World Trade Center Survivor Hoax...

and yeah I am beginning to get the idea this happens a LOT A LOT A LOT more than we think it does

cf every staff meeting at every job ever

reminds me of an article i read (in Jane magazine?) about a girl who was clearing her conscience after having lied back in college about being a rape victim and then continuing to lie about it for years. there it was a case of her blurting it out when fighting with her boyfriend on the phone in a misguided ploy for immediate sympathy and attention - like a trump card. but then some friend overheard her and the whole thing spiralled out of control, so it got harder and harder to admit that it was a lie. which makes sense i guess. a person might have this need for attention or validation and small or stupid lies evolve into these unimaginably huge ones just because the person has painted themselves into a corner.

uhhh-yup.

"But there's an extra manipulative trick here, though -- she's relying on people failing to question her story given the horrific nature of the circumstances. She's taking advantage of the good faith of sympathizers."

That's how propaganda works, and why it's easy for governments to find civilians who will be complicit in its spread. Which is why the "Let's Roll" story, for example -- which is as full of holes as the cheese shop around the corner from me -- has managed to thrive so nicely without critical examination (nutsy conspiracy theorists not counting as critical examination).

I never believed that Flight 93/Let's Roll malarkey for a minute

Ishmael wasn't even ON the Pequod.

Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Larry Appleton made huge outrageous lies that he almost talked himself into believing, and every time the whole thing got sorted out in 22 minutes.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1696977/posts HAHA

That is the worst headline ever. As Christian Bale sang in Newsies, "If I hate the headline, I'll make up a headline."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Badge_of_Courage

Reminds me of the 18 year old girl who attended Stanford, living in the dorms, for 8 months without being a student there.

Azia Kim

did you hear about that guy who impersonated a world-class impersonator, he made it into the Guinness Book of World Records

-- Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, September 27, 2007 11:44 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link

that was me.

that's an amazxing shakey impression, i was totally taken in

no rachel ray ref no credibility

Remember when there were like 3 Alex in NYCs and eight or nine Dr Morbiuses running around?

HOW DID THEY FOOL SO MANY PEOPLE

There was that news story from last year about the bloke who told everyone he wrote Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini, it went pretty well until he died and the man who really wrote it had his obituary printed in the papars

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/28/arts/music/28bikini.html?ex=1317096000&en=c049ae10c803ce44&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

But there was an extra manipulative trick there, though -- he was relying on people failing to question his story given the horrific nature of the circumstances. He was taking advantage of the good faith of sympathizers.

I am just hell of gullible, so when I encounter compulsive liars I am enchanted for a day or two and then just irritated–they're only entertaining for so long. Plus they infringe on the legitimacy of my TRUE true-life tales which are occasionally improbable.

Reminds me of the 18 year old girl who attended Stanford, living in the dorms, for 8 months without being a student there.

Here's the UK vers. of this.

Very weird - there's a poem by Ai (that's the poet's full pen name), a long narrative poem, in which this exact story takes place, only it's a woman who claims she is looking for a sister. It's in a book called "Dread."

An Amazing Woman & Her Smile (Tissue Alert!

there's a whole bunch of literary hoaxes akin to this as well

I can't find the article, but there's a similar 9/11 story about a NYC man who's wife disappeared on 9/11, even though she didn't have a reason to be at the WTC. He was trying to claim a share of the payout $$$$.

Con men are boring.

JT Leroy

Re-reading some of the Laura Albert courtroom testimony drama you start to wander if any of that stuff is true either, like, this is BIG TIME munchausen behavior

a lot of deluded egoism with that sort of type as well, like they know some big secret to life via "crazy experiences" that you will just never get because you weren't there, man. you see that a lot with people who claim to have been abducted by aliens as well.

well, I think like Kim said upthread, maybe these are all borne out of a need to just one-up somebody, like you're just sick and tired of having this boring life you imagine nobody cares about, so you just flip and make something up to prove you've got some juice too, how do you like me now. Then you have to stick to your guns because how pathetic is that, to make up that you survived some ghetto madness when you were only 11 years old?

