When Forgery becomes Murder

I am twenty-five years behind on this story, but I can probably be forgiven since I was not even reading yet when it happened. In 1985 Mark Hoffman, on the verge of having his hundreds of forgeries discovered, sent bombs that killed two people before maiming himself with a third explosive. The story is reminiscent of several others I have discussed here, most notably those of Jean-Claude Romand and Brian Blackwell, in that it deals with a man who killed in order to protect his lies. Both Hoffman and Romand ended their deceptions with suicide attempts, but it is notable that neither attempt succeeded. Hoffman was obviously adept at making bombs, but only two of three he made killed their targets. I don't think that Hoffman ever intended to die.

I wonder whether these types of deception are forms of survival for some people, to such an extent that they somehow feel that they must ultimately kill or be killed (or discovered to be frauds, which is apparently just as bad). While I am extremely interested in forgery, I don't necessarily think that it is the worst possible crime, and find it almost unbelievable that a person would kill for the preservation of his forgeries. People like Mark Hoffman seem almost like another species, one that follows its own set of social/moral rules. I will probably continue to be baffled.

Motives for Imposture (and Believing the Impostor)

A year or two ago I was shown this intriguing story discussed in The New Yorker about a man named Frédéric Bourdin who had spent years pretending to be various adolescent boys in several countries and was known as the "king of imposters" and eventually "the chameleon." He mostly impersonated runaways and orphans, but his most famous feat of imposture was of missing American teenager Nicholas Barclay, whose family was supposedly convinced that Bourdin was Nicholas. Bourdin himself admits that he attempted this particular con to avoid the police, but unlike those of the imposter basketball player I discussed recently, Bourdin's usual motives are mostly unclear. Even his frank confession in the New Yorker article, though thirteen pages long, only partially illuminates The Chameleon's intentions and psychology.

I am excited to see the film that has been made about Bourdin (entitled The Chameleon), mostly because I am interested to see how it portrays both Bourdin and Nicholas Barclay's family. It's hard to believe that a mother would confuse an impostor for her own son, and many people (including Bourdin himself) think that members of Barclay's family know what happened to the boy. This situation makes me wonder what lies we accept in what situations. Will we allow ourselves to be lied to in order to conceal our own lies? Or are we just more likely to believe anything we really want to believe, for whatever reason (it makes us feel good, it hides our own secrets, it helps someone)?

Fake Pregnancy and Baby-Snatching

The woman pictured above is Michelle Marie Gopaul, an aspiring actress who told her friends she was pregnant and then held a fake movie casting call for infants in order to steal one and pass it off as her own. This article explains the story, which has broken in the last few days and is certain to become more detailed and bizarre in the near future. I envision testimonials from friends and the parents of the stolen baby, detailed inquiries into her upbringing, and tearful, overexaggerated apologies (likely on live TV) from Gopaul herself. It's probably just the kind of attention she wanted.

Of course, this type of story is hardly unique; fake pregnancies are all over the internet and translate well to television and film (especially crime dramas). The difference here is the much more rare kidnapping. Most other fakers manage to elicit extra sympathy by losing their nonexistent babies to fake miscarriages or some early infant malady, and then they can start over with a new fake pregnancy a few months later. Perhaps Gopaul actually wanted a baby. Perhaps she even believed herself pregnant for some time. Maybe she was just failing as a model/singer/actress and wanted people to notice her. I imagine the panic that must come with realizing that one's lie is about to be discovered, but I cannot imagine committing crimes to prevent that discovery. I'm interested to hear more about this person.

Celebrating a Year of The Fakery

I had forgotten that I began this blog on January 1 of last year, likely as one of many (mostly failed) attempts to start something new in the new year. Many of my initial postings consisted of books or people I'd been interested in before but had never discussed in writing, and I was excited to both condense the fakers in one place and provide my own personal commentary on them. My excitement has not yet waned, and my supply of "fakery" hasn't either, so I plan to continue this blog indefinitely. Hurray!

I would love for those of you who read The Fakery to give me comments, suggestions, or topics for discussion--I'm a one-woman show who loves to hear new relevant stories! Anyone can post comments, and I welcome them. Thanks for helping keep me interested in The Fakery for a whole year!

