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The Biggest Hoax In History (Literally): The Cardiff Giant
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Since the dawn of time, giants have been the subject of human myth, rumor, horror, and religion. From the iconic brute Goliath in the Old Testament to the creatively horrific Titans of Shingeki No Kyojin, giants have always been more and meant more to humanity than just anyone who stands head and shoulders above other people.
One day, in the late 1960s, a giant unearthed on a farm in New York shook scientists and religious leaders alike to their core. They discovered the Great Stone Man, the Cardiff Giant.
Discovering the BehemothIn the Fall of 1869, Gideon Emmons and Henry Nichols made a monumental archaeological discovery while digging a well on a farm outside of Cardiff, New York. The two men were digging for farm owner William Newell, and when they got three feet down, they hit stone. As they cleared away the dirt, they made out what seemed to be a human foot!
Unearthing the whole body, they discovered a 10-foot-tall petrified man, who would come to be known as the Cardiff Giant. The Giant hadn’t been reduced to a skeleton but appeared to have been petrified, and now made entirely of stone. Ribs, Adam’s apple, skin pores, and even a benevolent smile were all apparent on the stone figure. The two men thought it must have been a native American giant who had died a long time ago, but as they inspected more closely, it appeared something much larger was at work.
Newell immediately opened the giant’s tomb up for viewing. Carriages, buses, horse riders, and buggies came from all over to see what religious scholars were calling a giant that had perished in Noah’s flood. He initially charged 25 cents for entry, but quickly doubled it as the roads leading to his farm became choked with people.
Biblical GiantsGiants in the time of Noah? Well, your typical King James Bible barely mentions anything about giants during the great flood—just that they were there. A non-canon book of the bible, the book of Enoch, goes into more detail, implying that giants were corrupted angels who eventually helped build the Ark. Though the book is considered apocryphal, any mention of giants always seems to make a foothold in the minds of speculative archaeologists.
“There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of ZGod came unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” Genesis 6:4
Away from the bustle, inside the viewing tent itself, onlookers fell silent, and no one dared speak above a whisper in the presence of the profound specimen. Light fell from the center of the tent on the giant lying in his grave. One arm cradled his stomach, as if in the throes of death pain, but a gentle smile was cemented in a state of eternal serenity. America’s attention was fixed on the Cardiff Giant, and scientists were even coming out with explanations on how the giant had come to be petrified.
Scientific DissonanceAt this time in history, emerging science and sideshow hoaxes were raging with popularity. At a time when biblical texts were taken quite literally—especially in revivalist New York—and were being challenged by the ideas of Charles Darwin, both common people, the clergy, and scientists were desperate to resolve the dissonance between religion and science. This made them ripe victims for a hoax as they readily accepted the blurring of the lines between observation and faith. P. T. Barnum himself offered to pay $50,000 for a share of Howell’s giant and to move it to New York City. When Howell refused, Barnum sent agents in to view the statue up close and had an exact replica created. This fake Cardiff Giant proved just as popular as the original, with few people calling it a fake at first.
The original statue was, of course, a forgery too, a hoax planted there by Newell’s friend George Hull. Both men were in on the hoax, but the idea came to Hull—an atheist—after arguing with a priest for hours about literal interpretations of the bible. Hull lie awake all night that evening, trying to think of the most ridiculous thing people would believe, and eventually came up with the idea of the Cardiff hoax.
Hull spent years and thousands of dollars constructing the Cardiff Giant. All the work had to be done in secret as well. The five-ton block of stone used to make the statue was carved by an artist under the premise it was going to eventually be a tribute to Abraham Lincoln. He took the stone to a pair of sculptors in Chicago, posing as the model for the statue himself. When the carving was complete, they doused the whole thing in acid to give the stone a weathered look.
Of course, when he took Barnum to court to sue over the copy and a judge asked how he was so sure Barnum’s was a fake, he had to swallow his own lie and agree that both were real.
News about the origins of this pre-flood giant, however, eventually got out, and legitimate scientists decried it as a hoax. As pressures mounted, Howell and Hull sold the statue before admitting everything in a newspaper exposé. Hull had accomplished his goal though, he had made his point about the gullibility of the public and made a fistful of cash along the way.
Petrified Men Sweep the NationJust seven years after the Cardiff Giant, “The Solid Muldoon” was found in the mountains of Colorado, but was once again a hoax perpetrated by George Hull! Unlike the Cardiff Giant, the Solid Muldoon had been made out of a mixture of dust, clay, plaster, bones, blood, and meat. By this time, the giant rush was in full force, and petrified men were popping up all over. Hotels and tricksters began cooking up their own giants as marketing stunts, none holding up under basic scrutiny, but still managing to collect up to $1 a person to see these giant forgeries.
