Every Fact Check we have published, in one place. Each card shows the claim we checked, the verdict we reached and the sources behind it.
Labels apply to claims, not to whole articles, and can change when new research is published.
Established
The Antikythera Mechanism: A Greek Computer, Two Thousand Years Before Computers
Claim: A 2,000-year-old Greek device was a working geared computer that predicted eclipses.
Established X-ray tomography and the 2006 Nature study established it as a geared eclipse calculator; its maker and exact date remain open.
The Fairy Circles of Namibia
Claim: The bare rings of the Namib Desert are a natural pattern, not a mystery.
Established The strongest recent field evidence shows the rings form as plants compete for scarce water.
The Face on Mars
Claim: The “face” photographed on Mars in 1976 was a real structure.
Established Sharper cameras returned over thirty years and the face was gone — a trick of light and shadow on an ordinary mesa.
Blood Falls
Claim: The red waterfall in Antarctica is blood.
Established It is rust — iron-rich water that turns red as it oxidises on contact with air.
The Dyatlov Pass Incident, 1959: How an Avalanche Explanation Was Reached
Claim: An avalanche killed the nine hikers on Dyatlov Pass in 1959.
Established A reopened investigation and a physics study modelled the slab avalanche in detail; the case is counted as explained.
Earthquake Lights
Claim: Lights appear in the sky around earthquakes.
Established Modern cameras have confirmed the lights are real; what causes them is still debated.
The Newark Earthworks
Claim: The Newark Earthworks were built to track the Moon’s 18.6-year cycle.
Established The Octagon’s 18.6-year lunar alignment was established in 1982 and confirmed by later scholarship.
Disputed
Bigfoot and the Patterson–Gimlin Film: Fifty-Nine Seconds in Bluff Creek
Claim: The Patterson–Gimlin film shows a real, unknown ape-like creature.
Disputed Analysts disagree over the film’s gait and proportions, and after more than fifty years no body, skeleton or DNA has confirmed an unknown ape.
Star Jelly / Angel Hair
Claim: Star jelly and angel hair are unexplained substances that fall from the sky.
Disputed Most finds are now explained — frog spawn, cyanobacteria, slime moulds, spider silk — but the Oakville blobs have never been satisfactorily explained.
The Bermuda Triangle: Lost Ships, Lost Planes, and the Science of the Sea
Claim: Ships and planes vanish in the Bermuda Triangle at an above-normal rate.
Disputed Shipping and insurance records show disappearance rates in line with other busy sea lanes.
Roswell, 1947: What Fell From the Sky Over New Mexico?
Claim: An alien craft crashed near Roswell in 1947.
Disputed The Air Force’s balloon explanation and the witnesses’ craft accounts both stand; the records cannot settle which story is true.
The Phaistos Disc
Claim: The signs of the Phaistos Disc have been deciphered.
Disputed Every claimed decipherment has collapsed under scrutiny, and the disc’s own date — about 1850 BC to after 1400 BC — is disputed.
The Great Sphinx of Giza
Claim: The Great Sphinx is far older than the conventional date.
Disputed Egyptologists and geologists read the same erosion patterns in opposite directions, and the age is still argued over.
The Chiles-Whitted Encounter: Two Airline Pilots and the Rocket That Wasn’t There
Claim: A wingless, cigar-shaped craft flew past Eastern Air Lines Flight 576 in 1948.
Disputed The official meteor explanation is contested; the Condon Committee left the case unresolved.
The Gorman Dogfight: The Night a Fighter Pilot Chased a Light Over Fargo
Claim: A fighter pilot chased an unknown object over Fargo for 27 minutes in 1948.
Disputed A weather balloon was released that evening, but it does not explain the reported manoeuvres.
The Lakenheath-Bentwaters Incident: The Radar Case Even the Sceptics Couldn’t Dismiss
Claim: Unknown objects were tracked on multiple radars over Suffolk in 1956.
Disputed Simultaneous multi-radar tracking is documented; the Condon Report judged a genuine UFO fairly probable.
The Shunka Warak’in: Montana’s Wolf-Hyena and the Ringdocus
Claim: The Ringdocus mount is the body of an unknown wolf-hyena creature.
Disputed The mount is real but unexamined; a similar 2018 canid proved to be an ordinary gray wolf.
