History's Greatest Hoaxes Season 1, Episode 5: Papillon: Fact Or Fiction

Alien Autopsy

History's Greatest Hoaxes looks at how in the 1990s a British music and record promoter presented a black and white film and claimed it was footage of a Roswell-era alien autopsy. While many believed the film at the time, it is now recognized as a hoax with producers of the film going public with their methods for making the film.

The Loch Ness Monster

History's Greatest Hoaxes looks at the Loch Ness Monster. According to folklore a large sea monster lurks in depth of Loch Ness in Scotland. Over the years, grainy photographs and inconclusive video footage has emerged to keep the legend alive. Is it a clever hoax or the real thing?

The Hitler Diaries

History's Greatest Hoaxes looks at the case of the Hitler Diaries which purported to be sixty-two volumes of Adolph Hitler's personal journals. Convinced of their reality, Rupert Murdoch paid over a half a million dollars to publish them. The hoax turned out to be one of the greatest scam ever done to a newspaper.

44 min

War Of The Worlds

History's Greatest Hoaxes looks at Orson Welles's Mercury Theater radio adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel 'The War of the Worlds'. The simulated news broadcast convinced many Americans that an invasion by Martians was underway. Newspapers claimed that it led to a massive panic around the country, but was the original audience actually that large?

44 min

Piltdown Man

History's Greatest Hoaxes looks at the Piltdown Man. In 1912 the discovery of an unusual skull and jawbone in Sussex, England, led many to believe that a 'missing link' had finally been found. The revelation of a hoax, however, had wide reaching impact on anthropology and science.

44 min