The Loch Ness Monster Hoax: How a Man Named Marmaduke Fooled the World

Kyle Risi: 0:01

It gets better, they also discovered that the prints were all 100% identical to each other. And the theory goes, that someone had just used the stuffed taxidermy rear foot of a hippopotamus to stomp track prints into the mud along the Scottish Loch!. Welcome to the Compendium, an assembly of deep dives where today we'll tackle tales, monsters and the art of pulling a Nessie over our eyes.

Adam Cox: 0:55

Sounds like we might be talking about the Loch Ness Monster.

Kyle Risi: 0:57

Nessie. Nessie. Who nicknamed her that? I don't know, I think it's just because it's obviously from Loch Ness. Oh yeah, okay. Of course. Yeah, I want to take you down a trip down memory lane. Because growing up, I was always really fascinated by things like UFOs, hauntings, and weird artifacts have been discovered in various places around the world. But the story of the Loch Ness Monster was always one of those mysteries that really captivated my imagination growing up. And even though I grew up in South Africa, my mother's side of the family are all from the highlands of Scotland, so I felt like this really deep connection to, the legend of the Loch Ness, almost as if it was like, in my blood. But I don't just want to tell you about the legend itself. Oh no, we're adults now. We're grown up. We don't believe in mysterious creatures lurking beneath the ocean. Wait, we don't? Do you believe in the Loch Ness Monster?

Adam Cox: 1:50

I believe that there is, must be some truth to the Loch Ness Monster, right? In terms of like, whether it's real or not, but there's something that someone must have seen at one point in time.

Kyle Risi: 2:00

Well, that's what I'm going to be talking to you about today. Oh, okay. Because it's a story of many facets and I wanted to share with you a tale about one man's vengeful plot to single handedly ruin the reputation of a national newspaper known to us as the Daily Mail, which for our non UK listeners was and still is a very powerful, very racist, very old tabloid newspaper here in the UK.

Adam Cox: 2:26

I think a lot of other countries are aware of the Daily Mail. I feel it does get quite a bit of reach in America and Australia. Yeah. Well, English speaking countries. Yeah. I mean,

Kyle Risi: 2:36

it is garbage. I mean, it's sometimes a good read.

Adam Cox: 2:38

Yeah, it's entertaining. Just. Treat it as, I don't know, fiction.

Kyle Risi: 2:42

But that's what we're going to be talking about today. This plot for revenge, if you will, against the Daily Mail. And the thing is though, his plan worked so well that it actually shaped what we think we know about the Loch Ness Monster today.

Adam Cox: 2:58

I can't believe that. The Daily Mail is linked to the Loch Ness Monster. Another scandal.

Kyle Risi: 3:05

And you're exactly right. This is a scandal and so today, I'm going to be telling you about the Great Loch Ness Monster Hoax. A story. That was almost lost to history altogether, because if it wasn't for a pair of very dedicated Nessie hunters and a deathbed confession, we wouldn't have this story to tell today. This sounds cinematic. They should absolutely make this into a film. But first, should we do introductions? Yeah. For those of you tuning in for the very first time, I'm your host Kyle Risi.

Adam Cox: 3:36

And I'm your co host Adam Cox.

Kyle Risi: 3:38

And you are listening to The Compendium, an assembly of fascinating and intriguing things. We are a weekly variety podcast where I, Kyle Risi, tell Adam Cox all about a topic that I think you'll find both fascinating and intriguing. From groundbreaking events to unforgettable people. We do this all in a simple one hour ish episode giving you just enough information to stand your ground at a social gathering. So Adam, before we dive in, what have you got for me for this week's All The Latest Things?

Adam Cox: 4:05

Um, in some ways it's actually well timed, but you'll see why. there's a link to the main story. So, uh, there was a lady, I think it's a lady, in Philadelphia who has a emotional support animal and she was due to visit this baseball game, so she took her emotional support animal to the stadium but was denied entry. Can you guess why?

Kyle Risi: 4:30

Because it was the Loch Ness Monster? It wasn't the Loch Ness Monster. I have no idea was it because it was not an emotional support animal? What would you

Adam Cox: 4:38

think an emotional support animal is? Like a Labrador. Yeah. A dog, basically. Yeah. Well, this was an alligator.

Kyle Risi: 4:46

Was this, where was this, Florida? Oh no, Philadelphia. okay, philadelphia, yeah, great. Reject them. But I bet if that was Florida, they'd be like, sure, come on in.

Adam Cox: 4:56

They basically said, this is not a typical animal, but apparently it's helped her through depression and has been a very good support animal. And it doesn't bite at all. It's never been known to bite a human. How

Kyle Risi: 5:08

big is the alligator? Um, it's quite big. I think it's, um,

Adam Cox: 5:13

yes. This is the video.

Kyle Risi: 5:14

Oh, wow. She's just walking it through a fountain, in a public place. See, this is dangerous. Like, she could argue that this is not going to attack anyone, but we don't know that.

Adam Cox: 5:25

The lady that owns this, animal, says that the alligator will only accept, dead food, will not eat any live food. So it's very odd, but he apparently gets lots of attention. He's famous for his hugs and kisses. Yeah. Although kisses, I don't know if I want to

Kyle Risi: 5:40

be kissed by him. No, just in case. That's ridiculous.

Adam Cox: 5:43

Well, don't be so mean on Wally. That's his name. Oh, is that

Kyle Risi: 5:46

his name? That's cute. Yeah, that's my newsletter for this week. So, in all my latest things for this week, I found out that female cockroaches, at this moment in time, in our history of evolution, of the modern world, are actually turning against romance.

Adam Cox: 6:03

What, they don't want to settle

Kyle Risi: 6:04

down? They don't want to get comfy with the male cockroaches. Why? Well, it's our fault. We are disrupting the libido of the female cockroach. And the reason for that, and I'm specifically talking about the German cockroach, which is the typical kind of cockroach that you'll find in homes. So years ago, we actually discovered that cockroaches love sugar so we started creating these traps using corn syrup that was mixed with poison so they'd be like these little, uh, like little container things that you leave in your kitchen and then the cockroaches will go inside these like little cockroach hotels. So because we were killing all the roaches that love sugar, natural selection meant that the cockroaches who had a distaste for anything sweet started becoming the prominent batch, if you will. Now, to them, sugar tasted bitter, it was almost kind of like similar, like biting into dark chocolate when you're expecting it to be milk chocolate. And that kind of like, ooh, and sometimes they can have they can tolerate small amounts, but the vast majority of them, like they avoid sugar at all costs. But here's the fascinating bit. So As part of this emergence of having this dislike for sugar, it ended up affecting their love lives. Because usually when a male cockroach is trying to woo a female, He produces this sugary secretion from underneath his wings. He's got like a gland there that coats his back, and he'll actually offer himself up to the cockroach to like, just have a little bit of a nibble on a little bit of a lick, that's gross. But because these cockroaches have developed an aversion against anything sweet, the female cockroach doesn't like romance.

