the Equine: The eighteenth-century Russian Empress Catherine the Great fell victim to one of the greatest conspiracy theories of all time. horses, however, when her servants tried to hang the animal in a harness above her, the vessel broke and the empress was crushed to death by the horse’s fall.
In fact, Catherine died of a stroke at the age of 67. The precise source of the crackpot rumor has never been confirmed, however, Catherine’s biographers planted it some time after her death in a vain effort to denigrate her achievements as empress and saves you the option of having other strong-minded women place monarchs in power. However, the story survives, thanks in part to Seth MacFarlane.
The Road from the Ford Theater: While historians have reported that John Wilkes Booth was shot dead on a Virginia farm 12 days after assassinating President Abraham Lincoln, some conspiracy theorists insist that he escaped capture and that the guy who killed James William Boyd, a Confederate soldier who looked like Booth. In 1903, a suicidal guy in Enid, Oklahoma, named John St. Helen and David E. George confessed on their deathbed that Booth.
The Royal Ripper: The culprit in the 1888 Jack the Ripper serial murders has never been identified, and several suspects have been raised as the imaginable killer. Perhaps the most surprising theory blames Prince Albert Victor, grandson of Queen Victoria and moment on the throne. Historian Philippe Jullian was the first to publicly acknowledge the rumor in a 1962 e-book about the prince’s father, King Edward VI, and said the murders were committed to remove witnesses who knew the prince had had an illegitimate child with a woman in Whitechapel. domain where the murders occurred.
In reality, the prince was not in London for the months the Jack the Ripper murders occurred, and the rumor was one of many that disfigured his legacy. The prince never acceded to the throne: he died in 1892 from a flu pandemic, and his Premature Death spawned a new series of rumors that insisted on more sordid reasons for his untimely death.
The Yellow Brick Road to Death: The production of the 1939 old film “The Wizard of Oz” produced a near-death party when Buddy Ebsen had a severe allergic reaction to his Tin Man makeup that forced him to go through a prolonged hospitalization. The conspiracy theory has emerged that one of the little people hired to play the Munchkins not only hanged himself in the production, but his corpse appeared in the film.
If one watches a grainy, unrestored VHS video of “The Wizard of Oz,” the supposedly suicidal munchkin’s hanging frame is believed to be visual at the back of the forest after Tin Man joins Dorothy and the scarecrow on the way to Oz. Actually, the object in question is a giant crane that, among several exotic birds brought from the Los Angeles Zoo to complement the set, however, the birds were filmed slightly, which adds to the confusion.
Comrade Oswald: The assassination of President John F. Kennedy probably spawned more conspiracy theories than any ancient event, and the original maximum crime-related theory was that Lee Harvey Oswald was not Lee Harvey Oswald, but a soviet.
While historians have reported that Oswald defected to the Soviet Union in 1959 but returned to the United States in 1961, Britain’s Michael Eddows claimed in his 1977 e-book “The Oswald File” that the KGB sent an agent who imperfectly resembled Oswald. the goal of assassinating the president. Eddowes presented photographs taken before and after Oswald’s Soviet apartment to show that the guy arrested in Dallas in November 1963 was not Oswald.
To prove his theory correct, Eddowes spent about $15,000 to continue exhuming Oswald’s frame. Eddowes controlled that the frame be exhumed, and forensic tests showed that it was the same guy who left for the Soviet Union in 1959.
Looking inside the glass onion: The last years of the Beatles era together were framed in the conspiracy theory that Paul McCartney died in a twist of automotive fate in January 1967 and was replaced by a Scottish double named William Campbell. This subterfuge of their fans, the Beatles planted many clues about converting song lyrics and album covers.
The rumor that “Paul is dead” lasted longer than the Beatles: In 2018, McCartney was still refuting the story in the “Carpool Karaoke” segment of James Corden’s communication show. In the last review, Paul was still alive and kicking and making music.
The Grounded Aviator: In 1970, McGraw-Hill published Joe Klaas’ e-book “Amelia Earhart Lives,” which said that aviator Amelia Earhart (who disappeared in the South Pacific in 1937) was not dead, but was captured by the Japanese and held as a prisoner. until 1945, when she quietly repatriated and began a new life as a New Jersey banker under the pseudonym Irene Bolam.
Klaas’ e-book surprised many other people, especially Irene Bolam, who had no problem announcing her identity. Bolam denounced the theory at a press convention and filed a lawsuit against Klaas and McGraw-Hill, who withdrew the e-book. Incredibly, there were 3 more e-books repeating Klaas’ discredited research.
Unlikely newlyweds: In the early 1970s, a conspiracy theory emerged that movie star Rock Hudson and “Gomer Pyle USMC” star Jim Nabors were married. While in Hollywood it was known that the two men were homosexual, this wisdom did not penetrate the general public. . Hudson and Nabors were only informal acquaintances before the story was raised, but they have drifted away from each other for the rest of their lives after it took root.
The genesis of the story goes back to a gay circle in Huntington Beach, California, who threw an annual party. For the invitation to a party, they created a fake wedding invitation imagining Rock Hudson’s union with Gomer Pyle, the former taking the latter’s surname to “Rock Pyle”. This faint joke created the false tale that still wishes to be explained.
If it’s not broken, don’t break it: In April 1985, the Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) sought to address its declining beverage sales by updating its flagship beverage with the arrival of New Coke, which featured a slightly sweeter taste. taste that the favorite soft drink for a long time. The new Coca-Cola intended to update the original Coca-Cola formula, but within 3 months, the company was forced to bring back the original drink under the slogan “Coca-Cola Classic”. New Coca-Cola sales never reached the point of popularity of the original drink: it was renamed “Coca-Cola II” in 1990 and discontinued in 2002.
While the New Coke was initially noted as a marketing fiasco, the uproar over its appearance and the new emergence of the original formula helped encourage sales, leading to the conspiracy theory that the entire company was a well-planned strategy to grab consumers’ attention. public and wallets.
“Some cynics say he planned it all,” Coca-Cola President Donald Keough said. “The fact is, we’re not that stupid or so smart. “
And so few nostalgic for the New Coca-Cola, at least one feels like renewing the Coca-Cola formula:
Photo: Signage of the Tomb of Christ in Japan via Calebincatania / Wikimedia Commons
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