Martian Monkey

In 1953, young Atlanta barbers Edward Watters and Tom Wilson, along with butcher Arnold Payne, took a dead rhesus monkey[1] and removed its tail, applied large doses of hair remover and used green food coloring to make the corpse of the monkey appear abnormal.

[4] They claimed that they had hit the dead one with their truck and the other creatures had left in their flying saucer, which is what caused the scorch marks.

As a result, the Atlanta Police Department received constant phone calls after news of the story broke, with multiple residents adamant they had seen the flying saucer that the pranksters described.

[3] The hoax was discovered hours after the event by Herman Jones and Emory University anatomy professor Marion Hines.

"[3] The Martian Monkey is now on display in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation mini-museum, along with other notable items, such as an illegal moonshine still and the fibers that solved the Atlanta child murders.