Adam Cox: 7:41

God, I feel a little bit sorry, I've never felt sorry for a cockroach before will always remember that time in Forteventura when the one, like, entered the house. Beep beep beep beep

Kyle Risi: 7:49

beep beep beep beep! What, did we give it a name? Um... It was very fast, I remember. It was just scuttling all over the place, and was like doing these zigzags all around the room. Yeah. Yeah, I remember that as well, really vividly.

Adam Cox: 8:01

I was chasing it with a broom. You were!

Kyle Risi: 8:03

And I got it out the house. You did! You swept him out. I'm sure he gave it a name, like PD or something. I feel like it's PD here. Great. So yeah, that's all my latest things for this week. So today's story is about a British South African man named Marmaduke Ardenal Weatherall and his mission to destroy the Daily Mail after they had publicly ridiculed him, after he had claimed that he had discovered footprints belonging to the Loch Ness, even though he, in fact, faked those footprints in the first place. And as a result, and in retaliation to this ridicule, Marmaduke set out to orchestrate one of the most successful hoaxes, while simultaneously being one of the least successful revenge plots in history.

Adam Cox: 8:48

Do you know the bit that surprised me the most out of that? What's that? That the Loch Ness Monster has feet. I always just always thought it was like a giant snake, so the thought that it's now got feet has really confused me.

Kyle Risi: 8:58

Do you know what, that's interesting, when I was researching this, and I was listening to some of the accounts that people had when they were describing their sightings of it, some people said that it had no feet at all, and I was like, I've never known a Loch Ness monster to not have legs.

Adam Cox: 9:10

No, I've always known it to not have legs.

Kyle Risi: 9:12

So the hoax part of this story was to convince the Daily Mail that beyond a shadow of a doubt, the Loch Ness Monster was in fact real. And that photographic evidence presented to them was actually genuine. And this part of his plan worked an absolute treat. If anything, it worked too well because there are still millions of people today. That still believe the famous image of the Loch Ness Monster is in fact real. Do you know which image I'm referring to?

Adam Cox: 9:42

I think so. It's like a grainy black and white with a head popping out of the water. Am I right in thinking that?

Kyle Risi: 9:47

That is exactly it. So it's taken from a distance. It's a bit grainy because it was like the 1930s. So yeah, that image, when you Google the Loch Ness Monster, that's the image that you get. Oh, from the 1930s. I didn't realize that old. Yeah, really old. So, the revenge part of Marmaduke's plan was then to destroy the Daily Mail by revealing to the world that the images of the Loch Ness Monster that he had sent to the Daily Mail were in fact fake. And so, with egg on their face, he hoped that this would destroy the newspaper's credibility and lead to their downfall. However, this didn't quite go to plan because as we know, the Daily Mail still continues to spew forth sensationalist headlines and gossip even to this day. The Daily Mail actually has a really long history. I was quite surprised to find out that it actually goes right back to the 1800s. And it was one of the first tabloid newspapers that was ever to exist really in the United Kingdom

Adam Cox: 10:41

Yeah, I'm surprised even back then it had this kind of hate or kind of lies because I don't know, you think that time was like the war period. And so therefore, everything was above board. And it was only like got to like the 70s or 80s when things like just started. Going a bit awry with reporting.

Kyle Risi: 10:57

A lot of people will remind people that, the Daily Mail has its roots in early fascism. But what we know of fascism today wasn't what It was back then. It was actually a very progressive kind of way of thinking. It was like new labor, if you will, obviously what came out of fascism, during the war has a stigma. But it's not really what it means today. Okay. But yeah it was a tabloid paper even back in the 1800s. So fast forward to the early 1930s, a time when the Great Depression was affecting people globally. It was during this period that People all over the world became fascinated with mysterious creatures said to inhabit the Loch Ness in Scotland and the newspapers played a significant role in of course fueling that fascination as they always do because what's at the centre of it? They try to capitalise on the fears and the insecurities of ordinary people. Now the notion of a mysterious creature residing in the Loch is far from a new thing even before the famous photographs of the Loch Ness monster surfaced, there were literally countless legends about eerie and sometimes ominous Creatures In many of Scotland's 30, 000 lochs, in fact, written accounts of strange creatures in Loch Ness date back right back to the 6th century AD. And these accounts tell of mysterious beasts that would occasionally like seize people and children and just pull them into like a watery grave.

Adam Cox: 12:23

Yeah, but do you think that was just, like a old folks tale that people tell around a campfire and things like that?

Kyle Risi: 12:28

100%. Oh, okay. There's no question about it. Because, remember, the Loch Ness Monster doesn't exist, so of course there are going to be tales, aren't there? Sure. I mean, these stories were nothing new, but what captured the world's attention about the Loch Ness Monster in 1933 was that there was this sudden burst of eyewitness testimonies from like the local villages and from tourists who were visiting the area, who claimed that they had seen a dragon or a giant serpent or some sort of huge hideous beast frolicking in the water and sometimes even on the land. So sometimes these eyewitness testimonies said that it had webbed feet, sometimes it had flippers, sometimes it had no limbs whatsoever. So the reason why there was this sudden burst of reports was because the brand new A82 road had just opened that was running alongside the northern shore of the loch. And so this just meant that a lot more people had access to the loch and could observe it. So many of these sightings which were all rooted in legend started becoming more and more popular. But of course, at the time, many scientists agreed that the sightings were all just probably hoaxes, you know, obstacle illusions, or even just people hallucinating. I don't think it's any of those. I just think it's people like a good story.

Adam Cox: 13:43

I think so. Yeah. Because anything, especially if you're a family and you've got young kids, you'd like to tell a story, right? Whether it's, I don't know, some. gremlins, whatever down the bottom of the garden or whatever it might be.

