episode 008 — The Untold Story of the "King of Impostors"

 In 1997, the U.S. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a strange phone call. The man on the other end, a social worker from Spain, said that he had found a 14 or 15 year old child on the streets. He had brown hair, was skinny, was sawed and had a gap between his front teeth. However, the boy was clearly American, and since he had no idea on him, the man wanted to know whether it matched anyone's description in their missing children's database. Turns out that description did meet someone, a boy from San Antonio, Texas, who had been missing for three years. And when the man was faxed a photo of this missing boy, he said, Oh, my God, this is him. I have him here with me. Now, when the family of this missing child was contacted and told that he was finally returning home, they were obviously ecstatic. They had long assumed that he had been dead. So they immediately flew out to Spain and brought him back home. Although he looked inactive just a little bit different from the way they remembered him. The family thought this had to be normal. After all, he had been gone three years going through who knows what kind of traumatic experiences. But as it turns out, the kid that they had picked up and lived with for months was not their son. And in fact, it was not even a kid. And what the resulting investigation revealed would end up as one of the most bizarre and interesting cases in history. Welcome back, guys. My name is Andy Chang, and this is Hidden Stories. On June 13, 1974, a boy named Frederick Borden was born on the outskirts of Paris. Now, this boy had a very traumatic childhood. For starters, he never knew his dad. And his mom, who was a poor factory worker and had him when she was just 18, had a reputation for always going out at night and drinking and dancing with little care for her newborn son. She was also emotionally abusive and would fake being deathly ill and make Frederick freak out and run off to get help when in reality, she was perfectly fine, in Frederick's words, to see me free to give her pleasure as such, when he was just two. A judge deemed his mom just completely incompetent to be a parent and place them in the custody of his grandparents. Now, although his grandparents did care for him, Frederick still struggled with life since they were very poor as well. He could only afford to dress in second hand clothes from Catholic Charities, combined with the fact that Frederick was part Algerian and also didn't have a father. He was a complete outcast at school and would often get bullied by the other kids or just straight up ignored by them as such. In order to just cope with this, he began to invent stories both about him and his family in order to look cool and not looked down upon. He claimed that the reason his dad was never around was because he was actually a British secret agent who is always on super important top secret missions. But when that didn't work too well, he began often misbehaving and acting out in class and even stealing from his neighbors. And when he was 12, his grandparents realizing that he was clearly a very troubled or maybe even traumatized kid, decided to remove him from public school entirely and sent him off to a juvenile institution and not friends. But there, instead of his bad behaviors becoming better, they actually got worse. Frederick started lying more and more often and at a larger scale. And in 1990, right after he had turned 16, he decided that he had simply just had enough. And he ran away. He hitchhiked to Paris, but feeling extremely scared and hungry and not having any sort of way to get any money or food decided to use his skills of lying, which he had become extremely good at to help him out. He approached the police officer and told him that he was a lost British teen named Jimmy Cell. In his own words, I dreamed they would send me to England, where I always imagined life was more beautiful. But when the police discovered that he spoke almost no English, which obviously would not be the case if he was from England, he was forced to admit that he was not actually who he said he was, and he was sent right back to the youth home. But although Frederick's first experience with impersonation failed, it had opened an entirely new world of lying for him. In fact, from this experience, he had realized just how useful creating fake identities for himself could be, and the lessons he had taken from his first time were also extremely insightful. Having always been pretty clever, he immediately realized what worked and what didn't work when stealing someone else's identity and lying about his own, using just his first experience pretending to be Jimmy Savile. He devised what he called his technique a set of rules regarding how to effectively pull off a new identity. The first thing he would always do was come up with the idea of a child he wanted to play. He would gradually map out this character's biography, their heritage, their family, and their tics. And he realized that the key to convincing lying is actually, quote, not lying about everything. In his own words, a good liar uses the truth as such, he always made sure to keep his identity simple and easy to remember. And once he had fully imagined a character, he would do everything he could to act like that character physically, meticulously saving his face, plucking his eyebrows, and even using hair removal creams. And he almost always only took on roles as children who had been missing or had been separated from their families. Since he realized that the authorities were far less likely to suspect and grill a missing child who appeared to be in distress. As Frederick put it, no one expects a seemingly vulnerable child to be lying as such. Using this technique further, he began to wonder. Across Europe, moving in and out of different orphanages and foster homes with each new identity he invented for himself, always looking for what he referred to as the perfect shelter. You see, the entire reason why Frederick was always traveling around and coming up with all these new names and identities was because the one thing he truly wanted more than anything in the world was a home and a school that cared about him, didn't judge him and where he was happy. Growing up, he had seen all these other kids laughing and hanging out and eating food without a single worry in the world. As such, he had always wanted to just live out this childhood that he never had. Which is why even as he got older, he would continue to only impersonate children. He hoped that one day he would find a family and a community that would allow him to live out the childhood he had stolen from him. But still another reason for why Frederick just took on so many identities was simply because he enjoyed the attention, which can be seen by the fact that throughout his entire career as an imposter, almost every single time that he was caught in the act, he would voluntarily admit his real identity as Frederick Borden. He loved the media coverage around both him and his many identities, even when it was deeply negative. But as you'll soon see, all this publicity would turn out to completely change Frederick's life for the worst. By the time Frederick turned 18, in 1992, he had already posed as more