Wouldn't it be possible to contact at least 1 of them, and settle the question? Story says author tried... Try again, ask around.
Story & comments read a lot like speculation. Why settle for that when original source(s) still exist?
Something similar happened a decade ago with the page for the Unix command `cron` — it contained a made-up backronym (‘command run on …’) that had once appeared in print somewhere, and the guardians of Wikipedia zealously rejected correction (it's from ‘chrono‐’) from the original author, Brian Kernighan.
And if they do that, they're now becoming journalists or researchers.
(I know you likely know this, but just clarifying a bit for others to what I think the logic is)