Back in April, Maxim publisher Felix Dennis told a reporter — after numerous bottles of wine — that he killed a man. As one might imagine, this news spread rapidly throughout the world and Dennis quickly retracted his statement, claiming it was an April Fools joke.

But good murder stories never die, and BusinessWeek's Jon Fine
(disclosure) — who pointed out a flaw in Dennis' excuse — caught up with the man, the myth, the legend and asked him about the rumor:

BW: I'll just be blunt. Have you murdered anybody?

FD: I'm not speaking about that question. I've said everything I had to say about it. You heard it at the thing [a lecture he'd just given to students at Columbia University]. You read that the story was hogwash. The only additional information I will give you is that I spoke to the editor of the Times four times on the telephone before he printed the story. He accepted the story was hogwash. He said, "I know it's hogwash." I said, "fine. Then you must do what you're going to do."

(Fine notes that Times' spokespeople said James Harding never had this conversation nor has he ever used the word "hogwash.")

Fine's column on Dennis is here