Bachelors Grove Cemetery: The Madonna, the Phantom House, and Chicago’s Most Haunted Acre
Claim: The 1991 Madonna photograph shows a genuine apparition.
Disputed The photograph is real but its content is disputed; film artefact, double exposure and staging are all possible.
The Lost City of Atlantis: Plato’s Story and the Search for a Sunken World
Claim: Atlantis was a real island civilisation that sank around 9,600 BC.
Disputed Atlantis appears only in Plato; no older text or site exists, and the literary-creation view, though dominant, is unprovable.
The Sajama Lines: Bolivia’s Giant Geoglyphs, Bigger Than Nazca
Claim: The Sajama Lines were built as sacred pilgrimage routes.
Disputed The lines and their age are documented; their purpose is the leading theory, not a proven fact.
The RB-47 Incident: The Night a Spy Plane Was Followed for 700 Miles
Claim: An unknown object followed an RB-47 for 700 miles in 1957.
Disputed Blue Book blamed airliners, but the Condon Report’s analyst rejected that and listed the case unidentified.
The Serpent Mound: Ohio’s Giant Snake in the Earth
Claim: The Great Serpent Mound was built by the Adena culture around 300 BCE.
Disputed The mound is real and preserved, but radiocarbon evidence is read as both Adena and Fort Ancient.
The Glozel Tablets: The French Farm That Split Archaeology in Two
Claim: The Glozel tablets are genuine Neolithic writing.
Disputed A 1927 commission called almost everything fake, and a 1995 study dated most finds to the Middle Ages.
Skyquakes
Claim: Skyquakes are a single unexplained phenomenon.
Disputed Most booms show atmospheric infrasound, yet no single cause covers every historical report.
Fata Morgana
Claim: Fata Morganas explain ghost-ship sightings such as the Flying Dutchman.
Disputed The mirage is a documented optical effect, but it is only a possible — not proven — explanation for any specific ghost ship.
The Trans-en-Provence Case
Claim: An unidentified craft landed at Trans-en-Provence in 1981.
Disputed GEPAN found the ground compressed and heated to 300–600 °C, but the traces sit on an active road and the analysis is disputed.
Unverified
Resurrection Mary, Chicago’s Vanishing Hitchhiker
Claim: The ghost of a young woman in a white dress hails rides on Archer Avenue and vanishes at Resurrection Cemetery.
Unverified Dozens of sightings are documented as reports, but no death record matches Mary’s backstory and no physical evidence confirms a ghost.
The Amber Room
Claim: The original Amber Room still survives, hidden somewhere.
Unverified It was last documented in Königsberg in 1944, and no claimed hiding place or post-war discovery has ever been verified.
The Princes in the Tower
Claim: Richard III ordered the murder of the two princes in the Tower.
Unverified That the boys were murdered has never been proven, and no contemporary document, witness or confession names a culprit.
The Greenbrier Ghost: The Spirit Who Named Her Killer
Claim: Zona Shue’s ghost told her mother she was murdered, and that testimony convicted her husband.
Unverified The ghost’s appearances rest entirely on Mary Jane Heaster’s testimony, and the trial record tells a more careful story than the legend.
The Man in the Iron Mask
Claim: The masked prisoner was Louis XIV’s twin brother.
Unverified The prisoner’s true identity has never been established; more than fifty candidates have been proposed and none proven.
The Loch Ness Monster: Sightings, Science, and a Ninety-Year Search
Claim: A large unknown creature lives in Loch Ness.
Unverified The famous 1934 photograph was a hoax, the 2019 DNA survey found no reptile DNA, and no specimen of any unknown large animal has ever been found.
The Mary Celeste, 1872: A Sound Ship, Abandoned
Claim: The Mary Celeste’s crew abandoned ship for a known, specific cause.
Unverified The ship was sound, the cargo intact, and no distress signal or survivor ever explained the abandonment.
The Beast of Bray Road: Wisconsin’s Werewolf on a Rural Road
Claim: A wolf-like creature stalks Bray Road, Wisconsin.
Unverified Sightings have continued since the late 1980s, but no carcass and no photograph has ever confirmed it.
The Beast of Bodmin Moor: Britain’s Phantom Big Cat
Claim: A big cat lives wild on Bodmin Moor.
Unverified No big cat has ever been captured or conclusively photographed; the 1995 inquiry found no verifiable evidence.
