Ghosts for sale

Here's the 2004 news story that novelist Gregory Frost forwarded me at the time with a note saying, in effect, "Someone should write a novel about this." (Caveat: Greg may not have sent this particular BBC News story, but this is definitely the same case, as I remember the grandson and the walking stick.) I didn't, and to my knowledge Greg didn't, but Joe Hill apparently did.

Granted, there have been similar kerfuffles involving other people and other "ghosts," and Hill may have been inspired by one of them, perhaps this later 2004 news story about a supposed bottle ghost in Ireland. This account had Michael Jackson's name attached, perhaps erroneously; at the time, Jackson tended to be invoked by the rumor mill whenever a rich eccentric was needed to give a story credibility. Howard Hughes fulfilled that same function in popular folklore, back when Jackson was a kid.

Alex Boese of the invaluable Museum of Hoaxes blogged about such things here and again here, but if the original sellers (as opposed to the countless imitators) believe in their merchandise, is "hoax" the right word?