For more than seven years, an incredible story has been walking on the Internet about a professor of chemistry, who secretly lived in a laboratory hidden in the basement of a residential building for several decades. At the same time, he had a lot of weapons and drugs. We checked whether it really was.

The news about this scientist has been found on the network since 2015. According to numerous publications, the man was called Winston Corrigan and previously he worked at the University of Minnesota, but in 1984 he disappeared without a trace. They found him in more than thirty years, when he was already 83 years old. All this time he allegedly lived in a secret laboratory in the basement of a house, whose residents did not suspect such a neighborhood. Corrigan also found weapons, military rations, expensive scientific equipment and twelve barrels of LSD (three of them were empty) with a total volume of about 2500 liters.

So, in VKontakte in a few years placed about 50 posts that scored more than 100 likes, and 11 of them Received more than 1000 likes. Most of all the entries of communities "Against the system"(246,000 views) and"Ovsyanka, sir!"(256,000), where they collected 4000 and 8900 likes, respectively. At the same time, the exact period spent by the Corrigan in the basement differs: for example, in the post of 2015 in the public Mrzlk reported about 33 years (although only 31 years have passed since 1984), also since 2019 They wrote about 35 years, but more often all indicate Just "more than 30 years." Sometimes the photos attached to the notes are different: usually an elderly man in blue is shown in the picture, but sometimes It comes across And a mascot photo with the same person, but already in red. In addition to VK, the news can be found on other sites and sites, among which "Picabu" Livejournal And other.

IN Most early The same source of publications we have found is the same source-the now non-functioning site iflscience.org, where the news about the basement of the narcomancer appeared May 17, 2015. Below is our full translation of the original text.

A married couple from a Cottage-Groove in Minnesota found a man living in a hidden laboratory right in their basement. On Friday, May 15, 2015, after a call about the possible hacking, the office of the office of the Sheriff of the Urrington district went to the Morgan family's house. When the officers drove up, they saw Morganov standing by the road. “They ran to us and said that they heard the cries of a man in their basement, and then called in 911,” said Captain Bruce Normans.

According to the police, they heard a men's scream from the basement as soon as they entered the Morganov’s house, but when they carefully went down there, they didn’t notice anything. However, then the knocks were heard, echoing from the northern wall of the basement, where there was a large closet. “The situation was very strange. We suggested that a tramp who needed help could get behind the cabinet, ”said the officer Jim Katelly in the news on Channel 6.

Having shifted this large metal cabinet, police officers saw the entrance to a vast secret room. There were many different scientific equipment, also in the room was a frightened elderly man. It turned out to be 83-year-old Dr. Winston Corrigan, a chemistry professor from the Minnesotsky University, who was missing in the fall of 1984 (that is, he was considered the missing 31 years.-Approx. Ed.) And previously lived in this house. “He clearly lived there for a long time and suffered a serious psychological trauma, probably because for some time he did not communicate with anyone or due to taking a large number of drugs. I don’t know if he had lived there since the 80s, but I have no doubt about it, ”said the ambulance employee Landon Koler.

Currently, Dr. Winston is under surveillance in the Abbott of Northuster hospital in Minneapolis. Later he will be sent to the State Psychiatric Department in the Clinic "Perery Hills" to undergo a psychiatric examination to determine the degree of psychological damage. Perhaps in the end it will be returned to modern society. “I just can't believe it, it's so strange. The family, who used to live there, moved, because, according to them, ghosts were found in the house. I think it is now explainable, ”said the neighbor, who lived nearby for 33 years.

The police confiscated laboratory equipment stolen from the university worth more than $ 500,000, as well as three pistols, an assault rifle, military rations for a period of 50 years and twelve barrels of 55 gallons (approximately 208 liters. - Ed.), Along three almost empty ones. The drug control laboratory defined the contents as pure liquid dietylamide of lizerginic acid, a powerful hallucinogenic drug, popularly known as LSD or “acid”.

It is still unknown whether Dr. Winston will be convicted of any crime.

In fact, all this is invention, since iflscience.org is a satirical resource that has published fictional clicky stories. It could be very easily confused with a famous popular-popular portal Iflscience.com. In addition to almost identical names, this site and fakes were Similar designs and logos with different details. For example, IFLSCIENCE.ORG on the logo, which sometimes in posts Cut From the picture, instead of ordinary leaves of the plant, hemp was drawn, instead of a flask - UFO, and instead of a rocket - a dinosaur with a note "fake". On the satirical character ifLsciens.org hints and Slogan Site: "100% most-most official and much more scientific."

Comparison of logos Iflscience.org And Iflscience.com

The accompanying photo shows no Corrigan chemist. In the original, this is a 63-year-old stray man in a red named Gary Stanford Raub. In 2012 reportedthat he was arrested for the murder committed 36 years ago. According to reports The media, in 1976, in Maine, 70-year-old Blanche M. Kimball was killed, who received more than 40 stab wounds. As a result of the investigation, it turned out that the blood of another person was also present at the crime scene and on the murder tool. Before the murder of Raub, who previously The name was Gary Robert Wilson, was a guests in the Kimball house and at that time was considered a suspect, but there were no sufficient evidence to detain him. In 2011, he reappeared on the radar of the police, as he was involved in stab wounds to another homeless in Seattle. Then, under the cover, the policeman asked Raub to take part in the “study of chewing gum”, as a result of which his DNA was obtained, which coincided with the blood sample found in the Kimball house.