Richard Heene and Balloon Boy Falcon
FORT COLLINS, Colorado: It’s a great day in the prevarication business when we get to nab a famous liar right out of the daily headlines. It appears that we get to welcome Balloon Boy Hoax Perpetrator Richard Heene to the NIP Famous Liars Hall of Shame. We’ll have ample time to bloviate at a later date, but so far here are facts:
Thursday October 15 people all over the world stopped to watch live TV as a runaway balloon in the shape of a flying saucer flies over Colorado at speeds estimated up to 25 mph. Reportedly a 6 year old boy was trapped inside with questionable hope of rescue. The drama was riveting, so much so that TV media cut away from a speech by the president to cover it. (Sorry Barack.)
In an hour or so the balloon begins to deflate and lowers itself gently to the ground as millions around the world breathe a collective sigh of relief. The compartment stowing the balloon boy is opened, and to the horror of the viewing audience the mini-gondola is empty. Where is the boy? Did he fall to his death? Did he somehow escape unnoticed? Read more…
2005 Crystal Globe
ZURICK: In 1977 Roman Polanski, then aged 44, seduces a 13 year old girl, Samantha Gailey. According to court transcripts Polanski first lures the young unescorted girl into posing for nude and semi-nude photos.
Her mother thought he was photographing her to consider her for upcoming screen roles, but Polanski had something else in mind. In his second photo shoot at the home of Jack Nicholson he gives the 13 yr-old alcohol, and to make sure she becomes compliant to his sexual advances gives her quaaludes. When she was sufficiently pacified he raped and sodomized her.
The crime, flight from justice are old news. But what is disturbing is the reaction of Hollywood and the entertainment industry to his recent arrest by Swiss police. Read more…
Navy veteran, slick salesman, champion archer and hunter from Akron Ohio goes missing on a fishing trip, leaving behind a wife, 3 children and one on the way. When his boat is found washed up on the Lake Erie shore after a violent storm, everyone mourns the loss of the charming and effervescent personalty known as Larry Bader.
Just a few short years later a friend of his does a double take when he sees a man calling himself Fritz Johnson entertaining crowds at a trade show in Chicago. Johnson was a well known radio and TV personality from Omaha, who got his start in the broadcasting business by perching on the city’s flag pole for one whole month. Strange thing though, Johnson was a dead ringer for the long-lost Larry Bader. Would a person who had faked his own suicide attract this kind of attention to himself? Surely this man couldn’t be the same person… but just to make sure he calls Larry’s brother who comes the next day to Chicago. Read more…
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denies that the holocaust ever happened, that it was a fiction created to enable the foundation of the state of Israel. Having spoken to actual survivors of Nazi death camps, as well as seen photos taken by a veteran who liberated Buchenwald, I think I believe mine own eyes and ears rather than the gratuitous assertions of a madman.
One of my family members was there and opened the gates at Buchenwald. Within a couple of days of opening the camp he participated with the Allies when they marched every man and women from a nearby village at bayonet point through the gates to bear witness of the atrocity. Read more…
Pulizter Schmulitzer
In 2004, it was exposed that USA Today correspondent and Pulitzer Prize nominee Jack Kelley had been fabricating stories and sources. He denied the charges and resigned. Read more here: from USA Today.
Ms Pulitzer Schmulitzer
Washington Post journalist Cooke won a Pulitzer Prize for a story called ‘Jimmy’s World,” about an 8-year-old heroin addict. The only trouble was that she had created the entire story out of thin air. Once it was discovered, Cooke resigned and returned the Pulitzer. She has since sold the movie rights to her story.
Like Glass and Blair, Cooke lied about her schooling and previous experience in order to get the job. She falsely claimed to have a degree from Vassar College and to have studied at the Sorbonne in Paris.
In 2003, the New York Times reporter was caught plagiarizing and making up parts of his stories. He resigned and published a book in 2004 called Burning Down My Masters’ House: My Life at the New York Times. In the book, he blames his behavior on a past battle with bipolar disorder and drug problems.
