Loch Ness Nessie Debunked

Remember this famous shot? British surgeon Robert Kenneth Wilson claimed he took the photograph while driving along the northern shore of Loch Ness. He said he noticed something moving in the water and stopped his car to take a photo. For decades this photo was considered to be the best evidence of the existence of a sea monster in the Loch. It came to be known as "The Surgeon's Photo."

It wasn't until 1994 that the secret of the image was revealed, when a man named Christian Spurling, shortly before his death at the age of 90, made a confession. He described a plot involving Wilson, himself, and big-game hunter Marmaduke Wetherell (his stepfather).

Wetherell dreamed up the hoax. He asked Spurling to make a model of a serpent. Spurling did this by attaching a serpent's head and neck to a toy submarine. This model was then photographed in Loch Ness, and the picture given to Wilson, whose job it was to serve as a credible front-man for the hoax. The image given to the media was cropped to hide perspective, making the "monster" appear larger than it actually was.

Iceberg Hoax

Many of you have seen this famous picture and it is also used on some motivational posters.

It's actually a composite of four different photographs taken in Alaska, Antarctica, and California created by nature photographer Ralph Clevenger.

Debunking Photo

The source of this photo remains unknown, but is very probably fake. Although a woman will often see her belly bulge when a baby thrusts out a limb, the abdominal wall is too muscular and thick to allow a footprint to be seen with this clarity. The only way a fetal footprint could be seen in this way would be in the rare case of an ectopic pregnancy, which involves a fetus developing outside the uterus. This condition can be life-threatening for both mother and baby, but this photo does not appear to show an ectopic pregnancy. In addition, the footprint seems disproportionately large for a fetus.

Bush Upside Down Book

An unknown hoaxer horizontally and vertically flipped the image on the back of the book in Bush's hands. In doing so, he made a mistake. The picture on the right-hand side of Bush's book has been vertically flipped in the wrong direction. This original version of the photo was taken in the Summer of 2002 while Bush was visiting George Sanchez Charter School in Houston. It was distributed by the Associated Press.