Bessie, the Lake Erie Monster: Two Centuries of Serpents in the Inland Sea
Claim: A large serpent-like creature lives in Lake Erie.
Unverified Two centuries of sightings, but no body, clear photograph, DNA sample or sonar return.
Manipogo: The Serpent of Lake Manitoba
Claim: A serpent-like creature lives in Lake Manitoba.
Unverified No specimen, clear photograph or biological sample has ever been produced.
The Honey Island Swamp Monster: Louisiana’s Seven-Foot Swamp Ape
Claim: A seven-foot ape-like creature haunts the Honey Island Swamp.
Unverified The footprint casts are disputed and no specimen or verified sample exists.
The Dobhar-chú: Ireland’s Water Hound
Claim: A giant water hound killed Grace Connolly at Glenade Lough in 1722.
Unverified No contemporary 1722 account exists; the tombstone carving is real, the killing is not documented.
The Almasty: The Wild Man of the Caucasus
Claim: A wild-man species lives in the Caucasus mountains.
Unverified Centuries of reports, but no specimen or DNA; the best case, Zana, proved to be a human woman.
The Hibagon: Japan’s Bigfoot of Mount Hiba
Claim: A hairy ape-like creature roamed Mount Hiba in the early 1970s.
Unverified No verified specimen, photograph or footprint cast; misidentification and press-driven contagion are likeliest.
The Enfield Monster: Three Legs, Pink Eyes and One Strange Spring
Claim: A three-legged creature with pink eyes appeared in Enfield, Illinois in 1973.
Unverified No physical evidence survives; a 1978 university study blamed social contagion but never established what McDaniel saw.
Chillingham Castle: Britain’s Most Haunted Castle
Claim: Chillingham Castle is haunted by the Grey Lady, the Radiant Boy and John Sage.
Unverified Ghosts are reported experiences, not proven facts; the Grey Lady’s identity and the 7,500-victim claim have no basis.
Bobby Mackey’s Music World: The Haunted Honky-Tonk of Wilder, Kentucky
Claim: Bobby Mackey’s Music World is the most haunted nightclub in America.
Unverified No evidence links Pearl Bryan’s murder to the site; the haunting reports are unverified.
The LaLaurie Mansion: The House on Royal Street
Claim: The LaLaurie Mansion is haunted by the ghosts of enslaved people tortured there.
Unverified The 1834 cruelty is documented in newspapers and funeral registers; the ghost stories are reported claims without verification.
Moundsville Penitentiary: The Haunted Prison on the Hill
Claim: Moundsville Penitentiary is haunted by the spirits of dead inmates.
Unverified Haunting claims are reported experiences; the “built on sacred burial grounds” claim is a tour assertion, not archaeology.
Momo the Monster: The Hairy Beast of Louisiana, Missouri
Claim: A hairy ape-like monster roamed Louisiana, Missouri in 1971–72.
Unverified Never confirmed by the Missouri Department of Conservation; one footprint was admitted to be faked.
The Screaming Skull of Bettiscombe: The Skull That Would Not Stay Buried
Claim: A skull at Bettiscombe Manor screams and brings calamity if removed.
Unverified The skull is real — a young European woman’s, per a 1963 examination — but its identity and the curse are unproven.
The Lost Dutchman Mine: Gold, Death, and the Superstition Mountains
Claim: A fabulously rich gold mine lies hidden in the Superstition Mountains.
Unverified Waltz’s gold was real, but no mine has been found and the volcanic rock is unlikely to host a gold lode.
The Inga Stone: Brazil’s 6,000-Year-Old Message Nobody Can Read
Claim: The Ingá Stone’s carvings depict the Orion constellation or a solar calendar.
Unverified The carvings are real and protected, but no reading — Orion, calendar or Phoenician — has been established.
Altamaha-ha: Georgia’s River Monster
Claim: A large serpent-like creature inhabits the Altamaha River.
Unverified Sightings span two centuries, but no specimen, clear photograph or physical trace has ever been produced.
The White River Monster: Arkansas’s Summer of the Beast
Claim: A large unknown creature lives in the White River near Newport, Arkansas.
Unverified Sworn 1937 affidavits are documented, but no explanation — elephant seal, manatee or hoax — fits every report.
The Baltic Sea Anomaly: The ‘Crashed UFO’ on the Seabed
Claim: A crashed UFO lies on the seabed in the Gulf of Bothnia.
