Impostors

Why not, just for a lark, be somebody else for a while? Well, for starters, it's often illegal, and it's not always as simple as it sounds. But there is a certain class of person who remains undaunted in the face of these problems.

I'm thinking of folks like Joice Heth, who made a career (under the direction of P.T. Barnum) out of impersonating George Washington's childhood nurse. Or George DuPre, who got his amazing story of being an intrepid World War II spy published by Readers Digest and by Random House books before he was discovered to be a phony.

Or Stephen Weinberg, who deserves some sort of award. He posed as the U.S. Consul Delegate to Morocco, as a Serbian militia attaché, an American navy lieutenant, the envoy of the Queen of Romania, an army air corps lieutenant, a doctor (on several occasions), as head of protocol for the U.S. State Department, and (after serving some time for these put-ons) as an expert on prisons.

His title as Impostor King is challenged by one Ferdinand Waldo Demara, Jr., whose life was the basis for the movie The Great Impostor. He was a few doctors as well, and the assistant warden of a prison, and a surgeon in the Royal Canadian Navy, a schoolteacher, a college dean, and who knows what else. He is legendary for his ability to perform admirably whatever he was doing with whatever credentials he had assimilated.

I wonder if anyone ever saw those two in the same place at the same time... In any case, the torch has been taken up more recently by one Steven Jay Russell who has taken the legal system for a ride by impersonating a judge, a lawyer and a doctor to talk his way out of custody. His trademark is to escape on Friday the 13th. One Frank Abagnale made a jump for the big leagues by trying on the hats of a pediatrician, lawyer, university professor, stock broker, F.B.I. agent, airline pilot and motivational speaker.

William Voigt gets bonus points for putting on the uniform of a Prussian military officer in 1906 and using this ruse to gain the allegiance of a pack of soldiers, then raiding the treasury of Köpenick on the pretense of investigating tax irregularities. Well done, Wilhelm! The Kaiser was so embarassed at the ineptitude of his military that he pardoned Voigt (who'd been caught trying to flee with the cash), who later made a career out of reënacting the adventure on the American stage.

Ordinary schmoes get into the impostor act when it's convenient and easy. A web search gives me the case of Ron Weaver, who at age 30 was no longer qualified to play college football, but as the younger Ron McKelvey he was able to fulfill his pigskin dreams. Even more recently, 31-year-old Michael Backman posed as a high school student while the law in three states tried to track him down for other frauds.

Some poor schmuck created an email account in the name of Britain's Prince William to confuse a friend, and was soon flooded by fanmail.

And there's the impostor named Lewis Morgan who's been pretending for years to be Randy Meisner, the bass player for the Eagles, and has been using this ruse to scam folks along the way. Ditto for Anoushirvan Fakhran a.k.a. Johathan Taylor Spielberg, not the nephew of Steven.

Related, but not quite as daring, is the act of resume-padding or exaggeration by which Clinton's ambassador to Switzerland claimed to be a World War II hero, Congressman Wes Cooley claimed to be an Army Special Forces veteran, and Federal District Judge James Ware posthumously adopted a victim of a racist shooting as his brother.

While we're on the theme of Musical Mayhem, we can mention the fantastic case of Milli Vanilli, a musical act in which two dancers lip-synched to pre-recorded vocals by more talented singers, while maintaining the conceit of a live vocal performance. They won a Grammy award for their highly successful act, but people jumped on the bandwagon once the first few rats stopped consenting to the shared illusion, and they were exposed to enormous public ridicule.

With a little imagination and panache, you can be anyone you want. Or you can not be someone you are. Or, with a little luck, someone else may decide to be you. Good heavens, the options are many! You could even be someone entirely new.

Milli Vanilli
Milli Vanilli

Joice Heth
Joice Heth

See also:

  • Invented Persona
  • A Modest Proposal
  • Forgery
  • Scams & Frauds
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