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traumatic injuries, but lived. Downs was convicted in the case and sent to prison. The prosecutor and his wife adopted the two remaining Downs children.342
Consider the case of Susan Smith:
On October 25, 1994, a surly black man wearing a dark ski mask stopped a compact car in a small South Carolina town, forcing the white woman out of the vehicle, kidnapping her two young children, and driving away. The woman appeared on national television to plead for the safe return of her toddlers. The woman was Susan Smith.343
Smith was found to have fabricated her tale when in reality she had drowned her two young sons by strapping them into their car seats and rolling her vehicle into a nearby lake. A savvy Sheriff, Howard Wells, quickly found holes in her story and was able to get her to confess to the hoax, the crime, and the location of the car that had become the watery grave for the two Smith boys.
One of the most infamous and outrageous racial hoaxes was that of Tawana Brawley.344 In late November 1987, Tawana Brawley, a fifteen-year old black girl from Wappinger Falls New York, left her house early one morning planning to ditch school and visit her incarcerated boyfriend. That evening, she was hesitant to return home because she was afraid of the wrath of her criminal stepfather, Ralph King. Tawana Brawley finally embarked on a journey home, taking the last bus from her boyfriend’s family’s house. She knew the bus driver who was a friend of her stepfather. She got off the bus and called home. Her mother, Glenda, was furious
342 The complete story of Diane Downs can be found in Ann Rule’s book Small Sacrifices: A True Story of Passion and Murder, Penguin Putnam, Inc., New York, 1988.
343 Gary Alan Fine and Patricia A. Turner, Whispers on the Color Line, Rumor and Race in America, University of California Press, Berkeley, California, 2001.
344 Details of the Tawana Brawley affair are cited from the book Outrage, the Story Behind the Tawana Brawley Hoax, by Robert, D. McFadden, Ralph Blumenthal, M.S. Farber, E. R. Shipp, Charles Sturm and Craig Wolff of the New York Times, Bantam Books, New York, 1990.
Object Description
| Title | An argument for the criminal hoax |
| Author | Pellegrini, Laura A. |
| Author email | user1963@yahoo.com; teachpolsci@yahoo.com |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Political Science |
| School | College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2008-08-20 |
| Date submitted | 2008 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2008-10-13 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Renteln, Alison Dundes |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Wong, Janelle S. Newland, Chester A. |
| Abstract | Hoaxes are part of the fabric of history. While many provide humor and lighthearted joy, the criminal hoax does not. To date, researchers have included aspects of the criminal hoax in larger academic works. This is an original typology that sets forth the criminal hoax as a distinct part of the larger field of law and public policy. This work provides newly created definitions including four distinct categories of hoaxes: the monetary hoax, the attention getter hoax, the hate crime hoax and the racial hoax. It further illustrates these types with actual detailed accounts of hoaxes and provides insights to each one. It makes policy recommendations concerning the four categories of needs: 1. legislative action, 2. a nationwide statistical database of hoax events, 3. media involvement, and 4. law enforcement training and action to deal with criminal hoaxes. Finally, it recommends further research to identify the causes and motivations of vipers. The ultimate goal of this project is to find ways to eliminate criminal hoaxes. |
| Keyword | criminal hoax; hoax categories |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m1659 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Pellegrini, Laura A. |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-Pellegrini-2397 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume26/etd-Pellegrini-2397.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 121 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 115 traumatic injuries, but lived. Downs was convicted in the case and sent to prison. The prosecutor and his wife adopted the two remaining Downs children.342 Consider the case of Susan Smith: On October 25, 1994, a surly black man wearing a dark ski mask stopped a compact car in a small South Carolina town, forcing the white woman out of the vehicle, kidnapping her two young children, and driving away. The woman appeared on national television to plead for the safe return of her toddlers. The woman was Susan Smith.343 Smith was found to have fabricated her tale when in reality she had drowned her two young sons by strapping them into their car seats and rolling her vehicle into a nearby lake. A savvy Sheriff, Howard Wells, quickly found holes in her story and was able to get her to confess to the hoax, the crime, and the location of the car that had become the watery grave for the two Smith boys. One of the most infamous and outrageous racial hoaxes was that of Tawana Brawley.344 In late November 1987, Tawana Brawley, a fifteen-year old black girl from Wappinger Falls New York, left her house early one morning planning to ditch school and visit her incarcerated boyfriend. That evening, she was hesitant to return home because she was afraid of the wrath of her criminal stepfather, Ralph King. Tawana Brawley finally embarked on a journey home, taking the last bus from her boyfriend’s family’s house. She knew the bus driver who was a friend of her stepfather. She got off the bus and called home. Her mother, Glenda, was furious 342 The complete story of Diane Downs can be found in Ann Rule’s book Small Sacrifices: A True Story of Passion and Murder, Penguin Putnam, Inc., New York, 1988. 343 Gary Alan Fine and Patricia A. Turner, Whispers on the Color Line, Rumor and Race in America, University of California Press, Berkeley, California, 2001. 344 Details of the Tawana Brawley affair are cited from the book Outrage, the Story Behind the Tawana Brawley Hoax, by Robert, D. McFadden, Ralph Blumenthal, M.S. Farber, E. R. Shipp, Charles Sturm and Craig Wolff of the New York Times, Bantam Books, New York, 1990. |
