The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

"London, England"

People in foggy old London Town get up to some weird, weird stuff.

Dorothy Cadwell Taylor

The Realest Housewife of Beverly Hills

confidante of kings, movie stars, and mobsters

The Countess di Frasso was the most famous hostess in the world, who threw parties for kings; actors, athletes and aviators; Nazis and mobsters.

Categories: Arts & Culture, Biography, Eccentrics & Prophecies, Entertainment & Media, People & Places

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illustration from an edition of The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk

Nuns on the Run

The Awful disclosures of Maria Monk

In 1835 Maria Monk claimed that Montreal's Hôtel-Dieu convent was a vice den. She was making it all up... but Americans desperately wanted to believe her.

Categories: History, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, Series 13

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detail from Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Valparaiso by James McNeill Whistler

Crepuscule in Blood and Guts

the most curious incident in the life of James McNeill Whistler

This one has it all: sibling rivalry, country club politics, adultery, duels, the Civil War, Spanish colonial policy, and three giant piles of bird poop.

Categories: Arts & Culture, Daring & Epic Journeys, Series 13

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the Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull

Lost Legacy

the Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull of Doom

It is the embodiment of all evil? Can it kill with a thought? Can it unlock the secrets of the universe? Whatever it can do, it's the Skull of Doom!

Categories: Footsteps into the Unknown, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, Series 9, Wild Card

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Ann O'Delia Diss Debar

Spirit Princess

one woman, thirty aliases, forty years and too many crimes to count

The greatest and most notorious Spiritualist swindler of all time was a woman from Kentucky who looked a bit like Lola Montez (if you squinted).

Categories: Biography, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, Series 3

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