Kyle Risi: 13:55

That's right. And like you visiting this beautiful area of Scotland and you're speaking to some of the locals and they might talk to you about some of the legends that are happening. And yeah, you can just imagine how something like that would just run away with your kids imaginations, right? Yeah, like Chinese dragons and things like that in China. Here in Scotland, Loch Ness Monster. So even though a lot of these scientists just assumed that people were just hallucinating, People just didn't seem to care much. They really wanted to believe that there was this mysterious ancient creature that was hiding beneath the depths of the Loch Ness. So this belief only just grew stronger over the years. And the interesting part is that even though there were many different sightings, all of the stories rarely matched up with each other. So despite this, people just around the world were just fascinated by this idea of this mythical creature. And as the rumours spread, increasing numbers of people began travelling down to the loch, hoping to catch a glimpse of this elusive monster. And soon, claims of the monster's sightings were coming in from Boy Scout troops, Who are starting to spend weeks just camping near the water, fishermen, hunters, and explorers all joined in the search, making the Loch a gathering place for those that were really captivated by the mystery. So probably the most widely published accounts of Nessie came from sources that were typically deemed really credible enough for various publications to publish, which only acted to further catapult the legend into the mainstream. So there were, these were usually people who were like really well respected people of the community, like professors, teachers, and interestingly enough, even priests in the area were coming forward with their own accounts of the Loch Ness Monster. And at one point, they even had a Nobel Prize winner say that they had actually seen the Loch Ness Monster itself. So if you've got all these well respected people coming forward saying that they've seen it, it's going to just add credibility to it.

Adam Cox: 15:48

Mm-hmm. and maybe that got you headlines as well, like, because you said that you've seen it, then you can be, I don't know, quoted in a paper or whatever to say like, Oh, so and so's seen it. And then that brings attention to whatever you're doing in society.

Kyle Risi: 16:00

Yeah, potentially. And also If you are a well respected person in society, then you're not looking to find fame and glory, right? Because you already have it. So the argument could be made that therefore adds more credibility to your story because you're not after a quick 15 minutes of fame. Yeah. But also, many times stories came from couples who claimed that they'd seen the beast together and so their accounts just reinforced each other's, making the reports seem even more believable. But by the late 1920s, the legend had grown so much That newspapers from the UK, Europe and the United States were literally sending reporters to the loch to cover the story full time.

Adam Cox: 16:44

So people were thinking it actually exists then because if you're sending a reporter there to basically camp out, wait for a sighting.

Kyle Risi: 16:51

Yeah, I guess it's because it's like the media is going to go where the interest is, right? And because the interest is therefore going to sell papers. So of course they're going to go down to the lake, right? So radio channels across the world were regularly interrupting their programs to provide urgent updates. Urgent. Urgent updates, breaking news. Unlike the most recent sightings of the monster because people just could not get enough of it. And for a time, the Legend of the Loch Ness Monster was quite literally the biggest headline of the time. And of course, the Daily Mail was so deeply invested to ensure that they were one of the front runners when it came to providing people with what they wanted, often running full front page Nessie updates because It provided a surefire way of making money and this period of history was just deemed Nessie mania.

Adam Cox: 17:43

It seems bizarre, nessie News. The fact that on front pages, it seems weird now to that, I guess maybe in hindsight we know the story a little bit more, but back then people really believed it.

Kyle Risi: 17:55

So the biggest scoop came in 1934 when the Daily Mail received four photographs that had been submitted to them from a very well respected surgeon and a colonel from London. Now, this was the very first photograph that had ever been captured of the Loch Ness Monster's head and neck. Up until this point, the only pictures that ever existed were just these really shitty, grainy, ambiguous kind of like looking humps that were poking out the water. Which most people just explained away by like it being waves or like a log in the water or anything. Nothing substantial. But these photographs that were sent in... This was, this was it. So this is that famous picture that was submitted.

Adam Cox: 18:40

Oh yeah. So what I can see is the lake or the loch, and then in the center of that is like a tiny, it's quite a thin black neck, uh, shadow, I guess, coming out of the water, but there's a really small head, but looking at that now, I for some reason I remember that to be bigger in my memory.

Kyle Risi: 19:00

I think so as well. I think I remember it being bigger. But when I look at

Adam Cox: 19:03

that, it could look like, I don't know, that could be a duck in a pond.

Kyle Risi: 19:06

Yes, it could be a duck. It may still be a duck. So of course, if you search for the Loch Ness Monster on Google today, the image we're discussing this is likely going to be the very first one that you will see. So from the start, many people saw this photo as undeniable proof that the Loch Ness Monster, actually existed, and the photos seemed to just confirm that popular idea that Nessie had this long neck and this theory believe it or not, became especially popular after the release of the movie King Kong earlier that year in 1933. In that film, there's a brontosaurus that emerges out of the river on Skull Island. And so this led ordinary people to think that the Loch Ness Monster must look similar to this. And the image that is submitted by the surgeon to the Daily Mail just confirmed what people believed.

Adam Cox: 20:01

Okay, So actually then, that's an interesting point because... If people start to think that, that could inspire whoever's going to come up with this hoax of a photo.

Kyle Risi: 20:11

Yeah, isn't that incredible that's what the legend is based on a film? No way. So from that point on, people began to think that the Loch Ness Monster must have been a plesiosaur, which, by the way, is a creature from the Miazonic era. And that somehow it had gotten trapped in the loch, even though the Mesozoic era was 66 million years ago and that loch nest, the lake itself, was only created 10, 000 years ago during the last ice age. But logic didn't even occur to them. No critical thinking there. They just assumed like, Oh, 66 million years.

Adam Cox: 20:47

Offspring and all sorts.

Kyle Risi: 20:49

So on Saturday, April the 21st, 1934, the Daily Mail ran with the story on the front page, with the headline in all caps, LONDON SURGEON'S PHOTO OF THE MONSTER. And that was the first time that photo had ever been printed for... For mass consumption, if you will. There's a piece of history you're looking at there.

Adam Cox: 21:04

There is, and it's so strange that's front page news on the Daily

Kyle Risi: 21:07

Mail. So this elusive surgeon was a man called Robert Kenneth Wilson, and he actually received a hundred pounds from the Daily Mail for this photograph. And although the Mail was keen to get as much information as possible from Robert about how he came across... The Loch Ness Monster. He was really hesitant to engage in any way publicly surrounding the sighting and these photographs, which again, straight away, that's like, why? Yeah,

Adam Cox: 21:37

I think you'd want to be like, yeah, I'm the one that discovered it.

