Throughout history, people believe what they want to, which makes it easier than it should be for con artists to pull of hoaxes like these seven.
On July 23rd, 1886, a man named Steve Brodie claimed to have survived jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge and survived. Several newspapers reported the event as fact (fact checking itself hadn’t been invented until the onset of World War II) and soon Brodie was known as the champion bridge jumper, which is a given when you consider most other people jump off of bridges to end their lives, thus removing themselves from the running. Brodie made his claim hoping to gain massive publicity and it worked. When the media frenzy was at its highest he opened a new and highly successful tavern.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by milos87.
I can identify. You won't believe some of the wild things I've survived claiming.
-T
Del The Cat was a witness when I did that trick . Exactly on my birthday
He is still looking for the other six hoaxes.