I bet a lot of these people are also some of the first ones to call bullshit on others whenever they're around somebody who has a competing traumatic adventure to recount. "I bet."

Does no one remember the former ILX regular who, after his girlfriend turned up alive in NYC a few days post 9/11, ended up entirely making up the story of the deaths of his two friends in the WTC, getting time off work to "grieve" for them, even going so far as to throw "benefit gigs" in London in their honour?

That's all I could think of this morning when I read the story.

Yeah, this stuff is unfortunately a lot more common than is comfortable.

^^^ whoa really?

Who the hell was that? I was on here in 2001 and I don't remember that!

Tawana Brawley

Oh I do vaguely recall that....

what tania head did is a lot like what most of the country did just more so

also tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head tania head

Don't famous historical traumas spawn these type of lies? I remember something about how in around 1900 there were far more people claiming to be veterans of Gettysburg than had actually fought there.

9/11 is just the latest trauma--and it's a bit easier to expose BS nowadays. Still, you have Rudy attempting to claim he spent as much time at Ground Zero as the rescue workers, etc.

http://i23.tinypic.com/igzyth.jpg

Ms. Head, who sometimes uses the first name Alicia
Ms. Head, who sometimes uses the first name Alicia
Ms. Head, who sometimes uses the first name Alicia
Ms. Head, who sometimes uses the first name Alicia
Ms. Head, who sometimes uses the first name Alicia
Ms. Head, who sometimes uses the first name Alicia
Ms. Head, who sometimes uses the first name Alicia
Ms. Head, who sometimes uses the first name Alicia
Ms. Head, who sometimes uses the first name Alicia
Ms. Head, who sometimes uses the first name Alicia
Ms. Head, who sometimes uses the first name Alicia
Ms. Head, who sometimes uses the first name Alicia
Ms. Head, who sometimes uses the first name Alicia

http://www.wondermark.com/comics/340.gif

He was trying to claim a share of the payout $$$$.

that's what's interesting about this one, as far as anyone can tell she didn't get any money out of it except for charity. seemingly was more for attention / sympathy / give aimless life a purpose

since we're collecting all these hoaxers now, there was also this presidential photographer who claimed to have taken the famous JFK Jr. shot and a lot of other stuff .... when his obit ran a couple of weeks ago, a bunch of retired press-pool photographers saw their work being credited to someone else

Known For Famous Photos, Not All of Them His
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/15/nyregion/15photographer.html

Does no one remember the former ILX regular who, after his girlfriend turned up alive in NYC a few days post 9/11, ended up entirely making up the story of the deaths of his two friends in the WTC, getting time off work to "grieve" for them, even going so far as to throw "benefit gigs" in London in their honour?

That's all I could think of this morning when I read the story.

Yeah, this stuff is unfortunately a lot more common than is comfortable.

-- Klaus M. Flanger, Friday, September 28, 2007 3:49 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link

paul strange, kate st clares ex

wow that is mental. and yeah it must be really common!

u guys i founded al qaeda and am therefor indirectly responsible for 9/11. it's not what i intended. sorry. also i am hulk hogan.

sorry I caused all that cancer

http://i20.tinypic.com/2cp4zk0.jpg

Juelz Santana should be in there somewhere.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJX.sej6xrYE&refer=home

"Morgan Stanley, the second-largest securities firm, will pay $12.5 million to settle regulatory claims it wrongly withheld e-mails in arbitration cases by saying they were lost in the Sept. 11 attacks"

Also, there's that episode of Curb Your Enthusiam where a rabbi's brother in law was killed in NYC on 9/11. He was going around yelling "I know someone who was killed on 9/11!" until it was discovered that the brother in law was killed by a bike messenger and not in the WTC.

she should be given the electric chair

Gosh, that reminds me of when my mom said that "She should commit suicide over this" re: Britney's performance on VMAs.