Masquerade (book) - Scandal

Scandal

On December 11, 1988, The Sunday Times exposed the winner of the Masquerade contest as a fraud. The winner, "Ken Thomas", was revealed to be a pseudonym of Dugald Thompson. Thompson's business partner, John Guard, was the boyfriend of Veronica Robertson, a former live-in girlfriend of Williams. Guard had apparently convinced Robertson to help him because both were animal rights activists and Guard promised to donate any profits to the animal rights cause.

While living with Williams, Robertson had learned the approximate physical location of the hare, while remaining ignorant of the proper solution to the book’s master riddle. After finding out from Robertson that the hare was in Ampthill, Bedfordshire, Guard and two assistants started searching for it using metal detectors, an effort doomed to failure as Williams had sealed the jewel inside a clay casket specifically to foil such a discovery. After searching for some time, they drew a crude sketch of the location, which Thompson submitted to Williams as "Thomas." Williams recognised the sketch as the first correct solution mailed to him. Williams immediately phoned Thompson and instructed him to dig for the hare.

Only later did Williams discover that Thompson had not solved the puzzle in the intended manner, but appeared at the time to have blundered into a lucky guess. Shortly after Thompson was formally awarded the prize, the correct solution was unravelled by two physics teachers, Mike Barker of William Hulme's Grammar School and John Rousseau of Rossall School. Barker and Rousseau had actually unearthed the prize themselves, but had not noticed it inside its clay box; Thompson, who was loitering in the area, discovered it in the dirt piles they left behind.

Williams was shocked to discover the scandal and is quoted as saying:

"This tarnishes Masquerade and I'm shocked by what has emerged. I feel a deep sense of responsibility to all those many people who were genuinely looking for it. Although I didn't know it, it was a skeleton in my cupboard and I'm relieved it has come out."

Thompson founded a software company called “Haresoft”, and offered the jewel as a prize to a new contest which took the form of a computer game, Hareraiser. The company and its game (which many believe to be unsolvable with only meaningless text and graphics), were unsuccessful, yielding no winner. The hare was auctioned at Sotheby’s in December 1988, selling for £31,900 to an anonymous buyer. Williams himself went there to bid, but dropped out at £6,000.

The treasure’s whereabouts remained unknown for over 20 years, until it came to light in 2009. The BBC Radio 4 programme, The Grand Masquerade, broadcast 14 July 2009, told the story of the creation and solution of the puzzle. Williams was interviewed and presenter John O'Farrell claimed that this was the first time Williams had talked about the scandal for 20 years. During the interview Williams expressed the desire to see the hare again. Hearing this, the granddaughter of the current owner arranged for Williams to be reunited briefly with his work. This was featured in a TV documentary, The Man Behind the Masquerade, which aired on BBC Four on 2 December 2009.

The hare was on display at the V&A Museum, London, as part of its British Design 1948 - 2012 retrospective from March 31 to 12 August 2012.