Ben Carson
© Johnny Lewis/Film MagicRepublican Presidential candidate Ben Carson claimed in his 1996 book that he had a violent childhood full of moments of ‘pathological anger.’
Ben Carson admitted Friday that he lied about earning a prestigious scholarship to West Point while controversy over the validity of his troubled kid-to-renowned doctor narrative reached a crescendo.

The 2016 GOP candidate said he fabricated a part of his 1996 autobiography, Gifted Hands, in which he claimed he was given a "full scholarship" to the U.S. Military Academy just hours after he rebuked accusations that he lied about his violent outbursts as a child and teenager.

In the nearly 20-year-old book, Carson boasted about his transformation from rage-filled boy to refined neurosurgeon, describing how he once tried to hit his mother with a hammer and attempted to stab one of his friends to death.

His former classmates, however, said they don't remember the Republican as a rough kid.

"I don't know nothing about that," Gerald Ware, Carson's classmate at Detroit's Southwestern High School, told CNN. "It would have been all over the whole school."

CNN spoke with nine people Carson grew up with. Not one remembered the Republican's self-proclaimed violent outbursts.

While Carson slammed the CNN report, calling it a "bunch of lies" and "pathetic," he did admit that there is at least one falsehood in the book: A story about how Gen. William Westmoreland offered the then-17-year-old a full-ride to West Point.

Carson said that as the leader of his high school's Junior ROTC program, he attended a 1969 Memorial Day dinner for Congressional Medal of Honor winners. There, he met with General Westmoreland.

"Later I was offered a full scholarship to West Point," he wrote.

Carson may have met Westmoreland at the 1969 banquet — which was held in February, not May — but the general would not have promised the student a scholarship, West Point told POLITICO. All costs are covered for admitted West Point students, so "full ride" scholarships don't exist.

Carson was "introduced to folks from West Point by his ROTC Supervisors" at a banquet, Carson's campaign manager Barry Bennett said. While they may have discussed application process, Carson never applied or received a scholarship.

Instead, he attended Yale University before going on to the University of Michigan's medical school.

West Point said it has no records of Carson applying to or enrolling in the academy.

Despite the scholarship lie, Carson defended the rest of the book Friday, saying all the stories about his violent childhood are true.

In the 19-year-old book, Carson claimed he once tried to strike his mother with a hammer as they argued over clothing. His brother Curtis stepped in and disarmed the boy before he could physically harm their mother.

ben carson
Carson also said he physically attacked at least two of his school friends.

In the seventh grade he hit a boy named Jerry with a lock after he teased Carson for saying something "stupid" in English class.

"I swung at him, lock in hand. The blow slammed into his forehead, and he groaned, staggering backward, blood seeping from a three-inch gash," Carson wrote.

Two years later, in the ninth grade, he tried to stab a friend who he identified in the book only as "Bob." The blade stuck Bob's belt buckle, breaking the blade and leaving the teen unharmed.

"I was trying to kill somebody," Carson wrote of the knife attack, calling it a moment of "pathological anger."

The teenage Carson ran to the bathroom after the failed stabbing and prayed. Since then, he has never had a problem with his temper, he claimed in the book.

Carson's classmates remembered him as introverted and studious — someone who was more likely to be found in the library than in the middle of a schoolyard fight.

"He was a quiet, shy kid, not too outgoing," said his junior high and high school classmate Jerry Dixon. "Bennie stayed home a lot or went to the library to work."

Dixon said he is not the Jerry the doctor-turned-politician beat with a lock — and said he had never even heard of such an incident.

Carson refused to reveal the names of his victims in a Friday interview on CNN, saying to name them would be "victimizing."

He admitted that he changed the names in his autobiography, but maintained both "Bob" and "Jerry" are real people who will only be identified if they chose to come forward on their own.

"Tell me what makes you think you're going to find those specific people?" Carson asked CNN's Alisyn Camerota. "What is your methodology? Because I don't understand it."

Carson's campaign adviser Armstrong Williams also refused to identify the candidate's alleged victims or provide any kind of documentation showing disciplinary actions for his claimed school fights.

"Why would anyone cooperate with your obvious witch hunt?" Armstrong Williams wrote to CNN in an email last week, the day before Halloween. "No comment and moving on...... Happy Halloween!!!!!"

Donald Trump quickly weighed in on his rival's controversy.

"The Carson story is either a total fabrication or, if true, even worse-trying to hit mother over the head with a hammer or stabbing friend!" he tweeted Thursday.