Looking at Most Haunted

BadPsychics:

The members of the BP forum were asked when they first realised Most Haunted was faked, here we take a look at the moments that convinced people their favourite show was indeed fake.

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At the The Holly Bush pub, Watling Street, Elstree, on Saturday 7th May 2005, Yvette Fielding made the following on-air statement:

"There is no acting that goes on in this programme, none whatsoever.

This statement by Yvette Fielding was born of desperation. Desperation at the constant criticism surrounding the shows, and desperation that the Antix company was leakier than the proverbial sieve.

Elstree Most Haunted Live came only six weeks after the Bodmin Gaol episode had been aired, and heated discussions regarding Acorah's honesty versus faking possessions were still raging across the internet.

For many people Bodnin's Kreed Kafer (anagram of Derek faker), to be closely followed by Prideaux Place's Rick Eedles (anagram of Derek lies) was their Eureka! moment - that moment when they realised that they had been conned by a fraud.

For others the Eureka! moment came at different points, and what follows are three of those requested by viewers.

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JACOB HILLS MHL
Jack the Ripper

Day one of the unproductive three-day 'search for Jack the Ripper' dawned with the revelation in the Mirror newspaper that Ciaran O'Keeffe was the creator of the 'Kreed Kafer' and 'Rik Eeedles' anagrams that had previously trapped Acorah!

In the Commercial Tavern, Spitalfields, London, Acorah became 'possessed' by a baddun - yet another 'spirit' strangely reluctant to answer Yvette's questions after going to all the bother of getting on television.

So what information did the 'spirit' provide?

His name was Jacob Hills

This rather unlikely name could, of course, be explained easily - according to those who worship at Acorah's feet. He must have been a slave who had been given an English name by his master!

FACT: Since 1772 it had been illegal for individuals to be enslaved in Britain. The Slave Trade Act become law on 25th March, 1807, nineteen years before Hills was born, and the Abolition of Slavery Act, which prohibited slavery throughout the British Empire came into effect in 1833.

He was born in 1826, and was stabbed to death aged 47 ... or 70...

Depending on which age you choose the date of death would be 1872-4... or 1895-7.

FACT: The only death recorded around the correct times was a 60-year-old Jacob Hills, in 1896, but that was at Tunbridge, Kent.

He was a Nigerian sailor

FACT: This is where Acorah made his fatal error!

Nigeria did not exist as a country until 1914, so no Nigerian sailors in the 19th Century.

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