Hoaxer Anna Ayala

Note: Many a person has come to public attention by way of a hoax. Some of these hoaxes draw national attention; others become only local or regional stories.

The best hoaxes are those that are completely innocent in that they test public credulity or deflate the pompous but don't try to profit financially nor do they injure another person or organization. Some hoaxes have considerable fallout, leaving angry people in their wake. Others delight and appeal to our enjoyment in having been fooled, so long as we are finally let in on the gag.

Hoaxes in America have been many. Ben Franklin pulled off his Polly Baker hoax, Richard Locke his Moon hoax, Edgar Allan Poe his balloon hoax, H.L Mencken his bathtub hoax, and Orson Welles his radio drama War of the Worlds, which wasn't intended as a hoax but functioned like one all the same.

The sample of hoaxers whose efforts are presented here all have done their pranks since the end of World War II. There are, of course, many other such pranksters and rascals who could be added to this sample.





In March 2005, Anna Ayala of Las Vegas claimed that while eating a bowl of chili at a San Jose, CA, Wendy's restaurant, she bit into a human finger. She indicated that she might sue and appeared on ABC's Good Morning America show.

The finger had actually belonged to a friend of Ayala's husband. It had been severed in an accident at an asphalt plant. The Ayalas had apparently cooked the digit before slipping it into the bowl of chili.

It soon came to light that Anna had been involved in a whole series of scam legal claims dating back to 1998. She pled guilty in the Wendy's case and received a nine-year prison sentence. Her husband got 12 years.