In 18th-century England, if a widowed man was to marry his wife's sister, it was considered incest by law. In 1760, William Kent did just that, eloping with his sister-in-law, Fanny Lynes, shortly after the death of his wife. Hoping to live in anonymity in the bustling city of London, they rented a room in a house on Cock Lane (stop snickering) that belonged to Richard Parsons and his young daughter. Parsons turned out to be a gambler and a drunken cad, who used his position to coerce Kent to lend him money, which Parsons seldom repaid.

However, Fanny became friends with Parson's daughter, Elizabeth, and the two would sometimes sleep together in the same bed. One night, while resting with Elizabeth, Fanny heard an eerie scratching noise, which she assumed was the ghost of her sister warning her about some imminent danger. William and Fanny quickly moved out of the house for good and, not long after, Fanny died of smallpox.

William sued Parsons for the money he owed him — coincidentally, the scratchings once again haunted Parsons' house. This time, Parsons claimed it was the ghost of Fanny, who would only scratch around Elizabeth, because of their close friendship. Parsons claimed that Fanny was trying to tell everyone it wasn't smallpox that killed her, but ratherWilliam, who had poisoned her with arsenic.

When the story spread throughout England, Cock Lane grew crowded with tourists hoping to hear "Scratching Fanny." Parsons, slick weasel that he was, set up a gift shop and began charging admission to his house. Even the famous politician Sir Horace Walpole paid a visit. Unfortunately for Parsons, all this fame brought the attention of skeptics — plus, William Kent really wanted to clear his name. When investigators interrogated Parsons, he went full George Costanza and doubled down on his lie, announcing that Fanny would reveal more by tapping on the lid of her coffin.

The investigators went to the cemetery alone, waited all night by Fanny's coffin, and heard ... nothing. The story was declared a hoax and, when investigators pressed harder, they found that Elizabeth had been making the noises, by scratching on a wooden board hidden in her corset. For Parsons' shenanigans, he was sentenced to two years' prison. Elizabeth, meanwhile, was let off on the grounds that she was merely obeying her father.