Kyle Risi: 21:40

He never caved in the only he only ever gave minimal details about the sighting and the photographs. And all he simply said was that As a member of the medical community, his ability to practice medicine might be questioned if he spoke openly about seeing the creature. Uh, okay. And this was especially a concern for him because so many credible scientists had already come forward previously and debunked other sightings as just legend or hallucinations or illusions in the water. So he didn't really want to get caught up in all of that. especially being. But strangely enough, the fact that he didn't want to get involved. With the publicity of it all actually made the story more believable because he didn't seem to be seeking the attention or the glory or any infamy as a result of the story. His main concern was to remain a man of science within the medical community. All he told the daily male was that he was driving along the A 82 along the north side of the loch while spending a day shooting and fishing with a friend. He stopped at the side of the road to have a pee and he noticed something was splashing around in the middle of the lake. And then he realized basically what that, this might be the Loch Ness monster. So he quickly ran to his car, grabbed his camera, and took four photographs before the creature just vanished under the water. And that's what he said. And the next day, he says that he felt unsure about what he'd actually witnessed. So doubting his own memory and his eyesight, he decided to take his camera to the chemist to have the plates developed and printed. And then when he received the photos back, he had become the first person ever to see what would later become those iconic images of the Loch Ness Monster, an image that just everyone recognizes today. Yeah. What an incredible moment. Yeah. Especially when you don't, you're unknowingly making history. Yeah. So again, when the photo circulated, thousands more people floched to the loch and the race was on to not only capture another picture of the monster, but to potentially even capture the monster itself. Several businesses put up big rewards for capturing the monster alive. A New York zoo promised 10, 000, which this is 1930s money, right? To anyone who could bring Nessie to them alive. Meanwhile. A British circus was offering 20, 000 for anyone who could do the same. Wow, that

Adam Cox: 24:03

is a, yeah, I wonder how much money that was. There must be like hundreds of thousands

Kyle Risi: 24:07

now or something. Do you reckon? I feel like we should Google that.

Adam Cox: 24:10

So, for comparison, in the UK, 10, 000 in 1930 would be the equivalent of around about 836, 000.

Kyle Risi: 24:20

Jeez. And that's how much they were willing to pay for the Loch Ness,

Adam Cox: 24:24

alive. if it had been real, it would probably have been worth that.

Kyle Risi: 24:28

So naturally, all this mania, if you want to call it that, led to a lot more reported sightings. People were really eager to just be part of the growing excitement. And I think that's also another thing as well. Like it's just the excitement and the jumping on that bandwagon, and day by day, the world seemed to become more and more obsessed with Nessie. So it turns out that even though Robert Kenneth Wilson tried to distance himself from the attention due to obviously fear of being reprimanded, it wasn't enough. He was actually fined, a thousand pounds by the British Medical Association. They claimed that by letting his name get published in the newspaper, he was in effect promoting himself. Mm-hmm. and they saw that as like a breach of. like medical ethics. And as a result his credibility took a massive hit. And media outlets just continue to hound him for just more and more information on the sightings. And this just went on for years. So this

Adam Cox: 25:23

really had a negative impact. So kind of like, why did he do

Kyle Risi: 25:26

it? we'll come on to that again. Sorry to push this to kick the can down the road. Sorry, but we'll explain why in a bit. but I find that fascinating that back in the 1930s that As a doctor, you couldn't be seen to be, like, promoting yourself and having your name out in the papers and being famous and things like that. I think they should do that today. There should be some restrictions on what you're allowed to.

Adam Cox: 25:50

You know, well, think about it now. Like you, you promote yourself on like Instagram. If you're a beauty, not necessarily promoting yourself. It's a problem because you're wanting business, especially if you go private, you need to find a way to do that. So they would have hated Instagram. Yeah.

Kyle Risi: 26:04

You've got to think about the brand. But Kenneth kept pleading the fifth saying that he was traveling with an unmarried woman who wasn't his wife at the time in the hopes that it would just make the journalist just stop asking him questions about how he'd come to see the Loch Ness Monster.

Adam Cox: 26:20

Also, it's weird to think that discredits him. Because he's not talking about something in the medical field. He's talking about, I don't know,

Kyle Risi: 26:28

But again, it's because he's associating himself with this weird, I don't know, what is it? He's associating himself with something that is considered fringe and not very scientific and... Fine, okay. Yeah. the scientific community were really closed off to new ideas back then, right? look how... Darwin got absolutely crucified for some of his views which now turned out to be true. True, exactly. Yeah. It was like a clicky club. But he finally did get a break from the tabloids when World War II broke out and he was drafted into the army but after that he just decided to stay away from all the Loch Ness Monster hype opting to stay in Papua New Guinea. Before he just ended up moving to his wife's hometown in Melbourne, where he eventually died in 1969. And that is the story of the Loch Ness Monster. No it's not. Hahaha, okay. Don't,

Adam Cox: 27:18

don't try and you just want this over, to be over with, don't you now?

Kyle Risi: 27:21

So even though today we know the photo to be a hoax, he is still credited with taking The most well known image of the Loch Ness Monster, which he would have probably absolutely hated if he had known that that was still the reality today, but he didn't take that photo and he never saw the Loch Ness Monster. In fact. He never even believed that the Loch Ness Monster existed. He genuinely thought that he was just playing along with a well meaning prank. Right. When instead he was unwittingly swept up and used as a pawn in Marmaduke Ardnaw Wetherill's devious plot to seek revenge on the Daily Mail. So

Adam Cox: 28:02

he had gotten into this so deep, I guess it had gone on too much for him to go, Oh, guys, sorry, it was a hoax. I didn't mean it. So one that definitely would have discredited his

Kyle Risi: 28:12

career. yeah. Even more of a laughingstock. So

Adam Cox: 28:15

yeah, he had to play along and just go, Oh, yeah, I took it. I don't want the attention there.

