Robert B. Stein

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For the founder of The Voyager Company, see Robert Stein

Robert B. Stein (b. January 9, 1962) is a photographer, laundry supervisor and freelance hoaxer. He is best known for his work debunking photographic hoaxes.

[edit] Early Years

Stein's mother, a devout Roman Catholic, enrolled him in private Catholic schools during his first five years of education. "The result," Stein says, "is that I wasn't trained to be skeptical until I reached adulthood. Religion promotes absolutes: absolute faith in God and absolute obedience to authority figures. We were encouraged to do as we were told and to believe what we were told to believe. By its very nature, skepticism requires doubt. Most organized religions promote the lack of skepticism as a virtue." Stein later left the Catholic church for personal reasons.

Stein's Catholic education ended in 1973, when his family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma. At that time, there were no Catholic schools in Tulsa, so Stein was forced to attend public schools. Stein was able to expand his studies beyond the regimen dictated by religion. He exhibited aptitudes for mathematics, art and literature. Already a fan of the Star Trek TV series, he discovered the works of Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Jules Verne, H. P. Lovecraft, H. G. Wells and J. R. R. Tolkien. Stein developed a lifelong love of science fiction and fantasy fiction. Stein also developed a love of classic movies and has since become an influential film critic.

[edit] Career as a Hoaxer

As a teenager in the 1970s, Stein had a keen interest in the paranormal. He was especially fascinated by UFOs. In 1978, Stein set out to prove that UFO photographs could not be faked without expensive equipment. To his surprise, he found that he could create convincing UFO photographs with everyday objects and cheap Kodak and Polaroid pocket cameras. Usually, he would simply throw the objects into the air and photograph them in flight. For clearer shots, he would suspend them with threads and kneel to photograph them, creating the illusion that they were hovering above treetops or buildings.

For several years, Stein created UFO photographs and claimed to be a contactee. His pictures appeared in many publications devoted to the paranormal. Finally, in 1985, Stein grew tired of the deception and revealed how it was done. He has since published articles debunking the "surgeon's photo" of the Loch Ness Monster, the Patterson-Gimlin film of Bigfoot, the Cottingley Fairies, the anti-abortion video The Silent Scream and the 1995 alien autopsy video.

Stein later found that there was little, if any, scientific backing for paranormal studies. By the mid-1980s, however, he had become fascinated by the art of deception. An admirer of James Randi, Carl Sagan and Martin Gardner, Stein soon became an outspoken skeptic. The targets of his criticism have included many prominent UFO enthusiasts as well as the much-publicized faith healers Robert Tilton and Peter Popoff. Stein never makes personal attacks, preferring instead to rely on science and logic to support his arguments. A lifelong Bible student, Stein uses his thorough knowledge of religious doctrine to debate with faith healers and cult leaders.

During the 1989 Christmas season, a Texas newspaper hired Stein to write an exposé on charity fraud. To illustrate the principles of the scam, Stein bought a red metal bucket and a bell and stood on a street corner for five days. During that time, he collected over $3,000 in small bills and loose change. After the article was published, Stein publicly donated the money to the Salvation Army.

In 1994, Stein went to work for the Laundry Department at Scott & White Hospital in Temple, Texas. By 2001, he had been promoted to supervisor and placed in charge of linen deliveries. Stein became known as one of the staff's top practical jokers. He once programmed his supervisor's PC to simulate a core dump every time the game program Freecell was running. When a Christmas party was announced by e-mail, Stein sent a follow-up e-mail to all staff, saying that the party would have a "Harry Potter" theme. This prompted several hundred staff members to show up in costume.

During his tenure at the hospital, Stein became interested in patients' rights and became an advocate of the right to die, though he has never supported assisted suicide.

Stein often claimed that no area of the hospital was too secure for a delivery man to gain entrance. A security officer claimed that Stein would never be able to get into the morgue. Stein accepted the wager. He ordered a uniform shirt identical to the ones worn by patient transport personnel. Stein then forged a death certificate in the name of "Jane Deergirl" (i. e. "Jane Doe"). Finding a CPR dummy on a wheeled stretcher, Stein covered it with a blanket to make it resemble a real corpse. Impersonating a nurse, he called the morgue and reported the fictitious death. Several minutes later, wearing the patient transport uniform and pushing the covered dummy, he succeeded in entering the morgue. The deception was not discovered until two days later, when Stein, impersonating a county prosecutor, called the morgue to request an autopsy.

[edit] Current Activities

Stein continues to debunk hoaxes. He writes for several newspapers in central Texas, both as a film critic and as an expert on hoaxes and scams. Since the Scott & White laundry facility was taken over by Aramark in 2004, Stein has worked for the hospital in other capacities.