30 Absurd Rumors That Some People Really Believed

There was once a rumor that Charles Manson auditioned to be in The Monkees.

Ann Wilson of Heart wrote the song Barracuda after her recording company created a rumor that she and her sister were having an incestuous relationship for publicity. Following a concert, a fan asked how her “lover” was. Enraged, she went directly to her hotel room and began writing the lyrics.

In 2009, Former Transport Minister John Baird sent a text that “Thatcher has died.” It started a rumor that the Former British leader had actually passed, when in fact it was his 16-year-old cat named Thatcher.

After rumors that Yellow No. 5 lowered sperm count, some people increased their consumption of Mountain Dew as a form of contraception

There were rumors going around before elections that Thomas Jefferson would go on to confiscate all the bibles if he were to be elected president in 1800.

When Elvis Presley made his 3rd appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, he was only filmed dancing from the waist up because of a rumor that he had been hanging a small soda bottle down his pants "to create the illusion of a large, swinging endowment."

Mr. Rogers never served in the military, despite ongoing rumors that he was a Navy Seal who had 25 confirmed kills during the Vietnam War.

A Canadian progressive rock band called Klaatu sounded so similar to the Beatles, that rumors began to speculate that the Fab Four had secretly reunited.

Actress Jean Seberg was a victim of COINTELPRO where the FBI created a false rumor that the child Seberg was carrying was not fathered by her husband Romain Gary but by Raymond Hewitt, a member of the Black Panther Party.

In 1842, a famous writer named Honore De Balzac tried to publicize his play by starting a rumor that opening night was sold out. The play opened to an empty house.