About the Museum
The Museum of Hoaxes, founded by Alex Boese in 1997, is dedicated to promoting knowledge about the phenomenon of hoaxes. On our blog (to the left) we post about dubious-sounding claims — and whatever else strikes our fancy. But there's more to the museum than the blog. Check out our historical wing, which contains hundreds of articles about famous hoaxes, arranged chronologically from the Middle Ages right up to the present. Our Gallery of the Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes Ever celebrates that one day of the year devoted to pranks and practical jokes. In our forum, you can chat with other MoH members. And there's much, much more.

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Jon-Erik Beckjord has taken photographs that show images of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson, as well as OJ Simpson, he claims. The photos were taken at the scene of the murders, and Beckjord believes that the images are an accusation from beyond the grave. He says that the photographs show OJ's face alongside those he was acquitted of murdering, and his theory is that the spirits of Goldman and Simpson are making a statement.

Beckjord is a keen observer of the strange. "He acts as perhaps a psychic “lightening rod” for anomalies, since he has filmed Nessie, filmed UFOs at Area 51, photographed strange beings in crop circles and also has recently photographed a ten foot tall Bigfoot in the Sierras."

UPDATE: Chuck has noted that Beckjord is selling these images on ebay for a minimum bid of $100, 000. I can't see anyone paying that much for fuzzy images that can be barely be interpreted as faces at all, let alone any specific faces.
A photo taken in February 1965 has sparked debate over a UFO seemingly seen in the background.

The official Defence Force photographer snapped the picture of the navy cruiser Royalist whilst the ship was on its way back from Waitangi celebrations.

The photograph was recently dug out for a new website for Devonport Navy Museum. The staff member who found it checked the negative, then called in a digital imaging expert, who established that the image was in the original.

Opinions on the identity of the 'UFO' differ.


On this footage from Google Video, it seems that a soldier is able to twist his head a full 180 degrees.

One of the tags for the video says 'fake', and I can't work out whether or not it is (partially due to the problems I'm having with my computer, which means that video tends to make it shut down).

My gut feeling says it isn't real, though.
Rich Mitchell may lose his job after making a mock documentary portraying his staff as killers, strippers and drug dealers.

The Bremen High School District Superintendent did video interviews with his faculty members, then spliced in his own footage.

The 'mockumentary' was first aired in front of 500 faculty and staff members at a back-to-school seminar. Mitchell then posted the footage, along with outtakes, on the District's web site. The film has since been removed from the site.

School board president Evelyn Gleason is quoted as saying: "I personally think he stepped over the line when it went on the Web site. We're a great district, we have wonderful teachers and students and this is not representative of them. I think it was a bad idea gone wrong."

The seven-member board will conduct an investigation.

(Thanks, Accipiter.)
Gerrit forwarded links to radar maps showing some extremely unusual cloud activity over the Netherlands. I managed to visit the radar sites myself in time to see the unusual clouds. However, the maps have since updated and are no longer showing the same activity. But I can vouch that, for a while, they really were displaying the sudden appearance of a mysterious ring of clouds around the Netherlands. Screenshots of the radar image have been posted here and here. Has anyone checked that the Netherlands are still around?


The weatherman in this clip is Justin Mosely, meteorologist for Sarasota station SNN6. He has a rather over-the-top reaction to the appearance of a cockroach (which remains off camera). The clip looks staged, but it isn't. However, neither did it appear on-air. The St. Petersburg Times reports: Also, when the clip claims that there was a 3-hour delay between the first and second appearance of the cockroach, that's not true: "There was no 3-hour delay," DesMarais said. "Somebody, I don't know who, altered that video. It all happened within 20 seconds or less. The bug didn't go and come back."
Back in July I posted about a bicycle-eating tree in Washington state. That tree is real. Now here we have a motorcycle-eating tree. I don't have much information about it. According to the site I found it on, the picture was taken in Thailand. I'm inclined to think it's real. After all, there are trees that grow quite fast, and this motorcycle does look rusted.

It took me a while to decide whether or not this photo had been photoshopped, perhaps because I really wanted it to be real. But eventually I grudgingly decided it had to be photoshopped. (I was thinking an artist may have placed cardboard cutouts on the scaffolding.) I found the photo on hot-potato.org, which identifies the building as McCarren Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The photo was taken by Steve Ingkavet.


Marco sends along this photo of a baby supported by a Victoria amazonica, a giant waterlily from South America. He writes: Yes, based on this picture it does look like they placed a support beneath the lily to distribute the weight of the child, which seems to be cheating. After all, the weight of the lily is now being supported by the piece of foam board (or whatever it is) rather than vice versa. They should have placed the board on top of the lily.
People have been crowding around a seven-metre betel nut tree in Kuala Lumpur. The tree has developed what looks like a human face on one of its fronds, the reports say. The owner, Miah Majid, told reporters that the tree had previously sported the shape of an eye.

"Superstitious village elders have advised onlookers not to make any comments when they pass the tree, reports said. Other enterprising villagers are selling photographs of the face for 2 ringgit (US$0.55)."

Good to see a slightly lower-tech way of making money off it, rather then using eBay...

(Thanks, naiart.)