In 1979, legendary hoaxer Alan Abel staged a tragic accident on the slopes outide the Sundance Ski Lodge. A fake funeral director from a fake funeral home later arrived at the lodge to collect Abel's belongings and an actress posing as his widow called to notify the Times.

Fact checkers with the Times called the lodge and the funeral home before writing his obituary: "Alan Abel, a writer... who specialized in satire and lampoons, died of a heart attack yesterday." Abel's obit was twice as long as that for the inventor of the six-pack, which appeared in the same paper.

Two days later, the Times published a correction: "An obituary in The New York TimesWednesday reported that Mr Alan Abel was dead. Mr Abel held a news conference yesterday to announce that the obituary was the result of a hoax."