On this day in conspiracies

U.S. Patent No. 446,054 for a “Toy or Game” is granted to Elijah Bond, covering the board and planchette. The patent describes a device operated by the touch of the hand and makes no claim that it contacts spirits; it is protected as a novelty, not a paranormal instrument.

An 8-year-old boy digging on the Columbia River's Tena Bar finds three decaying bundles of ransom bills, totaling $5,800, with serial numbers matching Cooper's money.

Netflix releases Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel, a four-part docuseries directed by Joe Berlinger. It revives global interest, walks through the online theories, and documents the harm the amateur investigation did to an innocent man.

A federal court unseals the FBI affidavit, written by a special agent and prompted by a criminal referral from a former Trump campaign lawyer. Reporters and the Georgia secretary of state's office find it leans on complaints the state had already investigated, while omitting the state's conclusion that the errors did not change the count. Fulton County calls the basis recycled conspiracy theories and sues to recover the seized materials.

Bellingcat documents a related failure mode: users prompt AI chatbots to 'unblur' or 'enhance' portions of genuine documents and images, and the tools respond by inventing plausible-looking detail that was never there, generating fresh fakes from real source material.