Though Barnum had offered $50,000 for the Cardiff Giant, by the time mustachioed and side-burned novelty giants were hitting the scene, the fake giant market crashed. A petrified man “found” in Wind Cave, South Dakota, sold for just $2,000.
As the giants truly went extinct, most were destroyed, fell apart, or were lost to time. The hoax that started it all, however, survived and was returned to New York. It’s on display at the Cooperstown Farmer’s Museum, underneath a tent just like the one Howell displayed it under 150 years ago.
CC Martin Lewison
The Cardiff Giant is but one of many hoax giants that have made headlines in history. Whether it’s a still from a movie trailer shared on Facebook by your mother-in-law out of context, an apocryphal book of the bible, or a crudely captioned photo in your Instagram feed of a barely convincing skeleton scaled up next to someone standing in the desert, the giant myth is just too tall a tale not to tell.
But, here at Ripley’s a hoax can be a Believe It or Not! For being a hoax, but we’re even more interested when the truth is stranger than fiction. He may not be 10 feet tall, but at 8’ 11” Robert Wadlow, the tallest man in known history, wasn’t a giant discovered in a remote cave or desert, but a real, well-documented man who lived in Illinois in the 20th century!
EXPLORE THE ODD IN PERSON! Discover hundreds of strange and unusual artifacts and get hands-on with unbelievable interactives when you visit a Ripley’s Odditorium!Source: The Biggest Hoax In History (Literally): The Cardiff Giant
Rescued Pelican Returns Home 11 Years After Traumatic Exit
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
[April 19–April 25, 2021] A gnome shortage, musical skies, and a long flight home—all round-up in this week’s weird news from Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
Hester Ford’s Reign as Oldest Living American Comes to an EndThe oldest living American passed away in the comfort of her Charlotte, North Carolina, home on Saturday at the age of 115—or 116, depending who you ask.
According to her family, Hester McCardell Ford was born on August 15, 1904, while the Gerontology Research Group placed her birth year in 1905.
Either way, the mother of 12, grandmother to 68, great-grandmother to 125, and great-great-grandmother of 120 lived long enough to be named the oldest living American after surpassing 114-year-old Alelia Murphy in November 2020.
Born in Lancaster County, South Carolina, Ford married her husband, John, when she was only 14-years-old and gave birth to her first child a year later. The couple relocated to Charlotte in 1960, just three years before John’s passing. Ford lived independently for several decades until moving in with family members when she was 108-years-old.
Known to spend her days enjoying the fresh air, singing, playing games, looking at old photos, and watching home movies, Ford’s secret to her long life wasn’t much of a secret at all, “I just live right, all I know.”
Hester Ford, who grew up picking cotton, got married at 14 and went on to become the oldest living American with more than 120 great-great-grandchildren, has died peacefully in her home, according to her family. https://t.co/JeLGx5c95O
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 19, 2021
At 114, Thelma Sutcliffe of Nebraska has now taken the title of the oldest living American and still has time to catch up to the world’s oldest person, 118-year-old Kane Tanaka of Japan.
Materials Shortage Leaves British Gardens GnomelessBritish garden stores are saying, “Oh, gnome!” as they face a gnome shortage in part due to the recent blockage of the Suez Canal.
Gnome statues have become all the rage in the U.K. since COVID-19 lockdowns left people with a lot of time on their hands.
This increased demand, coupled with a shortage of raw materials caused by the Ever More cargo ship getting stuck in the Suez, has created quite the pickle for gnome enthusiasts hoping to spruce up their gardens for the spring.
Ian Byrne, of Highfield Garden World in Whitminster, Gloucestershire, hasn’t seen a gnome in six months since the materials often used to create the curious statues have all become victims of supply shortages.
“We are not immune to a ship getting stuck in a canal, freight cost issues due to Brexit, or the pandemic,” said Britain’s Garden Center Association’s chief executive, Iain Wylie, who also referred to the combination of the lockdown and shortages as a “perfect storm.”
A Canadian singer is getting high praise after singing the lowest vocal note ever performed by a female.
Joy Chapman, of Surrey, British Columbia, has always had a wide vocal range, singing both high notes and those so low, she would often be asked to cover the portions of the songs usually reserved for male performers.
Encouraged by her niece, Chapman shattered the Guinness World Record title this week by belting out a C1 note—the lowest C note on a piano—beating the previous record for the lowest note ever sung by a female, a D2.
Breaking a record this low was no easy task, as Chapman made a “ridiculous” number of failed attempts, including an instance where the microphone couldn’t even pick up her voice.
The Skies are Alive with the Sound of MusicThe skies of Turkey were blessed with the sweet sound of calming nerves when a music teacher conquered his fear of paragliding by performing a concert in the sky.
Fikret Eren joined his professional paraglider friend, Semih Er, on his first tandem adventure of flight this week.
