Racial hoax

In 1931, two white women falsely accused nine African-American teenagers of raping them on a train in Alabama. All but one were convicted and sentenced to death by all-white juries.

Emmett Till was a 14-year-old African-American who was accused of "offending" a white woman in Money, Mississippi, in 1955. He was abducted and lynched several days later. In 2017, author Timothy Tyson released details of a 2008 interview with Carolyn Bryant. He claimed that during the interview she had disclosed that she had fabricated parts of her testimony at the trial of his accused killers. Tyson said that during the interview, Bryant retracted her testimony that Till had grabbed her around her waist and uttered obscenities, saying "that part's not true".[13] However, the "recanting" claim made by Tyson was not on his tape-recording of the interview. "It is true that that part is not on tape because I was setting up the tape recorder" Tyson said. Donham's daughter-in-law, Marsha Bryant, who was present for the two interviews, said her mother-in-law "never recanted." The support Tyson provided to back up his claim was a handwritten note that he said had been made at the time.[14]

During the 1978 wave of murders of white women in Columbus, Georgia by the African-American Stocking Strangler, a letter was sent to the local police purporting to be from a group of white vigilantes calling themselves the "Forces of Evil" and claiming to be holding an African-American woman named Gail Jackson hostage with the intention of killing her unless the Stocking Strangler was apprehended. She had in fact been murdered five weeks earlier. After her body was found, the "Forces of Evil" claimed responsibility for her murder and that of another black woman, Irene Thirkield, threatening to keep killing black women until the killer was found.[15]

An investigation soon led police to William Henry Hance, a black man, who confessed to the "Forces of Evil" murders and the murder of a white woman the previous year. It was established that Hance had concocted a scheme to avoid suspicion for the Jackson and Thirkield murders by blaming them on white racist vigilantes outraged over the "Stocking Strangler" murders. Hance was executed for the murders in 1994.[16]

Tawana Brawley, an African-American teenager, was found in a trash bag covered in faeces after being missing from her home in Wappingers Falls, New York for four days. She claimed that she had been abducted and raped by four white men, and her legal team subsequently claimed that the authorities were protecting the assailants because they were white, sparking a debate about systemic racism in New York.[17] A grand jury later concluded that Brawley had fabricated her story and had deliberately set things up to make it look like she had been assaulted.[18] Brawley's legal team - Al Sharpton, Alton Maddox and Vernon Mason - were accused of having exploited the story to trigger racial outrage and advance their careers,[17] and one of the men accused successfully sued Brawley, Sharpton, Maddox and Mason for defamation.[19]

The case of Charles Stuart is often cited as an example of a racial hoax.[1][20] On October 23, 1989, in Boston, Stuart and his pregnant wife Carol were driving when, according to Stuart, a black gunman forced his way into the car and shot them both, hitting Carol in the head and Stuart in the body. Still alive, Stuart drove away and called the police, who conducted a search of Mission Hill, Boston, a mostly black area. Carol died later that night; the baby, delivered by caesarean section, died 17 days later.

Stuart picked out Willie Bennett, a black man, from a photo lineup. The police shifted their attention onto Stuart when Stuart's brother Matthew told them that Stuart had committed the murder, and when they noted inconsistencies in Stuart's account. On January 4, 1990, Stuart committed suicide. The police later learned that Stuart had committed the murder to cash in on his wife's insurance policy.[1][21]

In 1992, Jesse Anderson became infamous for stabbing his wife Barbara E. Anderson thirty-seven times while in the parking lot of a T.G.I. Friday's in Milwaukee. Anderson blamed two African-American men for attacking him and his wife, and even presented police with a Los Angeles Clippers basketball cap he claimed to have knocked off the head of one of the assailants.

When details of the crime were made public, a university student told police Anderson had purchased the hat from him a few days earlier. According to employees at a military surplus store, the red-handled fishing knife which was used to murder Barbara was sold to Anderson only a few weeks earlier. Police stated that the store was the only one in Milwaukee that sold that type of knife. Anderson was shortly thereafter charged with murder, found guilty, and sentenced to life imprisonment.[22]

In October 1994, in South Carolina, Susan Smith drowned her sons by putting them in her car and letting it roll into John D. Long Lake. She called the police and stated that an armed black man had hijacked her car with her two sons inside. After an extensive manhunt, Smith confessed that she had killed her sons, and, in July 1995, was sentenced to life imprisonment.[23][24][25]

In 2001, after killing his family, Sef Gonzales disposed of the murder weapons and the clothing and the size 7 running shoes he was wearing at the time of the murders. He showered, changed clothes, and spray painted the words "Fuck off Asians" on a wall in the house in an attempt to fool investigating police into believing that his family had been the victims of a hate crime. News stories in Australia and the Philippines at the time reported police were still establishing a motive for the killings and focused mostly on slain Teddy Gonzales's past business dealings.