Kyle Risi: 28:19

Yeah, it's the logical thing to do to just want to distance yourself rather than come forward and say, Oh, actually, it was a prank, because you might look well, tricks are for little kids, right? You're a well respected doctor, you should be Mm-hmm so what actually happened? How did this once well respected surgeon get caught up in this web of lies? So marmaduke Arendelle Wetherill was no ordinary man. He was actually pretty well known to the world before he had gotten embroiled in the Nessie mania. He was especially famous during the 1920s, during the early part of his career, where he was heavily involved in the entertainment industry. He was producing, directing, and even starring in a bunch of silent movies. But Marmaduke didn't stop at the silver screen. He expanded his career to satisfy the kind of the more adventurous side of his personality. What really sealed his fame was his success as a big game hunter, where he became literally a massive celebrated figure across the world. So when Nesting Mania gripped the world in 1933, The Daily Bail naturally commissioned him as the perfect high profile monster hunter to go off and track down the world's most favorite mystery beast in the field of cryptozoology. So the male funded his trip to Loch Ness to search for Nessie. Remarkably, within just two days of arriving, he had managed to find a trail of fresh footprints by the lake edge and he claimed that they were made by a 20 foot ish kind of animal with soft feet. Right. So, without delay, he began telling everyone just how amazing and skilled he was as a game hunter for quickly managing to find what he believed to be the first real evidence of the Loch Ness Monster. So his team, they photographed the footprints and made plaster casts of the prints, which were then sent off to the Natural History Museum in London for further analysis by some of the world's most leading scientists of the time. So when the Daily Mail learned of Marmaduke's discoveries and that the Prince were in the Natural History Museum, they decided that they needed to act fast to avoid losing the story to a competing newspaper. Because remember, they hired him to go and hunt for the Loch Ness Monster on their behalf. Right. So they're worried that the Natural History Museum, when they confirm that they're the Prince of the Loch Ness Monster, that they're going to be the ones to release the story. Ah, I see. So they were like, God, we've got to get ahead of this. So to stay ahead of the scoop. They chose not to wait for the Natural History Museum scientists to verify their findings. They run a story on their front page featuring the headline in all caps that read Monster of Loch Ness, not legend but fact. And next to the headline was a picture of Marma Duke standing proudly in his boat in the loch and quite literally overnight, the story was taken to a whole new level, which led to a monstrous increase in newspaper sales for the Daily Mail. So Marmaduke continued to search for Nessie in the loch, eager to find more evidence, until the scientists who were studying the cast at the Natural History Museum very quickly and very correctly identified that the prints were the very distinct footprints belonging to a hippopotamus.

Adam Cox: 31:37

What's a hippopotamus doing in the

Kyle Risi: 31:40

lochs? Exactly, but it gets better. They also discovered that the prints were all 100% identical to each other. And the theory goes, and according to them, that someone had just used the stuffed taxidermy rear foot of a hippopotamus to stomp track prints into the mud along the Scottish loch. Hang on. So

Adam Cox: 32:02

the people actually thought, I don't know if science was different a hundred years ago, but did people actually think that they could get away with taking these casts of these footprints and someone would go, Oh yeah, no, that is the Loch Ness

Kyle Risi: 32:15

Monster. Could be. He's probably just really arrogant.

Adam Cox: 32:19

But you know, nice try, but

Kyle Risi: 32:21

no. I think it's a different time though. I think like maybe people really underestimated. how advanced science was at the time. True.

Adam Cox: 32:29

Yeah. I don't know. We are more educated now and seen in terms of the world and experiences and things like that. So maybe back then you are a bit more naive to think I could, yeah, I can get away with this.

Kyle Risi: 32:41

Think about is this a, is this the kind of shit that you would have pulled when you were a kid? Completely believing that you would be able to get away with it. Because you have a lack of knowledge and understanding of how the

Adam Cox: 32:50

world works. Yeah, I think so. You think you, you think you can convincingly might be able to tell a fib or a small white lie. Yeah. But actually it's like your parents can see straight through you.

Kyle Risi: 33:01

So just imagine for a second that the average man living in the 1930s is a six year old boy and that we today looking back on them, we are their parents going. Stupid little chicken. Like

Adam Cox: 33:15

we've done all that. We've tried that. We know your game.

Kyle Risi: 33:18

We know your game. And the thing is though, during that period, it was really trendy to have like taxidermied items of big game animals, like in your home. And these items were usually like turned into kind of functional, pieces of furniture, like umbrella stands or footstools. And they were often made from the legs of large animals like elephants, rhinos or hippos.

Adam Cox: 33:40

the thought of that now is quite disgusting. I hate all that stuff.

Kyle Risi: 33:43

I get it. It is disgusting. But I would say that growing up in South Africa, all of our parents friends would have had something like that in their house of some kind. Whether or not it is an impala skin, a zebra skin. I've seen these. Umbrella holders that are made from the hind foot of an elephant. It's horrible when I look back now, but growing up, that was just the norm. Yes. But it is gross. It is. I'm glad it doesn't happen very often anymore. Yeah. So since Marmaduke was an experienced game hunter, he was quickly suspected of faking the tracks using one of these taxidermied hippopotamus legs. So once the Natural History Museum's findings were released, the Daily Mail were... Furious. So they quickly distanced themselves from Marmaduke and literally took steps to stop publicly shaming him for duping them because, but it's not his fault that they, It is his fault because they faked the yes, okay, he faked the tracks. Yeah, but you should have ran with the story until you'd

Adam Cox: 34:45

corroborated

Kyle Risi: 34:46

it. And that comes all from a place of greed, trying to get ahead of the story.

Adam Cox: 34:50

True, but then they did say, I guess that they're paying him. And I guess it does not seem a bit strange that conveniently he like found within two days.

Kyle Risi: 34:56

Yes, very strange. We've been searching for it for thousands of years. So Marmaduke quickly returned to London where he went into hiding, becoming literally a national disgrace and the subject of non stop mockery overnight. Yet, in a bold move, the Daily Mail shamelessly shifted its stance, leading the charge in ridiculing him. At the same time, they also took no responsibility, nor did they even acknowledge the fact that they... Had made these claims that these footprints were the footprints of the Loch Ness Monster before the facts were even verified. In fact, the world just forgot that it was the Daily Mail. They actually did it in the first place. They did it in the first place. That's crazy. Because they just shifted the whole stance to mock this guy. Wow,

Adam Cox: 35:43

so they just did damage control and, almost a bit like shiny ball. Look over here kind of thing in terms of Yeah. Yes.

