# Real-life events that seem fictional **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 17, 2016, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-events-that-seem-fictional/766184 "2016-09-17T18:49:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-events-that-seem-fictional/766184/41 "2016-09-19T05:28:08Z")
> [@Lok](#): > > Well, there is the fact that the first Native American to greet the pilgrims did so in English. His name was [Samoset](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoset?wprov=sfla1). His English wasn’t so good, so he went and got a different Native American, [Squanto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squanto?wprov=sfla1), whose English was better because he had been taken to England. As a slave. > > What editor would allow that in a novel? Not only that, Samoset asked the Pilgrims for some beer. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-events-that-seem-fictional/766184/42 "2016-09-19T12:49:55Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > The 9/11 attacks definitely had something Hollywood-ish or movie-like to them, and a friend commented a few days after the attacks that it felt like watching a Hollywood-type action/conspiracy movie. The Onion agreed with you. Shortly after the attacks, they published an issue that included this brilliant front-page article: [American life turns into bad Jerry Bruckheimer movie](http://www.theonion.com/article/american-life-turns-into-bad-jerry-bruckheimer-mov-220) The article includes two real-life pictures that do indeed look like over-the-top Hollywood special effects. The text was a masterpiece, simultaneously comical and terribly sad. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-events-that-seem-fictional/766184/43 "2016-09-19T13:22:44Z")
> [@Sefton](#): > > The whole [Anthony Weiner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Weiner) fiasco. He could have been a prominent politician, but he just couldn’t resist the temptation to send women pictures of his genitalia. Who would publish this tale with the protagonist having that last name? What about Ann Rule getting a contract to write a tale about the disappearances and murders of several young women, when there were no suspects as to who was doing these crimes (and the term “serial killer” had not yet been coined?). And it turns out she was friends with the killer Ted Bundy. No publisher would believe that one. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-events-that-seem-fictional/766184/44 "2016-09-19T13:31:04Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Who would publish this tale with the protagonist having that last name? > > What about Ann Rule getting a contract to write a tale about the disappearances and murders of several young women, when there were no suspects as to who was doing these crimes (and the term “serial killer” had not yet been coined?). And it turns out she was friends with the killer Ted Bundy. > > No publisher would believe that one. I love the part of the story where her daughter worries in the presence of Bundy that she’ll be victim to this mysterious killer, and he assures her that it won’t happen to her. Real life dramatic irony. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-events-that-seem-fictional/766184/45 "2016-09-19T14:23:14Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > The moon landing. I was going to say that. I was 11 years old. I knew the truth about Santa Claus. I knew about sex. I watched the moon landing with my parents, waiting for someone to yell, “gotcha”. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-events-that-seem-fictional/766184/46 "2016-09-19T15:22:18Z")
> [@tuesdayweld](#): > > How about Ed Gein from Wisconsin - I don’t want to google him (because I want to sleep tonight!) - but if I am recalling correctly he was a murderer and a grave re-digger (if that is a word) who I believe was said to have made home decor (lampshades, etc…) from victim’s corpses as well a “holiday sausage” which he gave as gifts to neighbors. Now that is out there! Don’t think David Lynch or even the Coen Bros could have come up with that one. > Wisconsin also had Dahmer… But in “reverse”, he inspired at least three movie killers: Norman Bates, Jame Gumb and “Leatherface”. I’m always struck by how much he looks like my dad! :eek: JAQ: grew up 30 miles from Gein’s home, and our local courthouse was where the trial was. ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-events-that-seem-fictional/766184/47 "2016-09-19T19:36:29Z")
Kurt Warner, Cinderella story, out of nowhere, former Arena League QB, now about to become the Super Bowl champion! [ol] [li]1-year starter at D-IAA Northern Iowa[/li][li]Undrafted, goes to Arena League[/li][li]Gets picked up by the Rams, a doormat for decades[/li][li]Hyped QB goes down, becomes the starter of 4-12 team[/li][li]Has record numbers, wins NFL MVP[/li][li]Wins Super Bowl, setting records and winning the MVP[/li][li]A few years later, nearly does the same thing with the Arizona Cardinals, another historic doormat [/li][/ol] ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-events-that-seem-fictional/766184/48 "2016-09-19T20:42:16Z")