Jennifer Wilbanks was a white woman who ran away from home on April 26, 2005, in order to avoid her upcoming wedding with John Mason, her fiancé. Her disappearance from Duluth, Georgia, sparked a nationwide search and intensive media coverage, including media speculation that Mason had killed her. On April 29, Wilbanks called Mason from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and falsely claimed that she had been kidnapped and sexually assaulted by a Hispanic man and a white woman.[26] Wilbanks told investigators that she was abducted while running, and tied-up with rope in the back of a van, and was raped by a Hispanic man and forced to perform sexual acts with a white woman.[27] Wilbanks pled no contest to a felony charge of providing false information to law enforcement, and served no time in jail.[28]

The Duke lacrosse case was a criminal investigation into a 2006 false accusation of rape made against three white members of the men's lacrosse team at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina by Crystal Mangum, an African American student at North Carolina Central University[29][30] who worked as a stripper,[31] dancer and escort.[32]

Many people involved in, or commenting on the case, including Durham prosecutor Mike Nifong (who was later disbarred), called or suggested that the alleged assault was a hate crime.[33][34][35]

In October 2008, Ashley Todd, a volunteer for the U.S. presidential campaign of Republican John McCain, falsely claimed to have been the victim of robbery and politically motivated physical assault by a supporter of McCain's Democratic opponent Barack Obama.[36][37]

The story broke less than two weeks before the 2008 United States presidential election on November 4. Todd later confessed to inventing the story after surveillance photos and a polygraph test were presented. She was charged with filing a false police report, and entered a probation program for first-time offenders.

In January 2016, two black and one Hispanic female University at Albany (SUNY) students (Alexis Briggs, Asha Burwell and Ariel Agudio) gained national attention[38][39] when they accused 10 to 12 white men and women of harassment and assault and that "racial slurs were used by the perpetrators"[40] while riding a public CDTA bus. Hillary Clinton tweeted her support for them, asserting "There's no excuse for racism and violence on a college campus."[41]

The three were eventually indicted by a grand jury and arraigned for "10 misdemeanor charges, including assault, attempted assault and false reporting, along with a violation for harassment." Furthermore, the university expelled Agudio and Burwell and suspended Briggs for two years.[42]

Agudio and Burwell faced up to two years in jail for false reporting conviction but were sentenced to three years' probation, 200 hours of community service and a $1,000 fine when they were found guilty of two charges out of the original eleven. Briggs accepted a plea deal from the district attorney's office of community service in exchange for a public apology.[43]

In September 2016, Georgia police officer Sherry Hall claimed "a 6-foot, 230-pound African American man" had shot her, and that only her protective vest saved her life. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation determined that she fabricated the whole incident and charged her with four felonies, including evidence tampering and giving false statements to investigators.[44] Hall was convicted of 11 criminal charges, including "making false statements, violating her oath and tampering with evidence," and sentenced to 15 years in prison and 23 years on probation.[45]

In October 2016, Maria Daly, the wife of a police officer, reported a burglary at her family home. She stated that jewelry and money had been stolen, and that her house was tagged with graffiti referencing the Black Lives Matter movement.[46] Police determined that the entire account was false, and charged Daly with filing a false police report and misleading a police investigation.[46] Daly eventually pleaded guilty, essentially confirming that she had staged the burglary and spray-painted the house herself.[47]

In August 2016, former firefighter Jason Stokes claimed that the Black Lives Matter movement had set fire to his home and written "lie with pigs, fry like bacon" on the wall in retaliation for his "Blue Lives Matter" banner.[48] Police charged Stokes with arson, concluding that he had set the fire himself and written the offending message to cover up the crime, and had also booby-trapped the house to hinder investigation.[49] A jury acquitted Stokes on May 15, 2017, agreeing that it was arson but not finding "enough evidence to convict Stokes."[50]

Sherri Papini disappeared from her husband and family on November 2, 2016, reportedly while out jogging a mile from her home in Redding, California.[51] Papini was 34 years old at the time. She reappeared three weeks later on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, claiming that she was freed by her captors at 4:30 that morning still wearing restraints.[52] According to Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko,[53] in interviews Papini said she was held by two Hispanic women who took steps to keep their faces hidden from her, either by wearing masks or by keeping Papini's head covered.[54] On March 3, 2022, Sherri Papini was arrested by the FBI, accused of lying to federal agents and faking her kidnapping to spend time with her ex-boyfriend away from her husband and family.[55][56]

During December 2016, 18-year-old Yasmin Seweid claimed that a group of white men approached her on a New York City subway and stated "Donald Trump! Donald Trump! Fucking terrorist, get out of this country, you don't belong here, terrorist, get out of this country." She also claimed one of the men grabbed her bag and broke the strap.[57] Seweid later admitted that she lied about the incident because she did not want her strict father to find out that she was out past her curfew drinking alcohol.[58] Seweid was arrested and pleaded guilty to falsely reporting an incident and disorderly conduct.[59]