Kyle Risi: 35:49

Yes. The British public will like that. Yeah. Ooh, look, something new.'cause there's always speculation even now, remember the whole cheese, the Boris Johnson and the cheese thing where he was getting a lot of flack about, like having, oh, like the party having a party and serving cheese and serving cheese. And then the next thing what they did is they were like, they tried to play around with the ss e o of. People search habits where they created this other bigger story again involving cheese so they could divert all the searches for cheese involving our Prime Minister, which sounds mad when we think about it, but this was a big thing. And again, that's an example of all shiny thing over here, shiny thing over here. Yeah, let's take your attention away.

Adam Cox: 36:29

Bury, bury the news or the old story with something else to make people forget. But what actually we should be talking about. And I

Kyle Risi: 36:36

think that's what's happening here, clearly. So the world became to believe that he was this disgraced big game hunter who had happened to have a hippo foot lying around in his front room and was brazen and arrogant enough to fake the discovery of the infamous Loch Ness Monster in an attempt to just acquire more fame and glory. That's what was peddled and that's what people believed at the time. So to this day, we still do not know. Who made those hippopotamus prints in the side of the loch? So some people think it was Marmaduke Wetherill himself, that he was just arrogant and full of himself and that he knew that the Loch Ness Monster probably didn't exist, but he knew that if he could Get into the papers and get some attention to him. That would create some more infamy and I don't think that he even questioned for a second that they would discover that the footprints were fake and it might have just stopped at that, he's getting paid to do this. Isn't he? He's also getting paid to do this. So he

Adam Cox: 37:32

has to show some kind of results. And so he can't maybe prove that there is a lot. He can't take a photo. He's probably not thinking, not taking a picture, but a footprint he could get away with.

Kyle Risi: 37:42

Yeah, possibly. Yeah. And other people think that Marmaduke was just tricked by someone else and didn't have the experience to recognize the prints as a prank in itself. It could have been like another teenager who had made them. Whether he faked those prints or just found them by accident, we just will never know. Some people even think that it was the Daily Mail newspaper themselves who was behind the whole thing. The idea is that they orchestrated the perfect plan to sell more newspapers off the back of Nessie Mania. Which was already saturated with coverage, and so they needed, a new, unique angle. And so the plan was to use Marmaduke as their scapegoat, avoiding any blame themselves. And after all, there is something about a disgraced celebrity being publicly shamed and humiliated that we all just love. Like, look at the countless times that a celebrity's been in the media, because they've fallen from grace, and how people lap that up. Yeah,

Adam Cox: 38:39

you build them up to then

Kyle Risi: 38:40

tear them down. Yeah. And I think that's potentially what's happened here. I kind of buy that. I think it's definitely plausible. So actually a few years later, it was discovered that Marmaduke actually owned a hippopotamus ashtray. This here is apparently the same suppose item itself alongside one of the footprints that were made in the bank of the river.

Adam Cox: 39:01

It seems a bit excessive for an ashtray. It's definitely. but it's, yeah, it's the size of, it's an actual hippo foot. And so it makes sense that he probably used that.

Kyle Risi: 39:10

Yeah. This is from one of those Nessie kind of, online communities.

Adam Cox: 39:13

Right. And this is in like a museum now, I'm assuming.

Kyle Risi: 39:16

I think it's been sold at auction from what I read. Wow.

Adam Cox: 39:19

Yeah,

Kyle Risi: 39:19

he definitely did it. So what we do know for certain is that Marmaduke got back to London, disgraced, and he made a promise to his 21 year old son, Ian, that he would get back at the Daily Mail for how they treated him once the hoax had come to light. It seems the experience left a lasting impact on him and he wasn't willing to let go without a fight. The wild thing is about this story is that none of this Actually came to light until 1994, when shortly before he dies, Marmaduke's son, Ian, quoted his father as saying, All right, if they want a monster, I'm going to give them a monster. And so they set out hatching a scheme to deliver the monster to the Daily Mail. So in 1934, Marmaduke and Ian gathered a skilled team for a cunning mission, basically, which is him, his son, and someone else. They enlisted Marmaduke's stepson, which is a guy called Christian Sperling, who just so happened to be a sculptor. Christian's task was to craft a model of the creature's neck and head using putty. And they cleverly attached it to a periscope of a wind up submarine toy that they had purchased for two shillings and six pence, which is around about 16 pounds a day from Woolworths of all places. So the model took around about eight days for them to complete it and they went to extreme lengths to make sure that it looked just right and once they were confident with their work, Marmaduke and Ian set off northwards to return back to Loch Ness. How big was it? I, that's the thing, I'm not quite sure how big it was. in the photo's The waves look quite big, so that kind of maybe gives an indication of scale, but I'm not quite sure. It makes

Adam Cox: 41:05

me think, it must be like, the neck must be the length of... a person, right?

Kyle Risi: 41:11

Roughly? Do you know, I don't know, I wouldn't even be surprised if it was maybe the size of your hand.

Adam Cox: 41:16

That's why I said when I looked at that image it also looked almost like a model but or like a duck in a pond. Yeah. Like it

Kyle Risi: 41:22

didn't. Because it looks like it was taken from very far away. Yeah. And therefore that must mean that it must be bigger than that, than what we see in the picture.

Adam Cox: 41:31

Yeah, because there's no other objects in it. You can't, you can't. Judge, like how big that is to like a tree or a hill or whatever.

Kyle Risi: 41:40

All you have is the waves, but a wave can be any size. Yeah. I don't know. I have a feeling that it's much smaller than we think it is. Okay. So they're on the way back up to Scotland, back to the Loch Ness. Marmaduke's friend, a guy called Maurice Chambers, helped them in getting the model into the loch so they could snap some photographs. And they managed to take about five shots before they suddenly heard a commotion coming and it turned out to be one of the lochs water bailiffs, which is like the kind of the Coast Guard equivalent but for a lake. So very quickly, what they did is they stomped down on the model as hard as they possibly could to make it sink. And even now, that model is still at the bottom of that lake. It's never been found. So. It's out there somewhere. So there is

Adam Cox: 42:23

a, uh, a Loch Ness monster

Kyle Risi: 42:25

in the lake. There is a Loch Ness monster, technically, yes. So once they received the pictures back, they were confident enough that they were compelling enough to convince the Daily Mail that the Loch Ness Monster was real. So now all they needed was just someone who had an immaculate reputation, a lot of credibility, and appreciated a good prank. Conveniently, Maurice had a friend who just happened to be visiting at the time, who just so happened to also be a surgeon and a colonel in the army and that, of course, was our friend Robert Kenneth Wilson. Ah,

Adam Cox: 42:59

okay, that's how he comes into this.

