The külhanbeys of late Ottoman Istanbul, most especially during the 1890s, are a well-established part of Turkish culture. References to them are found in popular histories, literature, and films from the CUP period to the present. They are described in various ways, but always as a more or less well-defined group of marginalized, homeless men who engage in criminal activities and are best known for their rowdy, disruptive behavior. They also have a distinctive style of dress. In this paper, however, I argue that there was no such group at the time they are commonly said to have flourished. They simply did not exist. The tales of the külhanbeys are an urban folklore, with only a very indirect basis in historical fact. Working from such primary sources as Ebüzziya Tevfik’s Yeni Osmanl?lar Tarihi and short pieces by memoirists Ahmed Rasim and Bal?khane Naz?r? Ali R?za Bey, I examine the common narratives about the külhanbeys, including those of their origins and ‘rooting out’ in 1846. In this narrative, there was a true organization of marginalized, homeless men who slept in the ashpits (külhan) of the hamams, and all the members of this organization were drafted into the army or pressed into factory work by order of the Ministry of War in 1846. I argue that even if such a group did exist in an earlier period (and it likely did), the destruction in 1846 must have been total. I then look at the cultural situation in 1890s Istanbul and examine what other groups (such as kabaday?s, tulumbac?s, and kopuks) might have been conflated with the earlier külhanbeys to create the modern folklore. I finish by asking why this confusion of names or conflation of identities might have taken place. The folklorization of the külhanbeys in post-Hamidian Turkish culture underscores the difficulty of studying marginalized groups. Not only are there rarely clear, extensive documentary records of them, but even in the popular culture they get misrepresented and their very identities changed and distorted.