00:00 It was roughly six feet from top to bottom and it was cylindrical.
00:04 I only looked at it for a second or two.
00:06 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most famous Loch Ness Monster sightings.
00:12 We're including debunked sightings that nonetheless made waves with the public.
00:15 Is a massive creature actually lurking in the depths?
00:19 Number 8. Aldi Makai
00:22 Local pubs were full of stories of the mysterious beast.
00:27 But the legend of the Loch Ness Monster wasn't taken seriously until 1933.
00:31 The first article that evoked substantial public attention about a potential beast in the water
00:36 was written in 1933 by Loch Ness Water Bailiff, Alex Campbell.
00:40 It describes a sighting by Aldi Makai and her husband.
00:43 They claimed to have spotted a large creature in the water as they were driving by.
00:46 An excerpt from the article states that the creature "disported itself, rolling and plunging for fully a minute,
00:52 its body resembling that of a whale, and the water cascading and churning like a simmering cauldron."
00:57 And I yelled at my husband, "Stop! The beast!"
01:01 This was reportedly the first written use of the word "monster" to describe the creature.
01:05 While the legend of a beast in Loch Ness already had a long tradition,
01:08 this written account got rumors brewing rapidly.
01:11 And from there on, the monster myth and legend was created.
01:16 Number 7. Arthur Grant
01:18 While motorbiking home after midnight in 1934, veterinary student Arthur Grant saw the unthinkable.
01:24 According to him, a 15 to 20-foot-long creature with a small head on a long neck turned toward him,
01:30 then made two great bounds, crossed the road, and plunged into the loch.
01:34 A New York Times article covered Grant's detailed eyewitness account.
01:37 He called it a "hybrid between a plesiosaur and a seal,"
01:40 with large oval-shaped eyes, two front flippers, two rounded ridges on its back, and a long tail.
01:46 Following the incident, he produced a sketch.
01:48 Many more sightings of Nessie followed shortly thereafter.
01:51 Time magazine, among other media outlets, later wrote about Grant's sighting in a 1950 article.
01:56 Number 6. Anthony "Doc" Shields
01:59 Meet living Fortean legend and conjurer of sea monsters, Tony "Doc" Shields.
02:05 For 20 years, he's been summoning up sea serpents.
02:09 A showman, magician, and psychic entertainer got head-spinning with a clear image of Nessie in 1977.
02:15 But it turned out to just be another trick up his sleeve.
02:17 Anthony "Doc" Shields claimed to have been camping next to Urquhart Castle
02:21 when he summoned the beast out of the water.
02:23 The picture he took is now known as the Loch Ness Muppet, after experts have deemed it a hoax.
02:27 The photos of Nessie's appearance 24 hours later caused national headlines once again.
02:33 Skeptics doubted their authenticity, but nothing has ever been proved.
02:38 The lack of ripples in the water around the long neck and the overall staged appearance
02:42 have disqualified the photo as viable evidence of Nessie.
02:45 But it certainly sparked attention, as it made the front page of the Daily Mirror.
02:49 If you ask me if I faked the pictures of Morga and the Loch Ness monster,
02:52 I would have to truthfully reply to you, "No, I did not."
02:56 Number 5. Gordon Holmes
02:58 Nessie watcher and marine biologist Adrian Shine called himself a skeptical interpreter,
03:02 but described a 55-year-old man's Loch Ness video as some of the best footage he's seen.
03:07 In 2007, Gordon Holmes filmed what he said was a jet black thing about 45 feet long,
03:13 moving fairly fast in the water.
03:15 Just a few days after Holmes' sighting, STV News North Tonight interviewed him and aired the footage.
03:20 This footage was taken at the weekend by an amateur scientist who happened to spot a fast-moving creature
03:25 swimming across the world-famous loch.
03:27 The following day, BBC Scotland broadcast Holmes' video on their main news program.
03:32 As you can see from Gordon's footage, there is most definitely some type of large animal swimming across the loch.
03:38 Skeptics suggested the moving thing in the video could have been a seal or an otter.
