Real-Life X-Files: Investigating the Paranormal

5. Believe It or —— ?

~ Chapter 5 B81i8"'iJ8 It or --- ? One of myoId cases-solved twenty years ago-was never published. However, I recently rediscovered a souvenir ofthe investigation-a strange curio-at the bottom of a stored trunk. It has an interesting link to the "Believe It or Not" empire founded by Robert L. Ripley. Ripley (1893-1949) began his career by combining a love of athletics and drawing to produce a series of sports cartoons. One day in 1918, facing a deadline and lacking any other idea, he transformed some notes on unusual sports events into a cartoon panel headed "Champs and Chumps." His editor at the New York Globe liked all but the title, and soon "Believe It or Not" was launched. The changed title permitted a much broader selection of oddities, and the cartoon went from a weekly to a daily feature. In 1929, it began to be distributed by King Features Syndicate. Ripley's income skyrocketed, boosted by "Believe It or Not" books, radio programs, movies, "freak shows:' and other venues and ventures. Seeking out the weird, the grotesque, and the amazing, he traveled worldwide , earning the sobriquet the "Modern Marco Polo." According to a biographer, Ripley was his own greatest oddity: He lived it up, this strange, mixed-up man. He would own the most expensive foreign cars obtainable, but never summon up enough courage to drive. He would pioneer in transatlantic radio broadcasting, but he would never dial a telephone, because in his curious mind there lurked the suspicion that he might be electrocuted in the process. He consumed enormous quantities of liquor and may have set a record for amorous dalliance, but he considered smoking and card playing 38 f Real-Life X-Files evil and would have nothing to do with them. He was, to those who knew him best, the very personification ofshyness, but no contemporary matched him in flamboyance or in seeking notoriety. (Considine 1961,16) Although Ripley insisted that every "Believe It or Not" claim was true, his biographer observes: "The truth was that Ripley literally believed everything. He made flat statements such as 'Neils Paulsen, of Uppsala, Sweden, died in 1907 at the age of 160 and left two sons-one nine years old and the other 103 years of age: His sources were usually reprints ofold newspapers for items such as the long-lived Swede-rarely medical records, birth certificates, or such" (Considine 1961,56). In addition to claims based on flimsy evidence, some of Ripley's assertions were largely provocative. An example appeared beneath a portrait of William F. Cody: "Buffalo Bill Never Shot a Buffalo in His Life." Ripley's substantiation was that Cody actually slew bison. If readers felt they had been "had;' Ripley was all the more pleased (Considine 1961,51,54). Ripley began to amass a collection ofcurios from his travels, including shrunken heads, strange effigies, and other oddities, including (his reputed favorite) a "genuine" Fiji mermaid. In 1933, he displayed such items along with live performers at his "Odditorium" at the Chicago World's Fair. Its success led to shows at various fairs and expositions, and in time Ripley's Believe It or Not Museums-twenty-seven so far-have spread around the world (Kemlo 1997). My case began in the early 1970s at the Ripley museum in Niagara Falls, Canada. I used to visit it on my day off when I was Resident Magician at the nearby Houdini Magical Hall of Fame. (Admission at most Falls attractions was reciprocally free to employees.) I have always enjoyed the "Believe It or Not!" museums' displays, although I sometimes choose the "or Not" part of the equation. Such was my response to a particular item in the museum. It was a conical piece ofwood accompanied by a display sign describing "A cypress growth found in the swamps ofFlorida with the word RIP LEY written by nature." Obviously nature produces infinite random shapes that-given our tendency to make order out of chaos-we may perceive as recognizable forms, as by seeing pictures in clouds or envisioning images in ink blots. But the RIPLEY pattern seemed too good to be true. Each time I saw the object, I shook my head in disbelief and thought about how it might be scientifically examined or otherwise investigated. Believe It or --- ? After I left the Falls, I forgot about the mystery object until a few years later, in...