Not exactly jumping at the opportunity to see the province of Kayseri from such great heights, Eren distracted himself from his worries by bringing along his trusty violin and playing it midair.
The sky time serenade did the trick, and Eren is now enrolled to get a paragliding license of his very own!
Rescued Pelican Returns Home 11 Years After Traumatic ExitA brown pelican has finally made its way back home to Louisiana after being rescued from a massive oil spill over a decade ago.
On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill began spewing 400,000 tons of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, killing hundreds of thousands of marine creatures. Environmentalists got to work, saving as many of the oil-slicked animals as possible, including over 5,000 birds—of which only 582 survived.
One of those rescued birds, a brown pelican found covered in oil on Empire Jetty in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, on June 14, 2010, was cleaned up and sent to a U.S. Coast Guard Station in Georgia to avoid the ongoing disaster.
Despite being released back into the wild just a few weeks later, on July 1st, the bird did not make the 700-mile journey back to its home until this week, when it was photographed sitting on top of a rock in Queen Bess Island.
Though brown pelicans are genetically wired to return to their birth colony during the breeding season, the fact that this bird was able to return to its now-restored home island is remarkable.
“It’s truly impressive that it made its way back from Georgia,” said Casey Wright, a biologist with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries who photographed the homecoming.
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By Meghan Yani, contributor for Ripleys.com
EXPLORE THE ODD IN PERSON! Discover hundreds of strange and unusual artifacts and get hands-on with unbelievable interactives when you visit a Ripley’s Odditorium!Source: Rescued Pelican Returns Home 11 Years After Traumatic Exit
April 22, 2021
Why We Should Thank Sherlock Holmes For The Invention Of Forensic Geology
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Footprints, rocks, and crime scenes–what exactly is forensic geology? Forensic geologists use the Earth sciences to help solve crimes. By analyzing the composition of the soil found at a crime scene or on a suspect’s clothes or vehicle, a forensic geologist hopes to find certain clues.
To the average passerby, soil is just soil. However, in the U.S. alone there are over 100,000 cataloged types of soil. And for investigative parties, the unique colors, textures, and compositions of these soils all tell a unique story.
Not only can an expert tell each of them apart, but they can also use these unique compositions to solve crimes. In fact, forensic geologists can determine whether or not the suspect was at a certain location, when he or she was there, and what he or she was driving or wearing.
To a Great Mind, Nothing is LittleThe practice of forensic geology is a major component of forensic science today, and we might owe it all to a fictional character.
When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle set out to write a series of stories between 1887 and 1893, he never expected to give birth to a whole scientific field.
Perhaps it’s no surprise that Conan Doyle included science in his book—she was both a medical doctor and an avid botanist. He even served as the SS Mayumba’s surgeon during the ship’s voyage to West Africa.
Although Conan Doyle wrote a number of books, he’s best known for his Sherlock Holmes stories, where a brilliant detective uses his powers of observation and deduction to solve crimes. Although Holmes also used fingerprints and serology to catch criminals, he was particularly skilled in the analysis of trace evidence. This included figuring out foot and hoof prints left at a crime scene.
Holmes’s assistant, Dr. Watson, described him as being able to “tell at a glance different soils from each other. After walks, has shown me splashes upon his trousers, and told me by their color and consistence in what part of London he had received them.”
Footprint analysis is an important part of forensic geology for a simple reason—the sole of your shoes can tell where you’ve been. Holmes knew London’s geology so well that he could tell exactly where somebody had been by the traces of clay on their shoes. He could even analyze footprints left on snow, ashes, and carpet.
Back to Real LifeGeologist Ray Murray was a professor at Rutgers University when an ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms) agent walked into his office with a bag of dirt. It was 1973 and forensic geology was still the stuff of fiction. But that visit had such an impact on Murray that he started learning more about it and, two years later, he published the first textbook ever on the topic.
Murray, like many other experts, also believed Sherlock Holmes was the “inventor” of forensic geology. But other forensic scientists also helped paved the way—even without knowing it. In 1893, Austrian scientist Hans Gross suggested that “perhaps the dirt on someone’s shoes could tell more about where a person had last been than toilsome inquiries.”
And, in 1929, French criminalist Edmond Locard pioneered the concept that “whenever two objects come into contact, there is always a transfer of material.” This is known as Locard’s exchange principle: when a perpetrator leaves a scene, something will always be left behind. Sometimes DNA, sometimes a footprint, and yes, sometimes some incriminating dirt.
By Diana Bocco, contributor for Ripleys.com
EXPLORE THE ODD IN PERSON! Discover hundreds of strange and unusual artifacts and get hands-on with unbelievable interactives when you visit a Ripley’s Odditorium!Source: Why We Should Thank Sherlock Holmes For The Invention Of Forensic Geology
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