TOP 10 UNEXPLAINED PHOTOS DEBUNKED

The Plum Island Monster

The Plum island monster is a rather new internet sensation, when Jenna Hewitt and three of her friends found and snapped this picture in 2008. It should be noted, this picture is 100% real, with no altercations being made to the original photograph. The “monster” became a hot topic mainly because it was found. It was located on a beach near the business district of Montauk, New York, which is just a short distance from Plum Island, and animal disease research facility known for their bizarre experiments on animals. The story went viral when conspiracy theorist and politician, Jesse Ventura, shed some light on the story. Just a few months later, zoologists and cryptozoologists across the world claimed that it was definitely a decomposing raccoon. A rotting raccoon, or a byproduct of twisted experiments, we’ll let you decide.

The Hook Island Sea Monster

On December 12th, 1964, French photographer Robert Serrec was vacationing off the coast in Queensland, Australia in a small row boat with family and friends. The group was in less than six feet or 1.8 meters of water when they noticed a snake like creature lying on the oceans floor just a few feet away from their miniature boat. What they saw was described as a tadpole looking serpent around 70-80 feet or 21 to 24 meters long. To help back up the groups claims, they were able to snap several quick images of the “monster.” No logical explanation has ever been given for what they had seen, and the creature has not been seen again since. Because of this, most regard it as a hoax perpetrated by Serrec and his group in order to help the photographer become more famed and subsequently have a larger income. Many sources say it is no more than a very long tarp held down by sandbags. Finally, in 1959, Le Serrec had tried to get a group together on an expedition that would prove ‘financially fruitful’, and that he had ‘another thing in reserve which will bring in a lot of money… it’s to do with the sea-serpent’.

Cooper Family Falling Body Photo

The Cooper family falling body photo was taken sometime in the 1950’s, when the family of five moved into an older home in Texas. On the first night there, the father took a photo of his wife and her mom posing with their two sons, all smiling. When the still was subsequently developed, to the Cooper’s horror, a body could be seen falling or hanging in midair, a little out of focus. Other than the chills it sends down your spine upon looking at the photograph, little is known about its origins, and many even believe it to be an internet hoax made up just a few years back due to the lack of information that can be found regarding the Cooper family. At this point, that is the leading theory. Living in a “photoshop” era, it is widely accepted that this is a product of good editing skills.

Solway Firth Spaceman

On May 23rd, 1964, a firefighter living in Carlisle, Cumberland, took three photographs of his five-year-old daughter while on a day trip to Burgh Marsh. The little girl’s dad, Jim Templeton, said they were the only people on the marsh aside from a couple of elderly women sitting in their car. Many years later, in 2002, he wrote to the Daily Mail saying: “I took three pictures of my daughter Elizabeth in a similar pose – and was shocked when the middle picture came back from Kodak displaying what looks like a spaceman in the background.” Although there is not much to go on as far as evidence is concerned, Templeton died in 2011 still proclaiming that whatever was in the background of the photograph, was not there when he had taken it. This one was easily debunked – it was simply the photographer’s wife, who was also with them at the time. The camera had an overexposure issue that made her clothes appear all-white, resembling a space man.

The Face of Freddy Jackson

This intriguing photo, taken in 1919, was first published in 1975 by Sir Victor Goddard, a retired Royal Air Force officer. The photo is a group portrait of Goddard’s squadron, which had served in World War I at the HMS Daedalus training facility. An extra ghostly face appears in the photo. In back of the airman positioned on the top row, fourth from the left, can clearly be seen the face of another man. It is said to be the face of Freddy Jackson, an air mechanic who had been accidentally killed by an airplane propeller two days earlier. His funeral had taken place on the day this photograph was snapped. Members of the squadron easily recognized the face as Jackson’s. Although believed by some, this still has been proven not to show the alive and well Freddy Jackson. During WWI it was common for images of family members who had been killed as a result of the conflict to be superimposed over others that had been taken post postmortem. You can think of this method as old fashioned Photoshop.