The wartime exploits of Audie Murphy were so ridiculously heroic that they had to tone it down for the movie because they figured audiences wouldn’t believe it. He made Captain America look like a wuss. Murphy was a hero of ludicrous accomplishment before the events at Colmar Pocket, which sound like something out of a Chuck Norris movie. Murphy won literally every medal for valor the US Army had, and won some from other countries as well. At first Murphy couldn’t get into any branch of the armed services because he was too small and too young, so he got his sister to make him a phony birth certificate and talked his way past the fact he was 5’5" (at best.) During the Italian campaign Murphy, on multiple occasions, proved himself to be something of a genius on the subject of killing Germans. He survived one ambush and killed a number of Germans, the killed Germans in tanks fror awhile - the Germans were in tanks, he was on foot - and then, finding that killing Germans was a bit too easy for him, started capturing them just to up the difficultly level. He did this in between bouts of malaria, by the way. Murphy went to France because there were more Germans there to kill and capture, which he did with continued alacrity. In his first action he personally, working alone, killed six men and captured eleven more. I don’t know how frightening you have to be to capture eleven men by yourself, but I would assume “extremely scary” does not quite do it justice. He continued killing Germans - again, often alone or with limited help, since I’d assume he didn’t need it - until he was wounded by a mortar shell, which only increased his appetite for carnage and less than three weeks later he personally took out a machine gun nest and seven more enemies. By now they made him an officer, because at this point even people in the Allied armies were scared of him. In late October he was shot but killed the sniper and took two more prisoners. Murphy was by now more or less permanently injured, so of course he went back to the front in search of more Germans to kill. This eventually led him to his Stallone moment, when, after an M10 tank destroyer had been hit by German anti-tank fire and set on fire, Murphy decided the burning vehicle would be an excellent place for him to shoot Germans from. He fought advancing Germans off for over an hour while wounded, killing dozens of them and being dragged away only when he ran out of bullets. But as there were still Germans left to kill, he then got some men, a new weapon, and led a successful counterattack. Murphy was asked why he had engaged in what appeared to be a succession of suicidally insane stands against the attacking Germans and just replied “They were killing my friends.” Fortunately for Germany, the war ended. ---
**Author:** ![Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d9b06d/32.png) [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boozahol_Squid_P.I)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-events-that-seem-fictional/766184/49 "2016-09-19T21:00:04Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > [Alcibiades.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcibiades)His story sounds literally incredible. If George RR Martin wrote it, you’d be rolling your eyes at how contrived it all was. That Wikipedia article doesn’t really even mention the gigantic (only occasionally requited) crush Socrates had on Alcibiades. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-events-that-seem-fictional/766184/50 "2016-09-19T21:45:03Z")
[The Baltimore Jail story](http://www.vice.com/read/the-illicit-ventures-of-the-black-guerrilla-family-in-the-maryland-prison-system-1208) > [@](#): > > How the Black Guerrilla Family Turned Maryland’s Prison System into Their Personal Playground ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-events-that-seem-fictional/766184/51 "2016-09-20T00:11:25Z")
Take one of the richest people in the world, someone who got his fame from flying around the world and building the world’s largest plane, building up airline companies, being a major player in Las Vegas, and even directing some big movies. Then have him go crazy and lock himself into a virtual prison, thinking the outside world was going to kill him, leaving his vast fortune in dispute. No one would make up Howard Hughes’ life story. Steve Jobs could be another story, since his belief in alternate medicine allowed his cancer to be spread instead of being treated. Write this as a novel with eccentric, brilliant character who hastens his own demise, and no one would believe it. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-events-that-seem-fictional/766184/52 "2016-09-20T00:17:36Z")
This thread reminds me of a story by Harry Turtledove about a time traveler who goes to the 1950s; she makes a living selling some SF stories that haven’t been written yet - but also by writing near-future stories with unlikely plotlines, named “Watergate,” “Tet Offensive,” and “Houston, We have a Problem.” The story’s name is Hindsight ---
**Author:** ![GoodOmens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@GoodOmens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOmens)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-events-that-seem-fictional/766184/53 "2016-09-20T00:26:21Z")
The DB Cooper incident could easily occur in a movie. It would make an awesome introduction to a story of intrigue and mistaken identity. The Max Headroom broadcast intrusion incident seems like it came right out of Mr. Robot. The Tunguska event could show up in a summer blockbuster. MH-370. ---
