In April 1934 the quintessential photo of "Nessie," the fabled Loch Ness Monster, was allegedly snapped by a London gynecologist named Robert Wilson. Known as the "surgeon's photograph," it is the most often seen depiction of the creature, showing it with a long neck and small head, somewhat resembling a plesiosaur, silhouetted against the sunlit water. A second photo by Wilson was of relatively poor quality.

Over the years, Wilson seemed to tire of the controversy he had stirred up, telling one journalist that he made no claim as to having photographed a sea monster and that, moreover, he did not believe in the Ness creature. Subsequently, Wilson's youngest son "bluntly admitted that his father's pictures were fraudulent" (Binns 1984).

Then, in 1994 two Loch Ness researchers made news when they provided information that the photos were indeed a hoax, that they depicted a model made from a toy submarine to which had been affixed a neck and head fashioned of plastic wood (Nickell 1995). The researchers' source was the late Christian Spurling who, two years prior to his death in late 1993, told how the prank had been conceived by his stepfather, Marmaduke Wetherell, with Dr. Wilson agreeing to take the photos (Genoni 1994).