The so-called “Surgeon’s Photograph” is the best known image of the cryptid called the Loch Ness Monster (Nessie to her friends). It was taken by Robert Kenneth Wilson, a doctor and gynecologist who was, if not renowned, certainly a respectable member of society, and not the kind of person who would, say, participate in a large scale hoax to fake the existence of the creature and get a lot of money out of the press.
Appearances can be deceiving, however, and it turns out that Wilson and his co-conspirators were exactly those kind of people. Wilson was not even the actual photographer, but just a friend of the men who created the fake monster and took the shot, who it is said “enjoyed a good joke.” Wilson died in 1969, and the hoax was not exposed until 1994, so one assumes he spent the last 35 or so years of his life enjoying this very good joke a great deal.