Kyle Risi: 43:01

Yeah, he was the friend that Maurice knew. So they managed to persuade Robert to send the pictures to the Daily Mail, even though he didn't think the newspaper would take such a silly prank seriously in any way. In Robert's opinion, he was basically giving the newspapers images of a child's toy designed to look like a monster. What's more is that these pictures were sent to the Daily Mail. On April the 1st, 1934.

Adam Cox: 43:26

I did wonder if this was gonna come into it, like, you mentioned about when the, the news story broke, it was April the 21st. And I was like, this feels like an April Fool's joke, but it was too late, but this actually

Kyle Risi: 43:39

This is an April Fool's joke, Adam. And they didn't pick up on that? They didn't pick up on it, they were idiots! People were naive

Adam Cox: 43:45

back then, as we discussed

Kyle Risi: 43:46

earlier. Mate. And so to everyone's surprise, the Daily Mail actually fell for it, and Robert could never have imagined the sensation that these pictures would have caused, so he immediately disassociated himself from what he initially considered as a harmless prank, that had essentially gone horribly wrong. So Marmaduke just sat back and watched the whole thing unfold. And the Daily Mail had taken the bait and they had published these pictures of the submarine toy with a Play Doh bloody neck on top of it, which the Daily Mail continued to publish just again and again on issue after issue.

Adam Cox: 44:21

Wow. I wonder, if you started at the Daily Mail now, you're walking through the halls. And you're, you're getting, you're getting your desk and like the rule number one, like, you know, corroborate your story or something like that is drilled into you because I know it's not because it's the Daily Mail, but you can imagine just them going, we were, you don't want to talk about it, but then we have this like a

Kyle Risi: 44:43

dark past or sometimes like you go for, like, when you start a new job and you have to go sit through some training videos and they always like, There's always a lesson to be learned from something weird that's happened in the past. Yeah. And they go, yeah, we always corroborate because, yeah, this happened once. This one time. And they show the pictures of the Loch Ness Monster. Or,

Adam Cox: 45:00

behind the CEO's desk, there's like a giant picture of that, just, just in the back.

Kyle Risi: 45:04

What do you want to be reminded of that time? Like, damn you, Robert Wilson, or damn you, Mama Duke. So from this point on, it becomes a little bit unclear why Marmaduke didn't follow through with his original plan to expose the Daily Mail for falling for the prank. Because remember, that's the revenge part of it, right? First part was the hoax, now the revenge part. Initially, he intended to unveil the truth behind the pictures as a joke. His strategy involved going to rival newspapers to reveal the hoax, thereby embarrassing the Daily Mail. Now, it couldn't have been the case that Marmaduke attempted to approach the rival newspapers and was met with disinterest. Because when the initial hoax was exposed, many rival newspapers enjoyed mocking the Daily Mail for leaning into the story of the fake footprints in the first place. So Marmaduke must have believed. that at least one of them would be eager to seize the opportunity to humiliate You would think, right? But for some reason, he never went through with the next part of his plan. Some people think that maybe he was trying to cling on to some level of credibility for himself and he wasn't willing to get directly connected to the prank. The theory goes that Marmaduke expected Robert, the surgeon, would perhaps come forward and claim responsibility for the prank. This way no one would need to know that it was Marmaduke at the center of it all. Right. Allowing him to protect what was left of his reputation while still getting the chance to destroy the Daily Mail. But Robert wasn't willing to come forward either because he just wanted to distance himself from that as well.

Adam Cox: 46:35

Right. Maybe he had just the satisfaction he managed to get won over,

Kyle Risi: 46:39

but I don't know. There is a possibility that he could have been even more ridiculed for the retaliation if he did come forward to the newspapers to reveal it as a hoax. And now that his family was involved, again, maybe he may have decided not to take the risk. But of course, as we know, Robert Kenneth Wilson just walked away. And he just didn't want to be involved. So I think maybe the truth lies within there somewhere. And it's not like he ran out of time either, because Marmaduke ended up living for like five years after this. Five years is a long enough time for you to get your shit together and go and execute the second part of your plan. Do you know what I mean? You'd think so. Maybe he just lost interest. I don't know. I think it's, he just didn't want to tarnish his reputation. Yeah. there is another theory. That he saw how many people were desperately wanting to believe that the images were real and that his heart just melted and his need for revenge just dissipated. No, I don't buy that. You're a vengeful

Adam Cox: 47:39

kind of guy I guess. If you want revenge, you ain't gonna chicken out.

Kyle Risi: 47:43

And then another theory is that he approached the Daily Mail directly and they decided to just pay him a lot of money to keep quiet. And this way he got a big payout and the Daily Mail could continue cashing in on owning the rights to what would be one of the most widely published and iconic photographs of the 20th century.

Adam Cox: 48:00

Yeah, that sounds plausible. if you get a payout, like you can support your family and everything else, then...

Kyle Risi: 48:05

Hang on, but you just changed your tune! You just said you follow through with revenge. But if I give you 20, 000 pounds? No need for revenge. Revenge menenge.

Adam Cox: 48:15

Yeah. I don't know. I'm fickle.

Kyle Risi: 48:17

So either way, regardless of what happened, only five years after the hoax took place, Marmaduke died. And the only reason why we know this even happened. is thanks to a couple Nessieheads who were able to piece together like a wide set of interconnecting events by studying the Loch and more than 4, 000 varying sightings of the Loch Ness Monster. And their names are Martin and Floyd. Nessieheads. They're Nessieheads. Yeah, that's what they call themselves in part of the Nessie community. And they

Adam Cox: 48:46

managed to pin all this together? Yeah.

