Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Snow Hill Massacre


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was speedily deleted by User:CactusWriter under criterion G12. (Non-admin closure)  " Pepper "  @ 10:46, 23 October 2012 (UTC)

Snow Hill Massacre

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Reason ProjectXRay (talk) 23:56, 22 October 2012 (UTC) The sole source for this article is a website: http://snowhillhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com/

The text on this Wikipedia page is copied verbatim from a page on the site: http://snowhillhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com/the-snow-hill-massacre/

The site, although supposedly that of 'Snow Hill Historical Society' only contains an account of the supposed massacre and it's background and aftermath. Googling this supposed massacre only supplies links to this Wikipedia page the afformentioned 'Snow Hill Historical Society,' and pages dedicated to the 1968 'Spaghetti Western' 'The Great Silence'. (which features a massacre at a Utah 'Snow Hill' as part of the plot).

The site: http://snowhillhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com/ contains, as part of the story a doctored version of the British Music Hall poster featured on Wikimedia Commons, with one of the so-called massacre protagonists' name 'Mr Josiah Savage' inserted in to it (in place of the original name 'Mr John Douglass') as proprietor, and the theatre's location changed from 'Shoreditch' to 'Smithfield' (alleged location of the fictitious gangsters' lair).

The original image can be viewed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1867_NationalStandardTheatre.jpg

The doctored version can be viewed here: http://snowhillhistoricalsociety.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/national_standard_smithfield1.jpg

Googling the web address: http://snowhillhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com/ brings up several references to it being suspected to be fake. So far I've been unable to find any evidence supporting this supposed event ever occuring,despite the fact it allegedly concerns one of the most violent mass-murders ever to have occurred in the city of London, alledgedly occurring in a crowded marketplace in front of many witnesses, with all eight bodies recovered by the police. The original source website for this article goes on to say that there was a riot directed against the alleged perpetrators of the crime on Friday 18th November 1887 (see: http://snowhillhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com/the-return-of-cutter-savage/ ) which apparently resulted in at least 23 deaths. I have been unable to find any evidence whatsoever of this riot, although there is substantial evidence for the 1887 'Bloody Sunday' riot in London on November 13th of the same year, which was notorious for the killing of only THREE protesters against coercion in Ireland. No article I've seen about the 13/11/1887 'Bloody Sunday' riots makes any reference to any subsequent riots the same week.

In short: This article on the 'Snow Hill Massacre' seems to be too good to be true because IT IS! Believe me, I was intrigued when I first read it and believed it to be true, but the moment I scratched the surface, it became obvious it was a hoax. There's no evidence to support it, and quite clear evidence of materials having been doctored in order to provide fallacious evidence to support a false story. I don't know the motive behind this hoax but it's definitely fake. There never was a 'Snow Hill Massacre' (ProjectXRay (talk) 00:34, 17 October 2012 (UTC)
 * Automated comment: This AfD was not correctly transcluded to the log (step 3). I have transcluded it to Articles for deletion/Log/2012 October 23.  Snotbot   t &bull; c &raquo;  00:11, 23 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Delete Not the best hoax I've ever seen, but a hoax nonetheless. Dcfc1988 (talk) 01:12, 23 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Speedy delete Looks like this will be a textbook case of copyvio anyway. I, Jethrobot  drop me a line (note: not a bot!) 03:07, 23 October 2012 (UTC)


 * 'Delete - Hoax alarm buzzing. Carrite (talk) 07:08, 23 October 2012 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.