12 Fake Documents That Changed History

Not all forgeries serve financial or personal goals. Some people forge documents to commit terrible crimes against humanity.The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.This document is perhaps the most infamous. Its effects continue a century after it was published.

It claims to be meeting minutes from a secret Jewish leader cabal planning world domination. Serge Nilus edited it in Russia in 1903. Eight years later, Nilus claimed to steal the notes fromThe First Zionist Council.This council met in Switzerland in 1897. Nilus compiled the document by copying many existing, anti-Semitic sources.

After the Bolshevik Revolution, Russian émigrés who favored the tsar publicized the forgery. They spread it globally.The book got exposed.Millions found the fraud persuasive even after 1920. Hitler used the book to justify anti-Jewish policies before and during WWII. Nazi Germany was one nation where the book found an audience. Automobile pioneer Henry Ford endorsed the book in his anti-Semitic newspaper.the Dearborn IndependentLater, this publication released a book based on the Protocols that sold over 500,000 copies.Over 500,000 copies..

Even nowAnti-Semitic groups still push the book and its ideas a century after it was exposed as fake. This shows the power some ideas hold, even debunked ones.

One early historical forgery is theDonation of Constantine.This document claims the fifth-century AD Roman Empire showed Emperor Constantine giving up his power to the pope. This never occurred. The document was completely made up in the eighth century.

Pepin the Short, King of the Franks, started it with political moves. Between 751 and 756 AD, Pepin was a Frankish nobleman controlling the country while Childeric III took the wealth. Pepin wrote to Pope Zachary, asking him to remove Childeric and make him king. The pope did not want to undermine a king, but Zachary was weak. The Papal States recently lost land near Ravenna to the Lombards. Needing an ally, Zachary agreed and made Pepin king for Pepin's loyalty.

Pepin took back the land Zachary lost. But one year after making Pepin king, Zachary died. In 752, Pepin had no deal with the next pope, Stephen II, so he refused to return the territory.

Stephen had the.Donation of Constantine.Pepin the Short, who could not read, accepted this supposed rule and gave over the land. The Donation of Constantine stayed valid until the 15th century; then, Lorenzo Valla proved it fake.

Most modern Americans probably see Davy Crockett as a big-shot frontiersman who enjoyed himself and acted his own way. He also has that famous raccoon skin cap. Many Americans likely got that Davy Crockett version from his autobiography titledColonel Crockett wrote his exploits and adventures in Texas himself.Most Americans do not know the real Davy Crockett. Richard Penn Smith, an obscure author and playwright, created his "autobiography."

In reality, Crockett...came from a poor pioneer family. He spent his early years hunting and soldiering. Crockett joined at least one massacre of a Native American group at Tallushatchee. When Crockett won a seat in the US Congress in 1827, he often exaggerated his frontier past to give his voters a folksy image. Crockett himself started many of the myths about him.

Crockett died in 1836 at the Battle of the Alamo. The book of his exploits was published soon after. This cemented many false ideas about who Crockett was for many generations. People did not find the fraud until 1884. RichardPenn Smith...Penn Smith made the book by gathering true and made-up sources. He finished the whole job in 24 hours.

WWII remains one of the most debated wars. People still argue about its events and what they mean today. When British author Martin Allen started publishing WWII histories with shocking facts about the British government's actions, his writing could change how history sees the war entirely—if the documents were fake.

Allen published three books.in his career that showed the British government and the royal family in a new way. InHidden Agenda,Allen claimed the Duke of Windsor, Edward VIII (a known Nazi sympathizer), passed info to Nazi Germany that helped capture France. In his final book, 2002'sHimmler's Secret War., Allen claimed the death of SS head Heinrich Himmler was not suicide; Winston Churchill's government carried out the assassination.

Allen built all his claims on 29 documents he said he found in Britain's National Archives. But in 2005, journalistBen Fenton.Martin Allen examined the documents and claimed they were fakes, sparking a Scotland Yard investigation. The inquiry found signs Allen made the documents himself. Many clues looked like errors common in forgeries. However, some signs were clear; one document used a laser printer, for instance. After the fraud became public, the Crown did not charge Allen because he was sick.

Benito Mussolini, the Fascist Italian dictator.Perhaps Mussolini is the only person who forged his own diary and claimed it was real. Before 1962, several supposed "Mussolini diaries" turned out false. In 1962, one collection surfaced. Scholars believe Mussolini or someone near him wrote it. These diaries were found among personal items of a partisan fighter from the unit that executed the dictator.

In these diaries, Mussolini shares his personal views on the lead-up to WWII. He often claimed he was forced to join Germany against his will. The diaries date from 1935 to 1939, but Mussolini probably did not write them then. He likely wrote them between 1943 and 1945, after he lost power and lived under house arrest. Mussolini sought to build a paper trail showing he was innocent before facing war crime charges.

Personal items once owned by world figures sell for large sums of money. In 1983, the German magazineStern.Stern gave a reporter named Gerd HeidemannThey hold five million dollars.Stern gave five million dollars for a collection of 60 small black notebooks supposedlyThese are Adolf Hitler's personal diaries.The original diaries were thought lost in a 1945 plane crash. However, Heidemann claimed he found them from a Stuttgart art dealer namedKonrad Kujau.

A major British historian,Hugh Trevor-RoperTrevor-Roper approved the diaries as real, andSternStern started publishing excerpts that year. Butlater examinationsproved they were forged. The diaries used materials made after 1950 and modern words. Heidemann claimed he was tricked, but he and Kujau were both convicted of fraud.