Kyle Risi: 48:48

Yeah, they did. Good detective work. But they're not alone in this there are Nessie enthusiasts all over the world who belong to a community who are all passionately discussing all things related to the Loch Ness Monster. It's just that Martin and Floyd were successful in locating Christian Sperling, who happened to be the stepson of Marmaduke, and the person responsible for creating the model. And after locating him... They uncovered the connection between Christian Sperling and Maurice Chambers, who in turn had the connection to Robert Kenneth Wilson. And so in 1994, they published their findings to the world. And the funny thing is, that even though they don't believe that the photographs are real, they genuinely believe that the Loch Ness Monster... Is actually real and is still out there. Oh God, really? Their logic goes that if Nessie doesn't exist, then more than 4, 000 people are essentially lying. And that's just not a possibility. Oh

Adam Cox: 49:49

no, it can't be. Not like Marmaduke didn't

Kyle Risi: 49:52

lie. But, 4, 000 sightings, they're all different versions of the Nessie legend. no critical thinking is happening there either, so it doesn't seem to be a factor, unless they know something that we don't know, I guess. I mean I called them smart, now I'm not so sure.

Adam Cox: 50:08

So this all comes out in 1994, right? Mm hmm.

Kyle Risi: 50:11

So what did the Daily Mail do? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. It would be good to find out what the Daily Mail's response

Adam Cox: 50:18

was. Do you think all the other newspapers like published it and Daily Mail was like, Mmm, nope, slow news day, nothing.

Kyle Risi: 50:24

Do you know what, I missed a trick on this. I should have found out what the Daily Mail

Adam Cox: 50:27

said. I can quickly Google it just to see. Go on, try it. So I just tried to have a look to see if I could find anything and nothing instantly comes up, but I can see that even as recent as September 2023. Daily Mail is still publishing articles online of potential images of the Loch Ness

Kyle Risi: 50:45

Monster. They gotta milk that cash cow. What's the picture? Is it a new picture?

Adam Cox: 50:49

yeah, they deem it the most exciting images of Loch Ness Monster ever. Go on, keep me in suspense. but, it's most likely a sturgeon claims a paranormal investigator. Let me

Kyle Risi: 50:59

see the picture. I mean, Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Adam Cox: 51:04

I don't even know what that is. It looks

Kyle Risi: 51:05

like a log to me. A log, exactly. But yeah, it could be a sturgeon actually.

Adam Cox: 51:10

But, um, yeah, Daily Mail won't,

Kyle Risi: 51:12

won't quit. So in 2019, scientists tested water samples from the Loch Ness for DNA to see if there might be any evidence of a Loch Ness monster. And while they found DNA traces of over 3, 000 different species, including fish, pigs, birds, humans, and even bacteria, they found nothing to suggest anything mysterious or surprising was inside the loch. I mean there is one theory that says that Nessie was potentially a giant eel due to the significant amount of eel DNA detected, but that's not really a Loch Ness monster.

Adam Cox: 51:46

No, but then, I mean what, how big is a giant eel? That's

Kyle Risi: 51:49

probably not as, I don't know, like as big as a desk.

Adam Cox: 51:53

Because maybe, if you go back to the 18th century, or 19th century, whatever it is, and people might have seen this kind of creature, which isn't perhaps common at that point in time, you don't see them in books or whatever, then maybe people thought, oh, there is a monster out there that looks like this. And that's what spurred this whole imagination,

Kyle Risi: 52:12

whatever. Yeah, because you see a lot of that during the 1400s when they were exploring the world or Christopher Columbus and stuff. And some of the explorers back then, it made it to parts of Africa where they come back and said, Oh, we saw human beings with like their faces on their chests and things like that. Yeah, they'd seen like pygmies and giant people. And they probably are rooted to some degree in reality. But then. It just means that they're slightly shorter than the average person. And then by the time they get back, it's Oh, they were like as big as my, my, my foot or something like

Adam Cox: 52:42

that. It's dramatized a bit.

Kyle Risi: 52:43

Yeah. So they don't find any DNA in the lochs whatsoever. That would indicate anything mysterious. But of course, Martin and Lloyd believe that the government is involved In this big old coverup as they think that the government doesn't want us to know the truth, that the lochness monster actually exists. So these are the type of people that we are dealing with, these crack bots who just so happened to be the ones to bring us the story as well, which is just, it's weirding, unsettling. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, such a great story, but yet you're just,

Adam Cox: 53:11

why would the government want to cover this up?

Kyle Risi: 53:14

That's, it makes no sense. It doesn't make any sense. No sense. But if you're keen on becoming a Nessie Watcher yourself, of course, you can go and check out the Loch Ness on Street View and even Satellite View. So even today, people have seen apparently mysterious things on Google Street View.

Adam Cox: 53:28

But then Street View is like taking like, I don't know, at one point in time, so you're never gonna... That's not like real, that's not like 24 hour coverage

Kyle Risi: 53:36

or anything. I'm sure there must be some pub out there that's on the water. That has got a webcam that you can go and log into. There's gotta

Adam Cox: 53:44

be. Do you reckon these Nessieheads, say you're at home, and they've got like 10 screens of all the different webcams just on and around their house so they can just

Kyle Risi: 53:51

like Oh, I see something! Oh no, it's just a pig. Or it's an eel. It's an eel. And yeah, that is the story of the Great Loch Ness Monster Hoax, which is a story that we almost never found out about.

Adam Cox: 54:04

Yeah, can you imagine if we never found out that it was a hoax, what we would think now about it? We'd still think it was in there, yeah. We'd still be looking. people are still looking, but I guess... A wider population would be still looking. Yeah.

Kyle Risi: 54:18

But the thing is, though, even with now that we know this, there are so many people out there that still believe that it exists or have never even heard this story.

Adam Cox: 54:26

Wow. So if you are listening and you are now finding out that this is a hoax, then yeah, this is brand

Kyle Risi: 54:31

new information,

Adam Cox: 54:33

then Yeah. There could be Let people out there. Let us, let us know if you're devastated. Um, we have a helpline, um, support counseling. Yes.

Kyle Risi: 54:40

Oh 800. Someone needs a wampulence. So yeah, that's the story of the Loch Ness Monster Hoax. Shall we run the outro? Let's do it. And so today we come to the end of another episode of the Compendium and Assembly of Fascinating and Intriguing Things. If you found today's episode both fascinating and intriguing, then subscribe and leave us a review. But don't just stop there. Schedule your episodes to download automatically as soon as they become available. We're on Instagram at The Compendium Podcast, so stop by and say hi or visit us on our home on the web at thecompendiumpodcast. com. We release new episodes every Tuesday. And until then, remember, if you're fishing for a good story, sometimes all you need is a toy submarine and a dash of imagination. See you next time. See ya.