Alison Hawes - The Biggest Lies Ever!

Badger Publishing Limited Oldmedow Road, Hardwick Industrial Estate, Kings Lynn PE30 4JJ Telephone: 01438 791037 www.badgerlearning.co.uk 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1 The Biggest Lies Ever! ISBN 978-1-84424-845-2 (second edition) 2013
ISBN: 9781781477182 (Epub)
ISBN: 9781781477878 (Mobi) Text Alison Hawes 2006 Complete work Badger Publishing Limited 2006 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any form or by any means mechanical, electronic, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. The right of Alison Hawes to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. We all tell lies sometimes. Lots of us tell little lies or fibs.

But some people, like the ones in this book, tell very big lies! In 2009, Richard and Mayumi Heene phoned the police in a panic. They couldnt find their six-year-old son! They thought he may have climbed into a helium balloon that they had launched from their garden. The police later found out that the boy was hiding in the familiys attic the whole time. A man named Ray Santilli claimed he had footage of an alien autopsy. A lot of people were fooled by the footage. In the 1800s a man named P.T. In the 1800s a man named P.T.

Barnum had a circus. He took his circus all over the USA. He made a lot of money from his circus by telling lies and playing tricks. He said he had a white elephant but it was a lie. Lots of people came to see the white elephant. But it was just an elephant he had painted white! He said he had a mermaid as well.

Lots of people came to see it. But it was just another lie! The mermaid was made out of a fish and a monkey! Lance Armstrong was one of the greatest road cyclists the world had ever seen. He won the toughest cycle race in the world the Tour de France SEVEN times in a row! He even came back to cycling after recovering from cancer. To many people Lance Armstrong was one of the greatest sporting heroes ever. Yet it was all a lie. Lance was a cheat! For years, he had been taking illegal drugs to help him become stronger and cycle faster.

In 2012 he was banned from cycling for life. All his Tour de France titles were taken away from him.

Con men tell lies. They tell lies that make people give them money! In the 1920s, there was a British con man who was very good at getting other peoples money. In 1925, he sold Big Ben to a man for 1,000.

He sold Nelsons Column to another man for 6,000. And he sold Buckingham Palace too! Then he ran off to the USA. There he sold the White House for $100,000. But the police got him in the end. He went to prison for five years. Frank Abagnale This con man is from the USA.

He lied about the jobs he could do. He said he was a pilot, a doctor, a lawyer and a teacher but he was not! He conned people out of more than $2 million! Eventually the police caught him and he was sent to prison. When he left prison he was given a job. That job is helping to catch con men like himself! A film was made about his life, called Catch Me If You Can!

People can tell lies, but photos can tell lies too. Look at these photos.

They are from the 1900s. Two girls took these photos of the fairies they saw. Some people said the photos were fakes. But lots of people were fooled by them! In the end, one of the girls said they had just cut out pictures of fairies and stuck them on pins! Today it is easy to fake photos by using a computer program to alter them. One day this man took a photo of himself and his daughters cat. He altered the photo on his computer to make the cat look as big as a dog! Then he sent it to his friends as a joke.

But someone put the photo on the internet. Soon everyone wanted to know if the giant cat was real. In the end, the man explained the photo was a fake and he had just made it as a joke. Then, he took another photo of himself holding the cat. But this time he did not alter it, so people could see what the cat really looked like. In 2001, this photo began circulating on the internet.

It shows a man on a ladder under a helicopter, being attacked by a great white shark! Many people thought it was a fake but some people were not sure. It was really a photo made from two photos put together. Sixty-five years earlier, in 1936, two men took this photo of a ghost on the stairs of a big house in Norfolk. The ghost is called the Brown Lady. But is it a ghost or is the photo a fake? Many people think it is a fake.