A Cleveland museum's prized wad of hair -- originally thought to have belonged to Amelia Earhart -- has been outed as a fake.The discovery came after the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, a group of scientists searching for the vanished pilot's remains, borrowed the "hair" from the International Women's Air and Space Museum (IWASM) for use as DNA evidence in their search. When the researchers at the nonprofit tried to extract genetic material from the clump, they were dismayed to discover that the material wasn't biological at all -- it was thread. (Uh, whoops.)
The Ohio museum inherited the "hair" 20 years ago from the Smithsonian Institute, which had received it as a donation from a Pennsylvania man decades earlier. The man claimed that it was the "unruly curl" referenced in an Earhart biography, allegedly clipped just before her ill-fated attempt to fly around the world in 1937.
Toni Mullee, the executive director of IWASM, said that the museum was "disappointed," but that they planned to keep the clump in the Earhart exhibit.
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Tuesday 20 October
By dcc10n
This is great, keep the threat in her exhibit for what, so people can know how gullible you are?
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Tuesday 20 October
By fred
My hair is absolutely authentic. It's available to most museums for $100- 150 per lock depending on size.
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Tuesday 20 October
By dcc10n
This is great, keep the thread in her exhibit for what, so people can know how gullible you are?
Sorry for the spelling error in my first comment.
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Tuesday 20 October
By Karen Anne
No, but they might want to keep it WITH a disclaimer that it was given to them BY the Smithsonian and how even that lofty institution can be fooled, etc. Use it as a learning example.
I'VE been waiting for someone to slam OHIO for this, when all they did was accept something from the Smithsonian and assumed THEY knew what was what! Strange that it's taken till now for anyone to even check it at all! Just how realistic is this "thread" that everyone assumed it was real hair? I've never seen thread that realistic!
Tuesday 20 October
By lynn
actually- i've been following this story on other venues all day and some of your information is incorrect. listen to NPR for details.
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Tuesday 20 October
By ronnie
You go to NPR for facts??? All you get there is left wing ideology
or news with lots of liberal spin.
Tuesday 20 October
By Q-BEATER
They are not very bright at that museum!!,,,,Doctor Livingston I presume,,,
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Tuesday 20 October
By John F. C. Taylor
WW II veterans captured by the Japanese know all about Amelia. They saw her plane and brief case on Guam[?] years after her "disappearance". The evidence was destroyed only after the Japanese realized that the prisoners had seen it. Considering the Japanese propensity for executing prisoners, I'm surprized that the men who saw the evidence weren't eliminated along with everything else.
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Tuesday 20 October
By Jesse Jackson
I dun be savin mah pubes fer 30 years...both from me body an also from duh bitches an hoes dat I been wif. Please put dem in yer muesum...... I will swap dis here hair fer a new Lincoln or Caddy wif 24 inch rims. Sincerely, Rev. Jesse Jackson, leaduh o duh blacks.
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Tuesday 20 October
By Kateymac
First let me say, I do not like Jesse Jackson. However, this post is disgusting. Whoever put it up here should be banned from ever posting anything again.
Tuesday 20 October
By stephensg351
just toss it already how ridiculous!
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Tuesday 20 October
By John
The story that the Japanese confined Amelia Earhart and beheaded he navigator was discarded years ago. An author claimed to have talked to a dozen local people about a white man who was beheaded and a white woman who died of dysentary while in custody. When other reporters went back and spoke to the same local people, the locals denied ever having said this or ever seeing a white woman in Japanese custody. Look it up....
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Tuesday 20 October
By jack
I LIKE IT WHEN MY MOM BAKES COOKIES!
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Tuesday 20 October
By Don
Why would the museum want to keep the bogus hair on display? Do they hope if enough time passes people will forget it's fake?
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Tuesday 20 October
By Sparcman
This is incredible! They have decided to keep the "wad of thread" as an actual artifact? This is EXACTLY like what they are doing with the evolution crap and then expect all to believe it . Take Piltdown man , for example. Found in a gravel pit in Sussex England in 1912, this fossil was considered by some sources to be the second most important fossil proving the evolution of man—until it was found to be a complete forgery 41 years later. The skull was found to be of modern age. The fragments had been chemically stained to give the appearance of age, and the teeth had been filed down! But did we ever hear anything about being fake? Nope.
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Tuesday 20 October
By Kurt
i'm still under the asumption that Amelia was abducted by Aliens and wisked away...her plane and everything...
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Tuesday 20 October
By RKL
Please......she was captured and killed by the Japanese; they just don't have the stones to admit it. Making war against a woman is dishonorable in their culture and they are ashamed. End of story.
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Wednesday 21 October
By jane Doe
Gee Whiz! Makes one wonder, where ever you go at a museum, what "is real?"
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Wednesday 21 October
By Carla
Museum curators: I know you're not used to the media reading your press releases, but they noticed this one. Take the thread out of the exhibit.
http://carlaspeaks.wordpress.com
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