Bonnie Sweeten stole a well-worn page from the "Fraud's Guide to Fantastic Lies" when she allegedly told police she and her daughter, Julie, were abducted by two black men after a traffic accident in Upper Southampton on Tuesday. Here are some other alleged victims who have blamed crimes on phantom black men:

Ashley Todd, a 20-year-old McCain-Palin campaign volunteer, claimed she was robbed and assaulted by a 6-foot-4 black man in Pittsburgh on Oct. 22, 2008. Todd said the attacker punched her in the face and carved a "B" — for Barack Obama — in her face. Two days later, she confessed to making up the claim and was arrested.

Susan Smith, now 37, claimed on Oct. 25, 1994, that she had been carjacked in South Carolina by a black man who rode off with her two sons still in the car. Smith later confessed that she let her car roll into a lake, drowning the boys, ages 3 and 1, who were strapped into the car.

Charles Stuart, a Boston fur-store manager, told police that a black gunman leaped into his car on Oct. 23, 1989, then robbed and shot Stuart and his pregnant wife, Carol. Doctors delivered the baby, Christopher, but he and Carol Stuart both died. The case inflamed racial tensions until a relative told police that Stuart, 29, had murdered his wife and made up the rest of the story. Stuart committed suicide in 1990. *

— David Gambacorta