The Fake Staten Island Ferry Octopus Disaster

Ever hear about the gargantuan octopus that dragged a New York City ferry and its 400 passengers to the river bottom nearly 53 years ago?

A cast bronze monument dedicated to the victims of the steam ferry Cornelius G. Kolff recently appeared in Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan, erected a stone's throw from a handful of other somber memorials to soldiers, sailors and mariners lost at sea or on the battlefield.

But if you can't recall the disaster it could be because the artist behind the memorial, Joseph Reginella, made the whole thing up.

The 250-pound monument, which depicts a Staten Island ferry being dragged down by giantoctopus tentacles, is part of a multi-layered hoax that also includes a sophisticated website, a documentary, fabricated newspaper articles and glossy fliers directing tourists to a phantom Staten Island Ferry Disaster Memorial Museum across the harbor.

Read More: Newsday