Michael Joseph "Rocky" Ryan[1] (30 December 1937 – 15 January 2004) was a British media hoaxer, who became known in the UK for providing newspapers with numerous stories that turned out to be fabrications.
He began his series of hoaxes in the mid-1970s, he said, after one newspaper contacted the police (falsely) claiming he was Donald Neilson, known as the Black Panther, the armed robber and murderer.
[1] Ryan used numerous aliases, showing an ability with accents,[3] when he gave stories to the press, including Major Travis, Peter Bernstein, David Oppenheimer, and Rocco Salvatore.
[4] Other stories concocted by Ryan included his claim to The Sun that the kidnapped racehorse Shergar was alive and well and living in Jersey, and telling the same newspaper Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, was being allowed out of Broadmoor to attend discos.
[1] Another newspaper published a false story about Koo Stark, a former girlfriend of Prince Andrew, which led to a libel action and the award of £300,000 in damages.