The Sultan of Llang-Llang
Robert A. McLean (1887–1943) was a Marine Corps recruiter stationed in Manhattan just after World War I. In late 1919, near the end of his term of enlistment, he planted a story about himself with the New York World. The story described how McLean had just learned of the death of the Sultan of Llang-Llang, who McLean had befriended in Mindanao, the Philippines, while serving with the Marines during the Moro Rebellion (1902–13).
Source: Wikipedia — The Sultan of Llang-Llang (CC BY-SA 4.0)