Loch Ness Monster Conspiracy Exposed | History's Greatest Mysteries (Season 4)

1934, the first photo of the supposed Loch Ness monster incites public frenzy and a torrent of tourists looking for Nessie. But not everyone believes the image, known as the surgeon's photo, is authentic. Dr. R. Kenneth Wilson, who submits this photo to the Daily Mail, claims that it's real. But others say, hold on, this is an elephant's trunk rising out of the water, or maybe it's a dolphin's fin or something else. What we do know is that the photo that's published is substantially cropped and zoomed in, which blurs the shape of the creature a bit and skews any sense of scale or perspective. But when some experts go back and examine the original uncropped photo, they see something entirely different. Seeing the uncropped version changes their perspective completely. They believe that whatever this beast is in the water isn't anywhere near 20 feet long. It's maybe three feet long, at the most. Is it possible that the most famous photo of Nessie is somehow doctored? People question the authenticity the moment this photo comes out in 1934. But many people still believe this thing is real. And there is no definitive proof otherwise. Then in 1994, the photo's whole provenance comes into question, thanks to a deathbed confession by a man named Christian Sperling. He claims that in 1933, his stepfather was hired by the Daily Mail to find evidence of the Loch Ness monster. Sperling is the stepson of a big game hunter and filmmaker named Marmaduke Duke Wetherill. So Duke goes on this expedition to Scotland. And it doesn't take him long to find these really large animal tracks near the banks of the loch. Judging from the size of the footprints, Duke estimates the animal to be at least 20 feet long. Wetherill sends plaster casts of the tracks to a London museum. When the results came back, they find that the tracks didn't come from a monster, but they came from a hippo. It sounds unusual because we all know that hippos do not come from that area. But back then, hippos' feet were used as umbrella holders and ashtrays. So it wasn't that uncommon. So one of two things is happening here. Either Duke faked the tracks, or someone was fooling him. The Daily Mail is not happy about either of these options, so the paper publicly ridicules him. According to Sperling's confession, Wetherill concocts a scheme to save his reputation. Duke goes to his stepson, who happens to be a model maker, and asks him to fabricate something that looks like the eyewitness descriptions of the beast. So using plastic, wood, and a toy submarine, they create this model of a creature with a long neck and a small head. And then Duke goes to the lock with his other son and creates that iconic photograph. But in reality, it's just a picture of the model floating in the water. Now Wetherill just needs a way to make the photo public. The perfect solution, the surgeon, Dr. R. Kenneth Wilson. Duke realizes the best way he could pull this off is if he finds someone trustworthy who can claim the photo as their own. So he passes the photo on to Wilson, the very same surgeon who publicizes the infamous photo. The surgeon's photo is really a game changer. It unleashes a torrent of tourism that still is going on till this day. Over the years, there are more fake photos of Nessie, all of them eventually debunked. Then in 2016, there's suddenly new evidence that suggests the monster could be real. Researchers from Kongsberg Maritime send an underwater drone deep into the lock to search for any evidence of the monster. And surprisingly, the sonar returns images of something that has the shape of the monster's head and neck. At first, this is big news. Until it's determined to be a prop from a movie. In 1969, a Sherlock Holmes movie was shot at the lock. In the movie, there's a scene where the Loch Ness monster attacks the heroes. But during the filming, director Billy Wilder takes a look at the monster prop and decides he does not like the humps on the back. So they remove the humps and accidentally cause the prop to sink to the bottom of the lock. There's a lot of fakery surrounding the Loch Ness monster. People love getting their 15 minutes of fame from this. Every Nessie sighting gets attention and people love getting attention. But the sheer volume of sightings throughout time can convince many that Nessie is real. We are talking about thousands of sightings and that's a conservative estimate. It could be tens of thousands over the course of 1,500 years. Before cameras, before Photoshop, before robotic toy submarines, sure, a few dozen sightings may be fake, but all of them, no way. A key piece of evidence for believers. A discovery in 1808, on the Scottish island of Stronsay, just 120 miles from Loch Ness. According to eyewitnesses, the corpse of a strange animal washes up on the beach and a crowd gathers to see it. It's the rotting carcass of an enormous unidentified sea beast and the locals have never seen anything like this. Eyewitnesses call it the Stronsay beast and describe it as having a serpentine-like body with a long neck and six limbs that resemble paws. They say its head is small like a sheep's and its eyes are similar to a seal's, but bigger. It has some short hairs around its head and neck and skin that is rough to the touch and grayish in color. The measurements they take show how gigantic this thing actually is. It's 55 feet long with its neck alone measuring 10 feet. Authorities document the creature and take sworn witness statements. This is the early 19th century, so they can't photograph it. But they also know the story won't be believed, so they need to prove it somehow. So they bring all the eyewitnesses to the capital where they can swear before a magistrate that what they saw is the truth. We still have these records along with drawings that they made. The carcass is quickly decomposing and they lack the right equipment to transport or preserve this massive animal, but they do take samples of the specimen. The skull is saved and sent to London for further examination. But unfortunately, it's destroyed during the Blitz in World War II. The vertebrae, on the other hand, are sent to leading anatomist John Barclay from Edinburgh's most successful school of anatomy. He concludes that this is unlike any other creature he's ever seen, opening the door to the possibility that this is a newfound species. The connection isn't initially made to the Loch Ness Monster because it's not the 1930s yet, so Nessie fever has not swept the nation. The legendary creature is not famous yet, but once it becomes famous, theorists realize, hold on, this might be the same animal. The fact that Stransay is just 120 miles from Loch Ness earns extra attention, and the physical description of the two creatures is strikingly similar. Gray skin, long neck, some kind of flipper-like appendages, small head. The only real major difference, I would say, is the size. The Stransay beast, according to those eyewitnesses, is much larger than anyone has ever claimed the Loch Ness Monster to be, nearly twice the size. That doesn't necessarily rule out the same species, though. Perhaps Nessie is just smaller. Or there's an even more compelling idea. What if the creature in Loch Ness is a younger specimen? What if the Loch is where these animals breed? It certainly happens. Salmon swim in all the way from the North Sea and breed in the River Ness and the Loch. It's an annual event. This may also explain the inconsistency of sightings. If that's the case, the animal breeds and raises its young in the Loch, but then it migrates out into the sea. So the reason people don't see it all that often is because it doesn't live in Loch Ness full-time. It's possible. Loch Ness and Stransay are actually connected by water. Both the Caledonian Canal and the River Ness connect the Loch to Rosemarque Bay, and ultimately, the North Sea. So it's entirely possible that whatever washed up on the Isle of Stransay is the same species as the Loch Ness monster.