On this day in 1934 the infamous “Loch Ness Monster” went viral-before-viral-was-thing, landing on the front page of London’s DAILY MAIL and driving thousands of monster hunters to a random lake in Scotland. But the image, despite captivating the world and seriously boosting tourism in otherwise sleepy Loch Ness, was a big ole’ fraud. It just took several decades for the dudes behind it to come clean.
Dubbed “The Physician’s Photograph” because it was submitted to the newspaper by a doctor, the famously blurry black-and-white pic was part of a scheme cooked up by the FANTASTICALLY named Maramaduke Wetherell; his sons Christopher and Ian; and their buddy Rob, who was a very respected gynecologist.
See, Maramaduke Wetherell was a famous big game hunter. (Because what else can you be with a name like Maramaduke Wetherell except a wealthy animal killer, or a cult leader living in a haunted mansion built by orphans?) Around the time of Nessie’s first sighting—reported by The Spicer Family during a leisure drive in 1933—the DAILY MAIL hired Maramaduke to hunt down whatever was hiding in Loch Ness. Described as “giant” and “prehistoric,” similar to a plesiosaur, newspaper editors assumed their bounty hunter would need experience facing big creatures. Marmaduke enthusiastically accepted the high profile gig, and returned triumphantly from his Scottish “expedition” with “foot prints” left around the edge of the lake by Nessie herself. He said the prints could only be left by “a very powerful soft-footed animal about 20 feet [6 metres] long.”
But they were not.
Natural History Museum workers examined Marmaduke’s findings, and ruled they’d been made by a dried hippo’s foot. As a famous big game hunter Maramaduke definitely had access to taxidermy animals. Plus rich people at the time used hippo feet as “umbrella stands,” which is a great example of how money is wasted on the wealthy.
It’s unclear if Duke actually made the false prints himself or simply got scammed by rich kids wielding daddy’s decor, but the paper printing the museum’s findings. Humiliated, Marmaduke retreated into the shadows and sulked. But his stepson, Christopher, had a plan to clear his pop’s name:
A sock puppet and a toy submarine.
Seriously. Chris and his bro Ian basically rigged a swan’s neck+head made out of putty onto the toy, dropped it into the water, snapped a backlit shot, and cropped the photo so the decoy looked massive. Then they had their friend Dr. Rob claim the photo was his, because his reputation was unimpeachable as a man of science. The doctored shot (SEE WHAT WE DID THERE?!) was a hit on newsstands across the country, and Marmaduke’s reputation saved.
Christopher dry snitched all of this in 1994, just before his death.
Despite the confession, folks continue to insist Nessie is real. The earliest documented sighting of “her” dates back to the 6th century, and Scottish folklore is littered with water dragons and oversized cryptids. A few years ago researchers DNA sequenced water all over Loch Ness to see if any shy dinosaurs or wayward prehistoric sharks were hiding in its depths, but all they found was evidence of fish and eels. Lots and lots of eels.
The lead researcher did say it’s “possible” some of those eels are giant, but he didn’t seem super convinced.
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