Unverified Recovered samples are ordinary granites and sandstones, but no independent team has examined the site.
Fringe
17 fact checks carry a Fringe verdict — claims specialists reject. Claims that rest on evidence outside the records we can check — such as secret technology, lost civilisations or hidden forces — are labelled Fringe when we cover them.
The Black Knight Satellite: A 13,000-Year-Old Watcher, or a Story Stitched from Spare Parts?
Claim: A 13,000-year-old alien satellite orbits the Earth.
Fringe Each part of the story is identified — Tesla’s signals, a withdrawn star map, satellite debris, a lost thermal blanket.
The Aztec UFO Crash of 1948: Sixteen Bodies, One Bestseller, and a Con
Claim: A UFO crashed near Aztec, New Mexico in 1948, killing sixteen aliens.
Fringe Its sources were convicted fraudsters and no contemporary record of the crash exists.
The Alien Autopsy Film: The 1995 Footage That Fooled the World — Then Confessed
Claim: Film exists showing the autopsy of an alien recovered at Roswell.
Fringe Santilli and Shoefield admitted in 2006 that the footage was staged in a London flat.
The Wendigo: Hunger, Fear and the Spirit of the Northern Forest
Claim: A wendigo spirit can possess a person and drive them to cannibalism.
Fringe Possession claims were rejected by the courts; modern psychiatry recognises no distinct wendigo syndrome.
Stull Cemetery: Kansas and Its Gateway to Hell
Claim: Stull Cemetery is one of seven gateways to Hell where the Devil appears.
Fringe The legend’s foundations are false — Stull never had a mayor — and every apparition claim is unverified.
The Curse of the Hope Diamond: A Jewel, a Legend, and a Salesman
Claim: The Hope Diamond is cursed and brings death and ruin to its owners.
Fringe The curse was assembled by Cartier to sell the stone; the Smithsonian’s answer is “Of course not!”
The Lost City of the Kalahari: Farini’s Ruins in the Sand
Claim: Farini found the ruins of an ancient city in the Kalahari in 1885.
Fringe Thirty expeditions found nothing; the likeliest source of the “ruins” is a natural dolerite formation.
The Dighton Rock: The Stone Nobody Can Read
Claim: Dighton Rock’s carvings were made by pre-Columbian visitors from the Old World.
Fringe The Phoenician, Norse and Portuguese readings have each been rejected or debunked; Native origin is favoured but unproven.
The Bosnian Pyramids: The Hills of Visoko and the Claim That Divided Archaeology
Claim: The hills of Visoko are ancient man-made pyramids.
Fringe Geologists identify the hills as natural flatirons; no peer-reviewed study supports the pyramid claim.
The Dropa Stones: The 716 Discs That Never Existed
Claim: 716 stone discs record a 12,000-year-old alien crash in Tibet.
Fringe The story first appears in 1960 with no earlier record, and no museum holds the alleged discs.
The Bear Lake Monster: The Hoax That Would Not Die
Claim: A serpent-like monster lives in Bear Lake, Utah.
Fringe Joseph C. Rich admitted in 1894 that his 1868 stories were a “wonderful first-class lie”.
The Bimini Road
Claim: The Bimini Road is a man-made road or wall from Atlantis.
Fringe Core samples show natural beachrock throughout, with no artefacts, tool marks or mortar.
The Hollow Earth Theory
Claim: The Earth is hollow and habitable within, with openings at the poles.
Fringe Seismology, including the inner core’s discovery in 1936, shows a solid and molten interior, not a hollow one.
The Devil’s Sea
Claim: The Devil’s Sea is a Bermuda Triangle of the East where ships vanish without explanation.
Fringe Kusche debunked the vanishing-ship claims, and the Kaiyo Maru was destroyed by a volcanic eruption.
Will-o’-the-wisp
Claim: Will-o’-the-wisps are spirits of the dead.
Fringe The lights are explained as chemiluminescence from phosphine and methane produced by organic decay.
The Heavener Runestone
Claim: Vikings carved the Heavener Runestone centuries before Columbus.
Fringe The stone is assessed as a 19th-century artifact; its runes mix Elder and Younger Futhark forms.
The Acámbaro Figures
Claim: The Acámbaro figures are ancient artefacts proving humans and dinosaurs coexisted.
Fringe Di Peso found no signs of age, and a local family had been making the figurines for a peso apiece.