10 Inspirational Stories That Turned Out to Be FAKE

10 Inspirational Stories That Turned Out to Be FAKE

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re discussing our picks for the stories of heroism or perseverance in the face of adversity that turned out to be either heavily fabricated or outright false. We’ll only be looking at stories that were published – or at least well-documented.

Sarah Delashmit

She went to extraordinary lengths to fake a variety of illnesses and tragedies. She pretended to have leukemia and breast cancer, buying wigs to hide her real hair. She claimed to have muscular dystrophy and attended a camp for people with disabilities in a motorized wheelchair. She faked pregnancies, then told people she’d lost the babies. Delashmit apparently did it all for attention, but she also accepted donations from non-profits and help from volunteers for her supposed conditions. Eventually, she pled guilty to multiple fraud charges and was sentenced to federal prison. Ashley Kirilow, a Canadian fraudster with a similar M.O., also faked a cancer diagnosis, raising thousands of dollars online and even accepting a free trip to Disney World.

JT LeRoy

He was a teenage author who grew up in extreme poverty and suffered childhood abuse. He shared his story with the world through a semi-autobiographical novel, a book of short stories, and a novella. Except it was all made up. JT LeRoy wasn’t even a teenage boy – he was an adult woman named Laura Albert. After the success of “JT’s” novel, Albert went so far as to enlist her young sibling-in-law to pose as LeRoy in public. When the film studio that had optioned the novel learned of the deception, it sued Albert for fraud, since a contract signed by a nonexistent person isn’t exactly legal. Albert’s wild story has inspired a movie, a couple of documentaries, and even an episode of “Law & Order.”

Nasdijj

From pretending to be a teenage boy to pretending to be Native American. Timothy Barrus had a successful career as a writer and editor before he took on the persona of a Navajo man named Nasdijj. He published critically acclaimed “memoirs” under the name, which tell of Nasdijj’s difficult past and his adoption of two children. In early 2006, a journalist uncovered the hoax. Barrus – who had no Native American ancestry – was widely criticized by Indigenous authors who accused him of appropriating real people’s suffering for personal profit. He’s not the only writer who pretended to be Indigenous. If you read “The Education of Little Tree” growing up, you might be interested to know that it was actually written by a white supremacist.

“The Salt Path”

This 2018 memoir by Raynor Winn became a bestseller in the UK and was even made into a movie starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs. It details Winn and her husband’s experience with homelessness and terminal illness, and the healing that came from walking hundreds of miles along the English coast. Except, a lot of it might be false. A reporter from The Observer dug into the Winns’ background and found plenty of dirt, from embezzlement accusations to unpaid debts to a criminal investigation. The report even suggests that Winn’s husband is lying about his diagnosis. Winn has denounced the accusations, but there seems to be a lot of evidence that the reporter’s claims are accurate.

“Angel at the Fence”

Herman Rosenblat was a real Holocaust survivor who spent nearly a year in concentration camps as a child. However, his story about meeting his wife during his imprisonment was totally fake. Rosenblat claimed that a young girl threw him food over the camp fence every day for months. After he was liberated and moved to the U.S., he supposedly reunited with that girl and married her. When Holocaust historians noticed holes in Rosenblat’s narrative, they did some research and discovered that the girl who would become his wife was actually in hiding over 200 miles away during the war. Rosenblat managed to secure book and movie deals before the deception was revealed, but both were canceled after he confessed to fabricating the story.

Lymphoma Can Suck It

Amanda Riley was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma shortly after her first child was born. At least, that’s what she claimed on her blog, “Lymphoma Can Suck It.” She told people she had a terminal diagnosis, and when support came pouring in, she started asking for donations to cover supposed medical expenses. Over the course of eight years, she collected more than $100,000 from well-meaning people. But – you guessed it – it was all a scam. Riley was eventually convicted on wire fraud charges and sentenced to prison. Australian Belle Gibson also lied about a severe cancer diagnosis, but she claimed to have cured herself using whole foods and naturopathy. She made her money promoting her fake cures to actual cancer patients.

Michael Oher and the Tuohy Family

2009’s “The Blind Side” tells the story of homeless teen Michael Oher’s adoption into a rich family and his transformation into a star football player. When the movie came out, Oher was annoyed that it portrayed him as unintelligent and implied he had to learn the basics of football from this tiny white lady. In reality, Oher was already a successful high school player when he started living with the Tuohys. But it gets so much worse. It wasn’t until decades later that Oher discovered the Tuohys didn’t actually adopt him. Instead, he says they tricked him into signing a conservatorship that gave them the right to cash in on his name. He filed a lawsuit to end the conservatorship in 2023.

The Malarkey Family

These people certainly earned their last name. When Alex Malarkey was just six, he and his dad, Kevin, were in a serious car accident. It left Alex paralyzed and with brain trauma. Six years later, Alex and Kevin published a book called “The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven.” It supposedly tells the story of Alex’s visits to Heaven during his near-death experience and subsequent recovery. Just a couple of years later, Alex came clean, admitting that it was all made up. He has since apologized and asked bookstores to pull the book from their shelves. Kevin, on the other hand, has stood by his story. The book sold over a million copies before it was pulled.

Tania Head

From the boy who didn’t really go to Heaven to the woman who wasn’t really in the Twin Towers. Tania Head – real name Alicia Esteve Head – is a Spanish woman who claimed to be a 9/11 survivor. She joined a major survivors’ support group and even became its president. She did tours at Ground Zero, gave speeches, and met with the mayor. In reality, she was still living in Spain in 2001 – she didn’t come to the U.S. until 2003. Unlike most of our scammers, she apparently didn’t do this for money. Head doesn’t seem to have profited from her deception at all – in fact, she donated her own money to the support group. Her true motivations still remain a mystery.

“A Million Little Pieces”

James Frey’s memoir tells of his struggles with substance use disorder and his time in rehab. After Oprah Winfrey selected it for her book club, it shot to the top of the bestseller list. Just a few months later, investigators discovered the story was a lie. Initially, Frey doubled down, claiming that the book was “the essential truth” of his life. Eventually he was forced to admit that he made most of it up. This wasn’t the first time Oprah was fooled by a fake memoir – “Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years” was a Book Club pick before it was proven false. [xref] More than a decade after Frey’s confession, a film adaptation of the book was released starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson. It was not well-received.

Which of these con artists do you think is the most shameless? Let us know in the comments.