Colorado has a long history of hoaxes

KUSA - Colorful characters were conning the public and the press a century before the story of a wayward balloon and missing boy made "hoax" a buzzword once again.

Tall tales were part of Colorado lore before statehood.

Two swindlers convinced wealthy investors in 1872 to purchase the rights to 'The Great Diamond Fields of America' in present-day Moffat County. The con-men had sprinkled the ground with low-grade gems to prompt a very profitable panic.

A photo from 1876 shows a group of men solemnly gathered around a pile of rocks marking the grave of Erin O'Keefe. Her father, Army Sgt. John O'Keefe, claimed the 2-year-old had been eaten by giant mountain rats atop Pikes Peak, where he was stationed.

O'Keefe also told locals that Pikes Peak was actually a volcano, ready to erupt.

Unlike O'Keefe's tall tales, which were gladly delivered free of charge, onlookers were charged a dime to see The Solid Muldoon.

What looked like a petrified human body was exhibited in 1877 in Denver after being "unearthed" in the Beulah Valley of Colorado.

The hoaxster behind the The Solid Muldoon was George Hill, the creator of the better known 'prehistoric man' hoax, The Cardiff Giant.

The 1950s brought the story of Bridey Murphy.

Virginia Tighe, a Pueblo housewife, claimed to remember, under hypnosis, memories of a past life as Bridey, a woman in 1800s Ireland.

A book based on her claims was a best seller.

Tighe didn't attempt to profit from her story and lived a largely private life. She died in 1995.

It wasn't Pope John Paul II, but the man who walked into the Aurora Mall in 1993 sure looked like him. Enough so that devout Catholics were sobbing after receiving a blessing from the actor hired by a local radio station.

That same year, a man who claimed he'd been shot at Loveland Pass later admitted he accidentally wounded himself.

A journalist hoaxed journalists in August of 1995 when a front page story in the Aspen Daily News warned of a woman with a ravenous sexual appetite.

According to the paper, 37 men had been hospitalized after a tangle with the "wild child."

It was a spoof.

In 2004, Alek Komarnitsky of Lafayette spread holiday cheer and a lie at the same time.

He convinced unsuspecting journalists that his extravagant holiday light display could be controlled by Internet users around the world.

In fact, Komarnitsky's website only allowed users to cycle through a set of stock images. The light show in Lafayette never changed.

"It got a little out of control because a local paper came by, did a story about it, send it out to Associated Press which basically put it in every newspaper in the whole planet," Komarnitsky said. "It just kept snowballing."

Komarnitsky is unapologetic about his prank.

"I don't have anything to apologize for," Komarnitsky said. "Because what I did was good, clean fun."

Halloween decorations and inflatable characters dot Komarnistky's lawn. This time, he said, visitors to www.komar.org actually can control the action. He's donating online donations to charity but laughed at a suggestion that it's penance for his previous practical joke.

A reporter's brief test with a laptop and a wireless connection appeared to confirm Komarnitsky's display is the real deal, unlike the operation that drew worldwide attention.

"I think the media has some responsibility, no matter if it's a fun little story, to do a little due diligence," Komarnitsky said. "Nobody ever looked. Nobody ever checked."

Local television newscasts in 2005 broadcast the story of Army Specialist Jonathan Kenney of Grand Junction. Kenney was said to have died heroically, shielding a young Iraqi girl from gunfire. It wasn't true. There was no Army Spc. Kenney.

The story was the fabrication of Sarah Kenney who admitted the hoax, apologized to the public, and was sentenced to four years probation.

Few, if any, hoaxes have had the lasting impact of a newspaper ad placed anonymously in The Colorado Springs Gazette in 1983.

The ad promised free food for any needy family that showed up at Bob Telmosse's furniture store, Denver Warehouse.

A blindsided Telmosse had nothing to give, but he asked the families to come back the next day.

He was waiting with food.

The next year, he added toys for children to the giveaway.

He did, and for each year since.

Telmosse passed away in 2006, but this Christmas season will mark the 27th Bob Telmosse Christmas Giveaway.

"It showed how people can turn things around," Telemosse's widow Carol Reinert said.

Last year's event served 8,000 families, said Reinert.

"It may have been a hoax, but it was a wonderful gift," Reinert said. "It's gone from a few people and groceries to this huge event."

The person who placed the anonymous ad, and his or her motivation, is still unknown today.

It certainly wasn't fame or fortune that led Lance Hering to pull his well-known hoax.

The Marine, home from service in Iraq, just wanted to disappear.

Hering had a friend tell authorities that Hering had suffered a head injury while hiking in the foothills of Boulder County.

Days of searching turned up no sign of him.

Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said he had suspicions from the start that he dared not voice publicly.

"I think if you're going to make a mistake in judgment the mistake has to be on the side of caution," Pelle said. "You've got this eating at your gut. You've got all these people and these resources and everything else out looking. You're scratching your head thinking, man, I don't know if we've got the real story here."

Pelle eventually announced to the search teams gathered from around the state that there was nothing to find.

"When we get taken, it hurts, because people invest emotionally, physically and financially into these things, particularly on the emotional side," Pelle said. "I gotta tell you, I was watching the balloon boy story unfold. And you just feel taken in."

Protecting public safety while avoiding hoaxes is a tightrope for law enforcement and the media, Pelle said.

"I would not want to think that someone was left in the woods injured or a little boy floated away in a balloon because we didn't believe [the person reporting it]," Pelle said. "That would be an awful tragedy."