facts + logic = truth
Do you know this suburban twentysomething wild teenager? For the past nine months, a young Kaspar Hauser clone in Germany has been insisting he was raised in the woods for the past 5 years, knows only his first name ("Ray"), and that he buried his father (his only known relative) in an unmarked forest grave... Continue Reading →
Extra, extra! Left-handedness no longer freakish; Citizen no longer Vigilant! Meanest Girls: A 15-year-old girl in Blackburn, England, was devastated when her online boyfriend, Jaydon Rothwell, committed suicide. On his Facebook status, Jaydon had written that he was going to kill himself with a fatal pill/alcohol overdose because she had accused him - falsely -... Continue Reading →
Perpetual adolescence may sound like hell, but these folks went to astounding lengths to make it happen... Part I: James Hogue, self-educated cowboy and Ivy League track star Part II: Brian McKinnon and other fake students Part III: Predatory Fake Teens Part IV: Serial Teen Treva Throneberry, the female Peter Pan Part V: Frederic Bourdin,... Continue Reading →
Before moving on to 2011, I have one last fake teen tale for you. I've saved the most unsettling one for last, probably because I don't even like thinking about it. Please proceed with caution.Place: Kurim, Czech RepublicTime: May 10, 2007In some ways, Moravia is the perfect setting for a tale of Gothic horror. The... Continue Reading →
Spoiler warning: This post contains complete spoilers for the film Catfish. Caught The Truth 2.0 In 2007, 22-year-old New York photographer Yaniv "Nev" Schulman received an adorable Myspace message from a young girl in Michigan. Abby Wesselman, 12 years old, wanted to show him some of her paintings, including one based on one of his... Continue Reading →
One of the following two stories ends in tragedy. The other ends somewhat happily for everyone. But both shine a bright light into the depths of online deception. I see these cases not so much as suspense thrillers (like the documentaries made about them), nor cautionary tales (as the media presents them), but as reminders... Continue Reading →
This case bears some resemblance to Arthur Hutchens' 1928 impersonation of the missing Los Angeles boy Walter Collins, but there are darker twists to the tale.A Changeling in Spain13-year-old Nicholas Barclay went missing from San Antonio, Texas, in 1994. On June 10, he phoned home to ask for a ride after playing basketball with his... Continue Reading →
The next two fake teens in this series were "serial teens", people who posed as teenagers over and over again in multiple locations for reasons that are barely comprehensible.Treva vs. BriannaIn the spring of 1997, a teenager turned up at Glad Tidings Church in Vancouver, Washington. She was a tall, solidly built girl with brown... Continue Reading →
Our next four fake teens had darker motives than just recapturing their lost youth.Two-Time MormonIn 1994, a young Mormon known (by request) only as Jessica was serving her church mission in Santa Monica when she met a sad and bedraggled homeless boy, 15-year-old Scott Davion. He said he had left his home state, New York,... Continue Reading →
Close, but no degreeLike the career criminal James Hogue, Brian MacKinnon of Scotland tried to recapture lost opportunities by impersonating a high school student. He just wasn't terribly good at it.From boyhood, Brian wanted to be a doctor. And at the age of 18 he was on his way, leaving Bearsden Academy in East Dunbartonshire... Continue Reading →
Swallowing The Camel 