In January 2017, hunting guide Walker Daugherty and his client Edwin Roberts were both shot near the Texas-Mexico border. Daugherty and his fellow guide, Michael Bryant, told authorities that they were attacked by immigrants who had entered the country illegally and tried to steal an RV.[60] All the bullet casings and projectiles found on the scene, however, matched guns belonging to the hunting party.[61] Investigation determined that Daugherty shot Roberts and Bryant shot Daugherty.[62] A grand jury indicted Bryant and Daugherty on charges of "using deadly conduct by discharging firearms in the direction of others," a felony.[63] Roberts and his wife subsequently filed a personal injury lawsuit against Bryant, Daugherty, and their business seeking $1 million in damages for negligence.[64]

In October 2017, the predominantly black Concord Fortress of Hope church in Kansas City was set on fire, with racist graffiti referencing the Ku Klux Klan found at the scene.[65] However, a black church employee named Nathaniel Nelson eventually admitted to starting the fire to cover up his theft of money from the church's cultural center,[66] before writing the graffiti to throw suspicion onto white supremacists.[67] Nelson pleaded guilty to arson in 2018.[68]

In 2017, 19 year-old white woman Breana Harmon from Denison, Texas, falsely claimed she was abducted and gang-raped by three black men. She initially was in an argument with her boyfriend, then ran away and intentionally cut herself to give the appearance of an assault. She then stripped-down to a T-shirt and underwear, and went into a church and told the people there that she had been raped by three masked black men.[69] She later pled guilty to charges of filing a false police report.[70]

In May 2018 Sherita Dixon-Cole, a black human resources professional falsely accused a white Texas state trooper of kidnapping and sexually assaulting her during a DUI arrest.[71]

In 2019, Jussie Smollett, an American actor and singer on the Fox drama series Empire, made national news for fabricating a racially-motivated attack. On January, 22, a letter arrived at the Chicago studio of Smollett's employer that was addressed to Smollett and depicted a stick figure hanging from a tree with a gun pointing towards it. It read "Smollett, Jussie you will die" and "MAGA" and contained a white powder determined to be Tylenol.[72] On January 29, 2019, Smollett told police that he was attacked in the early morning of that day in the 300 block of East Lower North Water Street in Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood by two men in ski masks who called him racial and homophobic slurs in what was initially investigated as a hate crime.[73] Smollett was indicted on February 20, 2019, for disorderly conduct consisting of paying two Nigerian-American brothers to stage a fake hate crime assault on him and filing a false police report.[74] Smollett's defense team reached a deal with prosecutors on March 26, 2019, in which all charges were dropped in return for Smollett performing community service and forfeiting his $10,000 bond.[75] On March 27, 2019, it was announced that the FBI would be investigating as to why the charges were dismissed.[76][77] On February 11, 2020, Smollett was re-indicted by Special Prosecutor Dan Webb on six counts of disorderly conduct for lying to the police.[78] A jury delivered its verdict on December 9, 2021, finding Smollett guilty on five of the six counts.[79]

In September 2019, Amari Allen, a black middle school student in Virginia, claimed that three male white classmates pinned her down on the playground and cut off "chunks" of her dreadlocks. According to Allen, the boys called her "ugly" and her hair "nappy." Her grandmother asked on national TV for the boys to be dismissed from the school. However, security camera footage did not corroborate her story and eventually Allen confessed that she had cut her hair herself.[80][81]

In December 2020 white "mom influencer" Katie Sorensen posted a video claiming that a Latino couple attempted to kidnap her two children at a Michaels store in Petaluma, California, claiming they had followed her inside and made comments regarding her children. After police determined the allegations were false Sorensen was charged with filing a false crime report. She was found guilty in 2023.[82]

In October 2021, Gil Ofarim, a German-Israeli singer-songwriter, posted a video on Instagram stating that staff at the Leipzig Westin hotel told him he'd only be admitted if he didn't wear his Star of David pendant. After dissemination of the video and protests outside the hotel, security footage showed Ofraim without such a pendant during the confrontation, and employees regarded him as antagonistic. Ofraim now faces charges for libel and false suspicion.[83][84]

In May 2022 in Gwent, South Wales, 11 year old Raheem Bailey claimed to have been the victim of a racist attack at his school, and that his finger was broken whilst scaling a fence to escape his attackers. Despite doctors attempts, the finger could not be saved and was subsequently amputated. A Gofundme was started by his mother Shantel and raised over £100,000 after the story gained worldwide attention, with the likes of Anthony Joshua, Jadon Sancho and US basketball player Gerald Green speaking out. After a 9 month long investigation by South Wales police force, it was concluded that Raheem left the school of his own accord and no-one else was involved in him injuring his hand.[85]