The "salamander letter" surfaced in 1984 and threatened the entire Mormon faith.The letterwas supposedly written in 1830 by Joseph Smith's secretary Martin Harris to another Mormon, W.W. Phelps. The letter details Joseph Smith's memory of finding the Golden Plates. This religious item, believed God planted for Smith to create the Book of Mormon, Smith found when he spotted a salamander in the wilderness. The salamander turned into a spirit and showed him the plates. This version contradicts the Mormon Church's official story, which states the angel Moroni showed Smith the plates, not a magic salamander.

The letter was written by.Mark Hofmann.He grew up in the Mormon Church, then lost his faith. By the 1980s, he forged documents and conned the Mormon Church regularly. The salamander letter was just one of manyForgeries of early Mormon documents.Hofmann sold these forgeries to the Church, though some Mormon scholars doubted Hofmann's claims early on. In late 1985, as critics approached exposing him, Hofmann blew up several bombs near Salt Lake City, aiming to distract church officials. Two people died.In 1987,A close look at Hofmann's documents showed they were fakes.

High-profile crimes, like serial murders, often push people to send false confessions to police and news outlets. This happens now, but it also slowed Scotland Yard's 1888 investigation into the Jack the Ripper murders. Hoaxers sent hundreds of letters claiming to be Jack the Ripper. One letter caught the police's attention first: the"Dear Boss" letter.

The Central News Agency got it on September 25, 1888. It was a supposed confession from Jack the Ripper addressed "Dear Boss." Two things stood out: the letter mentioned two murders from the night before, and it cited a specific detail matching how one body was cut. Scotland Yard published the letter to raise awareness, but this just created more hoaxes.

Today, most Ripperologists think the "Dear Boss" letter isjust another hoax.Some people think it is real, but others feel it is fake. Since the Jack the Ripper case likely will not be solved, this mystery probably won't be either.

Most forgers make documents for money. However, the 18th-century forgerWilliam Henry Irelandapparently did this for his father's approval. Born in 1775, Ireland wanted to be an actor and playwright but lacked obvious talent. He was also a poor student. Even his father Samuel, a writer and collector of antiques, thought Ireland lacked skill.

In the late 18th century, only four documents showed William Shakespeare's handwriting; all were signatures on legal papers. British thinkers then believed some Shakespeare plays were lost to time.Modern scholars agree with this.) Ireland saw a chance to make Dad proud. He forged a land deed in Shakespeare's handwriting. This forgery proved convincing; Samuel badgered his son for more documents written by the Bard. Ireland created letters, legal documents, poems, and first drafts ofKing LearandHamlet. (TheKing Leardraft had a happy ending and was staged in London.)

But the boldest forgery was a whole new play. It was calledVortigern and RowenaThis history is based on a fifth-century English warlord, but the story centers on an unhappy father-son relationship.

In 1796, Shakespearean scholar Edmond Malone published a book exposing it as a forgery just two days before.Vortigern and RowenaIt had its London debut.

WhenThe Education of Little TreePublished in 1976, this book hit because of its romantic tone and feel-good message. It claimed to be the autobiography of Forrest "Little Tree" Tucker. Tucker described growing up in rural Tennessee during the Great Depression. Grandparents with Cherokee heritage raised him and taught him the ways of the "mountain people," which clashed with the more "civilized" world. The book preached respect for all people, no matter their race.

However, the author did not practice what he preached, nor was he Forrest Tucker. Asa Earl Carter was the real author. Carter was a former KKK member who wrote for segregationist politician George Wallace and wrote a draft of Wallace's infamous "segregation now, segregation forever" speech.Carter wroteHe wrote a draft of Wallace's infamous "segregation now, segregation forever" speech.

Carter died in 1979, years before the New York Times exposed his fraud.The New York TimesExposed Carter's fraud in 1991. Being exposed as fake did not harm the book; they reclassified it as fiction and made it into a 1997 movie.

Fabricating someone's autobiography while they are alive takes courage. This is what Clifford Irving did.Clifford IrvingHoward Hughes pioneered aviation and film. By the mid-20th century, he was one of the world's richest people. He also suffered from paranoia and germaphobia, becoming a recluse by 1958. Clifford Irving stepped in.Clifford IrvingIrving, a journalist and novelist, wrote Hughes's fictional autobiography. He thought Hughes was too reclusive to challenge the book.

Irving pitched the book to McGraw-Hill before writing it, claiming exclusive interviews with Hughes. For about a year, Irving claimed he traveled to interview Hughes in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Bahamas. In reality, he traveled to see his mistress, Danish singer and actress Nina van Pallandt, while researching Hughes's documented life to write the actual book.

Before the book was due in 1971, Hughes and his lawyers exposed it as fraud. Irving had already received a $750,000 advance from McGraw-Hill and signed another deal with Time to publish excerpts.TimeIrving returned most of the money he received and served 16 months in prison for grand larceny and conspiracy.

People still try to make money from Jack the Ripper's identity, even though it likely remains unknown. In 1992, Mike Barrett, a scrap metal merchant from Liverpool, created a diary supposedly written by Jack the Ripper.James Maybrick.Mr. Maybrick, a Liverpool cotton merchant, died in 1889, one year after the Jack the Ripper killings. His wife, Florence, later faced charges for poisoning him with arsenic. In the diary, Maybrick admitted he was Jack the Ripper, murdering him because of his wife's infidelity. Mike Barrett later stated he bought the diary from a man in a pub.

Barrett.sold the diary.Warner Books printed 200,000 copies of the diaries for sale and their publishing rights. However, a historical document expert's close analysis showed many forgery signs: the handwriting did not match known Jack the Ripper samples, and the writing lacked Victorian-style penmanship.