Death Hoax
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A hoax specifically that someone died. They were a "feature" of early fandom which happily we seem to have grown out of.
Bob Tucker seemed a favorite target of them.
For example, in the January 1936 ASF there was a letter from an "Anne Smidley" saying "Perhaps you may already know it by this time, but our friend Bob has passed on. Strangely enough, the last words I ever heard him say concerned your magazine. As I left the hospital, he gave me the inclosed letter to mail, and requested that when I returned the next day I bring a new copy of Astounding Stories with me. I did, but unfortunately I was too late. He was operated upon that morning and never regained consciousness.'"