**Author:** ![SpeedwayRyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@SpeedwayRyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpeedwayRyan)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-events-that-seem-fictional/766184/54 "2016-09-20T13:45:44Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > I don’t know how many of you remember [Baghdad Bob](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfAeMtcURg0) from the first Iraqi war, but that man was his own SNL skit. Assuming that “first Iraqi war” means Desert Storm-era Gulf War, Bob’s fame came much later, in the 2003 Iraq invasion. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-events-that-seem-fictional/766184/55 "2016-09-20T13:55:12Z")
I was just reading about the Clipperton Island tragedy: > **[Oddlyhistorical.com is for sale | HugeDomains](https://www.hugedomains.com/domain_profile.cfm?d=oddlyhistorical.com)** > > Choose a memorable domain name. Professional, friendly customer support. Start using your domain right away. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-events-that-seem-fictional/766184/56 "2016-09-20T22:34:46Z")
[Roald Dahl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl) lived a life you could not make up. Especially how he fell into writing, having a story bought by the Saturday Evening Post for $1,000 in 1942 ---
**Author:** ![Bumbershoot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbershoot/32/3428_2.png) [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2016, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-events-that-seem-fictional/766184/57 "2016-09-21T13:00:46Z")
We had [a thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=793557&highlight=shackleton) a while back about [Ernest Shackleton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Shackleton), whose Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition surely qualifies. His ship the _Endurance_ became trapped in pack ice and eventually broke apart and sank. The 28-man crew lived on the ice for months before using the lifeboats to get to Elephant Island. Shackleton and five others then made an 800 mile journey across the Southern Ocean to South Georgia Island, followed by a 36 hour trip over rugged mountains to a whaling station on the other side of the island. Eventually a rescue party made it back to the rest of the crew on Elephant Island. Not a single life was lost. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2016, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-events-that-seem-fictional/766184/58 "2016-09-21T16:11:59Z")
Billy Maharg was a big league ballplayer, playing exactly two games over a five year career, both under unique circumstances. The first time was the only game in history in which amateur players were suited up to replace major leaguers who went on strike. The second time, he was the team bus driver, and as a reward, they let to play the last game of the hapless season. The story gets stranger. Maharg is Graham spelled backwards, and of the handful of players who played only one inning of MLB, Moomlight Graham was the most celebrated of them, having been portrayed in the movie “Field of Dreams”. Not to be outdone, Maharg was also biographically portrayed in the picture “Eight Men Out”, both of them in roles of their post-career personas. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2016, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-events-that-seem-fictional/766184/59 "2016-09-21T16:32:54Z")
I gotta go with the Challenger explosion. The publicity behind the Teacher in Space The veiled threats to get Morton Thiokol to give the go-ahead The investigation that started as a clear NASA campaign The famous scientist being led by people in the dark to the truth The uncovering of the NASA culture of “Well it never blowed up before so we’re safe.” And [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rwcbsn19c0) as the closing scene. Dan Brown wishes he could write this. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2016, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-events-that-seem-fictional/766184/60 "2016-09-21T16:42:06Z")
> [@Bumbershoot](#): > > We had [a thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=793557&highlight=shackleton) a while back about [Ernest Shackleton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Shackleton), whose Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition surely qualifies. His ship the _Endurance_ became trapped in pack ice and eventually broke apart and sank. The 28-man crew lived on the ice for months before using the lifeboats to get to Elephant Island. Shackleton and five others then made an 800 mile journey across the Southern Ocean to South Georgia Island, followed by a 36 hour trip over rugged mountains to a whaling station on the other side of the island. Eventually a rescue party made it back to the rest of the crew on Elephant Island. Not a single life was lost. Along those lines. The movie K2 based on a real story (good movie BTW). The Everest debacle with the half frozen neurosurgeon who half thawed out at the end. Howard Hughes, the Glomar Challenger and the sunk Russian nuclear sub. Some other mountain climbing movie were a guy was left for dead by his partner in the middle of nowhere and spend 3 days crawling/sliding down to camp and lost about half his body weight in the process. Most of the Manhattan project. The WWII bat bomb project. The Mutiny on the Bounty. Captian and other officers/suck ups left in a ROWBOAT in the middle of the ocean. Captian and crew row thousand of miles, find shelter, eventually get back to England and the next year the Captain hunts down all those scally wags that screwed him over. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-events-that-seem-fictional/766184.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-events-that-seem-fictional/766184.md?page=4)