The Time Traveler

A 1941 photograph from the re-opening of the South Fork Bridge in British Colombia, is alleged to show a time traveler. Before we get into any of the details, it was closely studied by film and photo retouch analyst, and no sign of any altercations were found. In this famous still, you can clearly see a man that appears to be out of place. It is claimed that his attire and sunglasses are not of that time period and actually quite recent. The man in this photograph may actually be in a somewhat appropriate, yet still eccentric style for his time. One of the main focal points researchers make is that the style of sunglasses he is wearing actually first appeared in the 1920’s. The same can be said about his T-shirt, most researchers believe it was a sweater with a sewn-on logo, closely resembling the Montreal Maroons hockey team emblem, and not some futuristic wardrobe.

The Battle of Los Angeles

The Battle of Los Angeles is the name given to an anti-aircraft artillery barrage that took place in the United States from late February 24th and 25th of 1942. This event occurred less than three months after the US entered World War II due to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Initially, the incident was thought to be the result of a Japanese bombing, but these theories were soon put to rest at a press conference with Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knoxx. They called the incident a “false alarm,” but even now, many UFOlogists suggest that the objects seen in the sky were extraterrestrial spacecraft paying us a visit. The Los Angeles Times released some very enlightening photographs the following day which picture searchlights beaming into the sky in hopes of finding possibly hostile aircraft’s. Different sources point out that somewhere in the pictures is an alien saucer being bombarded with gunfire. Now, it is popular belief that the most likely thing they were shooting at were balloons released by pranksters into the air, but CBS radio called these objects “blimps” for some unknown reason. Any and all approaching aircraft’s that were targeted using sonar technologies were lost just hours into the ‘make believe fight.’

The Phantom Thumb

The photo that you are currently viewing has something very bizarre in it that few are able to spot at first glance. Take a closer look, do you notice anything a little off about this image? What some of you may have noticed is that the boy to the far right is standing next to an out of place hand. Each of the boy’s upper body parts can be seen, but after developing the photo, it was noticed that the extra hand had seemed to appear out of thin air. After an analysis, it was determined that photo editing programs, such as Photoshop were not used and no alterations were made. The only way an extra joint could have been present is if someone was kneeling behind them. After becoming viral, the photograph was looked at by some as being real, but the possibility of someone simply kneeling behind the boys and sticking their hand out is a much more rational explanation believed by many.

The Falcon Lake Incident

The Falcon Lake Incident is a reported encounter with a UFO in Manitoba, Canada. Stefan Michalak claimed it had occurred on May 20th, 1967. The man had taken a short vacation near Falcon Lake to prospect veins of quartz. At this site, he spotted two descending cigar shaped aircraft’s, one of which landed close to where he was standing. Michalak saw the door open and heard voices coming from the inside. He tried to make contact in English and other languages, but this was to no avail. The man claims that he was immediately burned as he tried to touch “colorful glass” found around the object. Photos have surfaced of Michalak lying in a hospital bed because of the wounds he was subject to. However, an overwhelming amount of skeptics believe his sores were caused by something resembling a waffle iron. What makes Michalak’s story unbelievable is that he was a well known drunk, although denying that he was intoxicated, a local bartender has a different story. It’s widely accepted that the man was trying to achieve fame and fortune from the “made-up” incident. An interesting read of this story can be found on theironskeptic.com.

The Phoenix Lights

The Phoenix lights were a series of widely seen unidentified flying objects that were observed by thousands over the night skies of Arizona and Mexico in 1997. According to photographs and eyewitness accounts, there were two distinct formations that these lights were grouped in. One of these was a moving triangle that is said to have passed over a vast amount of Arizona; while on the other hand, a series of stationary lights could be seen hovering over areas in Phoenix. Despite reports of military flares being dropped from an A-10 Warthog, or civilians releasing glowing helium balloons, many still speculate that this was the work of extraterrestrial life forms. Because of much retouching done to the photographs, most experts now disagree and believe it was a well thought out gimmick to sell more newspapers and tabloids.