Breaking: Was Ebenezer Scrooge a Dutchman?

In a shocking exposé, The Telegraph reports that Ebenezer Scrooge, the villain-turned-hero of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, may have actually been a Dutch gravedigger by the name of Gabriel de Graaf.

According to Sjef de Jong, a Dutch academic, the Charles Dickens character may have been inspired by the real life of Gabriel de Graaf, a 19th century gravedigger who lived in Holland.

De Graaf, a drunken curmudgeon obsessed with money, was said to have disappeared one Christmas Eve, only to emerge years later as a reformed character.