On the Creepy Film Double

I recently viewed the film Black Swan, a fairly uncomplicated tale of a ballerina's breakdown gussied up with mirrors, blood, and creepy special effects to create a relatively satisfying psychological thriller. Most interesting to me, though, was the only partially successful exploration of the double/impostor as a major theme of the movie. In the process of her transformation into the swan, Natalie Portman's character is tormented by both mirror images of herself and girls who seem to have her face, and of course everyone is a kind of double for her even from a sane perspective: the retiring swan queen who throws herself under a bus, the failed ballerina mother who has (creepily) transferred all of her energy to her daughter, the other indistinguishable ballerinas, and the mysterious new girl who becomes Portman's alternate/nemesis/double/lover/victim. The simultaneous splitting of self into two parts (black swan and white swan) and attaching the black swan self to other actual people made for interesting possibilities for special effects and even created suspense here and there, but ultimately lacked something. I will acknowledge the possibility that this was the point, that no one can possibly understand an unsound mind, but there is something of the cop-out in that idea.

However, I understand the sinister quality of the idea that one could be replaced by some sort of impostor. We all want to believe that we are unique, and that we are in particular careers or relationships because we are uniquely qualified to be in them. We are also afraid that this is not the case; we worry that some impostor could replace us, or even worse, that we are impostors and could be replaced by the legitimately unique and qualified versions of us. Black Swan used ballet to mostly successful effect (though I'm sure ballerinas are going to be livid!), and I'm going to be looking for my doppelgangers everywhere now.

Medical Imposture--A Life Fraudulently in Your Hands

My three-year-old nephew has been saying for several months that when he grows up, he wants to be "a pilot AND a doctor." Perhaps this was always William Hamman's dream as well, because until recently, everyone thought he was both. Hamman evidently did not lie about being a pilot, but fabricated a "medical residency, fellowship, doctoral degree, [and] 15 years of clinical experience" as a cardiologist in order to falsely acquire grants, university positions, and lecture tours. As a result of this deception, Hamman has lost his jobs as both fake cardiologist and real pilot. Although no evidence is available to show that he actually performed operations, he has (as seen above) supervised them.

It seems as though more impostors pretend to be doctors than they do almost any other profession, and I don't think it has much to do with a doctor's salary. Pretending to be a lawyer or a businessman or even a psychologist would risk fewer (or no) lives and probably take less training, so there must be another reason for medical imposters to choose this particular fraud. Additionally, Hamman chose to be an expert on the heart, not a general practitioner or a podiatrist or some other, less dangerous, type of doctor. Hamman wants to be in control of people's lives. He wants to decide whether they live or die, just like he does when he flies those enormous aircraft. Hamman has taken daredevilry large-scale, to include hundreds of unwitting people.

How would You Start Over?

Remember that mediocre Drew Barrymore movie, Never Been Kissed, where Drew's character enrolls in high school to write an exposé, chosen because she is the only employee of a newspaper who can pass for a high school student? Remember that her brother, played by David Arquette, enrolls in high school too so that he can have one last chance for success with baseball? If you haven't seen the movie, no matter--I've just summarized it for you (minus the saccharine love story). My real point is that someone in real life, Guerdwich Montimer, to be precise, apparently took some advice from that film and decided to fraudulently start high school again at age 22.

This kind of crime intrigues me because its detriment to others is unclear. The article mentions that Montimer's trial is set "for the week of Aug. 1, following the conclusion of the capital murder trial of accused cop killer Larry Neil White;" one could hardly say that this crime is equal to cop-killing, but who has it affected most? The kid who got cut from the basketball team in Montimer's favor? The 15-year-old girlfriend who thought he was her age? The church faithfully standing by him even after they found out that he has fabricated both his name and age? Also, Montimer faked his whole identity--would he be less culpable if he only faked his age (like the little leaguer who was too old to play)?

My gut reaction to these events is to say "no fair" that some people can start their lives over while my honesty prevents me from it. But this type of story mainly makes me wonder both why I would start high school again and what I would do on a second try. All annoyances of high school aside (and can they really be set aside?), perhaps I would be more focused or try harder to make friends or manage to get accepted to Harvard, but these things don't seem worth the trouble of creating a false identity and pretending to be 16 again. I do wish I had done some things differently, but all of us must wish that. What makes a person decide that he can just be someone else, just slough off an identity for a more favorable one? Besides the law, what keeps most of us from doing that?