Did a Florida man, who was high on meth, cut off his own genitals and fee them to an alligator? No, that's not true: It is a hoax story published by a known fake news website that generates web traffic by publishing outlandish reports not based in reality. The "local media" source does not exist and the incident never happened.
The story originated from an article published on April 27, 2019 titled "Florida man, high on meth, 'cuts off genitals, feeds them to alligator'" (archived here) which opened:
A 52-year old man from Tavares in Florida's Lake County is tonight in intensive care after he was seriously injured during what has been described by investigators as a 'five-day binge on methamphetamine'. According to reports by local media, the victim, Mr Frank Canfield, was found by neighbors 'writing on the ground in pain' outside his property.
As his neighbors approached Mr Canfield, they could see he was 'clutching his groin region', which seemed to be soaked in blood. "I asked him what he'd done," commented one of Mr Canfield's neighbors, who was not named in the article. "He told me he'd hurt himself badly and asked me to call for help".
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Florida man, high on meth, 'cuts off genitals, feeds them to alligator' - Boston Leader
A 52-year old man from Tavares in Florida's Lake County is tonight in intensive care after he was seriously injured during what has been described by investigators as a 'five-day binge on methamphetamine'. According to reports by local media, the victim, Mr Frank Canfield, was found by neighbors 'writing on the ground in pain' outside ...
The fake story has been published in similar form by other websites connected to bostonleader.com. We wrote about bostonleader.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
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