ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 4, 1997 TAG: 9703040045
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: reporter's notebook
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA
Urban legends have gone high-tech and are zipping through electronic mail in the New River Valley faster than the town gossip "sharing information" at a Sunday afternoon tea.
My personal favorite was recently reignited by an e-mail message I was sent warning that - now brace yourself - business travelers are having their internal organs stolen!
The story - in one form or another - has become so pervasive that Reader's Digest did an article in June about how the rumor has spread worldwide; they called it "a lie that won't go away." They found evidence that journalists (gulp) printed the stories knowing they were false.
The myth that highly talented surgeons have gone underground to kidnap unwary citizens and steal body parts is just plausible enough to get passed on and on and on again. The Reader's Digest article cited an incident where an American tourist visiting Guatemala was attacked by an angry mob after she started snapping pictures of a native boy. The boy's mother and the mob believed the American was going to steal the boy and sell his organs.
I had not heard the myth until last summer when my 84-year-old great-aunt called to get me to check into this "great story" that she heard from a friend who heard it at, of all places, a Virginia Tech alumni meeting. In early February, I got the e-mail about business travelers being targeted - in particular in New Orleans.
Here's how the story goes: A Tech student traveled with five friends to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans in 1995 and got separated from the group after several hours of drinking. He opted to party while his friends returned to their hotel room.
The young man never showed up the next day - game day. His friends did not worry until they returned to their hotel room and their friend was still missing. That was a Saturday.
The young man is alleged to have called New Orleans police the following Monday or Tuesday after he "woke up in an abandoned warehouse." The dispatcher supposedly asked if he had a bandage on his back and when he said he did, the dispatcher told him his kidney had been stolen. Authorities took the man to a hospital to be checked out and told he was fine and that a skilled surgeon must have aided in the theft.
I heard this story with nearly the same facts from three different people.
The woman who told this story during the alumni meeting in Chase City works in Tech's athletic department. When I contacted her and expressed my pessimism about the story's validity, she said, "I'm afraid it's true."
She swore to the story's accuracy because her boyfriend's son knew one of the young men who knew the young man whose kidney was stolen. I pressed her to get names, and she did.
It turned out her boyfriend heard the story from an employee at the Tech library. I called him (I won't reveal any of these names simply because I don't want to embarrass anyone), but he agreed he had passed the story along and it was told to him by a student who had worked at the library the previous semester. At least he said, "I don't know if it's true."
"One of the students told me his parents had a mutual friend who knew the doctor" who checked out the student when he got home, the library employee said.
He gave me the student's name and I called. From the delay and number of tones on the student's answering machine, it was apparent he hadn't checked his machine in several days. He never called back. I called again and left another message. He never called. I called again a few weeks later and his phone had been disconnected.
I've used the Internet to search nationwide telephone directories and e-mail addresses for the student who was the next link in the rumor. He is nowhere to be found.
I even called the New Orleans Police Department and talked with an officer who informed me that missing person reports are so numerous in the sprawling city that I needed to have more information for him to help me. He laughed and promised me he had not heard of any "kidney theft ring" in his city.
A Tech police officer said a similar rumor hit the Tech campus several years ago and as well as he can remember "people took it to be serious" then, he said. An area nursing student told a co-worker of mine the story and she "swore it was true," also. My great-aunt still believes the story despite what I've found out.
Perhaps the missing link is the fact that the student I could not reach was a statistics major. My theory is he started rumor as a statistical project and all this fervor may be the result of an "A+" project.
What's your theory? If you have heard the rumor and think you can reveal its creator in our area, call me at 381-1676 or send me e-mail at lisag@roanoke.com.
LENGTH: Medium: 86 linesby CNB