03:42 Holmes' initial thought was that it could have been a very big eel.
03:45 Whatever the case may be, the video gained significant publicity
03:48 and gave Nessie believers another sighting to point to.
03:50 This is probably the best footage up to this time of the so-called Loch Ness monster.
03:57 Number 4. George Spicer
03:59 While George Spicer and his wife were driving home from a summer vacation in 1933,
04:03 a long-necked creature allegedly crossed the road in front of the couple's car.
04:07 They estimated it to be 25 feet long.
04:09 It was just 50 yards in front of their car.
04:12 Mr. Spicer described it as the nearest approach to a dragon or prehistoric animal that he'd ever seen in his life.
04:19 In the 2010s, researchers would argue that his story was made up and inspired by the movie King Kong,
04:24 which was popular in Spicer's home city of London during the summer of his account.
04:28 [Music]
04:34 Still, in 1933, an article about the sighting sparked immense public interest
04:39 and led to an increase in subsequent sightings.
04:41 It got more people considering the possibility that Nessie could be found not just in the water, but also on land.
04:46 The story spread like wildfire, and an army of journalists descended on the Loch.
04:52 Number 3. Gary Campbell
04:54 Gary a manager for an insurance company, Gary Campbell was doing paperwork by the water in 1996 when something caught his eye.
05:00 And I was looking out in the water and I saw this black hump coming out and I thought, "Hmm."
05:05 He described it as a black hump that appeared, disappeared, re-emerged, and then vanished back into the water.
05:11 First time around I thought, "Well, I was seeing something." But then the second time, definitely something there.
05:16 His immediate reaction, in his words, was, "I've seen it! Good grief! After all these years being here and then thinking,
05:21 "Heavens above! You know I've actually seen it!"
05:24 Campbell was absolutely convinced it was a big creature, not a seal, not a fish, but the iconic Loch Ness monster.
05:30 The sighting inspired him to start the Loch Ness Fan Club and create an official register of Nessie sightings.
05:35 This demonstrated his conviction and gave other people platforms to learn more about noteworthy accounts.
05:40 We set up the Loch Ness Monster Fan Club, really to record all the sightings.
05:45 Number 2. Tim Dinsdale
05:47 While on his Loch Ness expedition in 1960, British cryptozoologist Tim Dinsdale recorded a moving object in the water.
05:54 He studied it through binoculars and was convinced it was a monstrous creature.
05:59 After being shown to others, the sighting was reported by the Daily Mail and the footage aired on the BBC's Panorama.
06:04 The recording became popular in the media. In 1966, it was analyzed by the Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Center.
06:11 The report concluded it was probably animate.
06:14 They concluded that the object in the film was probably animate.
06:17 This helped support Dinsdale's notion that what was caught on tape was Nessie.
06:21 Skeptics, of course, still had their doubts. The film has continued to spark conversation.
06:25 My opinion is simply that it has the appearance of a small boat.
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06:44 Number one, Robert Kenneth Wilson.
06:47 After being published in the Daily Mail in 1934, a photo credited to Dr. Robert Kenneth Wilson became the most iconic image of the elusive Loch Ness monster.
06:56 Immediately after the photo was published, the British public began speculating on the nature of this mysterious beast.
07:03 A 1975 Sunday Telegraph article reported that the picture was fake, but few took notice.
07:09 It wasn't until the 1990s that the story re-emerged and found a wider audience.
07:13 In 1933, the Daily Mail had commissioned big-game hunter Marmaduke Weatherill to track down Nessie.
07:19 But Weatherill fell for a hoax. Footprints made with a hippopotamus-leg umbrella stand.
07:24 Ridiculed, he enlisted the help of friends and family to create the surgeon's photograph as revenge, using a toy submarine and plastic wood.
07:31 Decades later, both his son and son-in-law came clean.
07:35 But in reality, it's just a picture of the model floating in the water.
07:39 Let us know in the comments what Loch Ness monster story is your favorite.
07:42 "Is it not possible, Mr. Campbell, that you're mistaken in this?"
07:45 "Not at all."
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07:54 [MUSIC]
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