than a dozen different fictional children as he continued to invent more and more children to impersonate us. Despite his growing age. By the mid-nineties, he had accumulated a long and massive criminal record for lying to the police. Even Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organization, had him on their radar. But still, since he had yet to find his perfect shelter, he just kept on impersonating people. And in 1997, when Frederick was 23 years old, disaster struck. At the time, he was at a youth home in Lee, northeast Spain. And although he had a new identity like he always did this time pretending to be a mute, heavily traumatized teenager who had been living on the streets this time, the child welfare judge who was handling his case said she couldn't help him unless he could convey to her his real identity as such, since he hadn't said a word yet. She gave him 24 hours to gather proof, solid proof about his name, age and background. And if he failed to do so, she told him she would just take his fingerprints and find out who he really was that way. Now, with his love for attention and extensive criminal record, Frederick knew that his fingerprints were already in the Interpol database. As so if the judge did take his prints and realized who he was, since he already had an extensive history of impersonation, there was a very good chance that Interpol would immediately be contacted and he would almost definitely serve prison time. In panicking, not knowing what to do. Further, he did something that he had never done before, although in the past he had always created a fake identity from scratch this time since he needed actual evidence and that wouldn't work out of desperation. Instead of creating this fictional identity, he decided he would have to steal the identity of a real child, a missing child, to be exact. Now, he knew that this was an extremely bad idea for one main reason. And that reason was the fact that in addition to having to convince the authorities that he was who he said he was, he would also literally have to convince the family members of the missing child he was trying to impersonate it, that he was indeed the missing family member, which doesn't even need to be said. It would be insanely difficult. Not to mention this guy was 23 at the time already on the cusp, if not over the cusp of potentially even looking like a child. But for the record, having impersonated so many people in the past and having gotten so skilled and experienced that lying felt that he could actually pull this off. And maybe, just maybe, it would finally allow him to find that perfect family and home that he had always been looking for. That night, after the child welfare judge gave him the 24 hour deadline further, he came up with what he felt was the strongest idea for how he could do this. And he had always wanted to live in the United States. He decided to call the U.S. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. He picked up English from his travels across Europe. And as you saw at the beginning of this video, he told them he was a social worker named Jonathan Durian and that he had just found a child on a street corner in Spain who claimed that he was from the US. He then asked them whether they kept records of missing children and when the rep told him that they did. He gave them a detailed description of the child he had felt. But in reality, it was just a description of himself. You see, Frederick's plan was not to just impersonate some random missing child, but it was to impersonate a missing child that resembled him enough. So to the point that he could actually pull it off in, pretend like he was actually him. And when he rattled off the description of himself, saw thin brown hair, had a gap between his teeth and us at the center, had anyone similar in their database to his excitement. They actually did. The boy that Frederick had found might be Nicholas Barclay, who had gone missing while walking home from playing basketball in San Antonio, Texas, three years before. At 13 years old, although he could barely contain his excitement for the ring, adopted a skeptical tone, asking the rep if they could send over a photo of Nicholas so he could verify whether the person he had was actually him. And when the image was faxed over to an office close to where Frederick was staying, although he was very faint in black and white and it was hard to tell the exact features on Nicholas, the resemblance to him really didn't seem that far off. I can do this, he thought. So he quickly called back the center and told them, I have some good news. Nicholas Barclay is standing right beside me, obviously extremely shocked and excited at this revelation. The ref quickly gave him the number of the officer in the San Antonio Police Department who was in charge of the investigation. When Frederick contacted that guy, who was also extremely excited and sucked, he said that he was going to contact both Nicholas, his family, as well as the FBI and the U.S. embassy in Madrid. Now, although this scared Frederick a little, after all, he had not actually thought that far ahead and realized that all these Lords, government organizations were actually involved. He figured that everything should be fine. But little did he know he had nowhere near fully contemplated, just what he was about to unleash. The very next day, Frederick received a package from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children addressed to Jonathan Derian. Inside was a clean, significantly clearer photo of Nicholas Barclay in color, and the moment Frederick looked at it, his heart immediately skipped a beat. Panicking, his hands began trembling, and he said to himself, I'm dead. The photo he was looking at is sort of small, pale boy with blue eyes and brown hair so late that it was almost blond. Furthermore, in the description of Nicholas, it pointed out that he had several tattoos around his body. Not only did Frederick not have any tattoos, both his hair and his eyes were an intense, dark brown. He was screwed. Not only had Nicholas family already been informed that Nicholas was alive. Nicholas, his half sister, was already on her way at that very moment to come pick Nicholas up and realizing there was nothing he could do and no time to sit down and think about other solutions. Nicholas immediately ran to the bathroom and bleached his hair blunt, and then he asked a friend to come give him a very, very makeshift tattoo of the ones that Nicholas had. Using just a pen with ink inside. The ink from the pen, as well as a single needle. But still, with no possible way to change his eye color from brown to blue that fast, he decided to come up with a story about how he had been kidnaped and flown overseas in a military aircraft and how he had been abused in this pedophile ring where they injected chemicals into his eyes to change their color and to explain how he had a French accent while speaking English. He decided to say that while he was in captivity, he had been forced to stop speaking English entirely, and he had been also forced to learn French. And although he felt there was who saw it, that anyone would believe him for even a second, and that he was so insanely dumb to have even thought about trying something like this in the first place. By then, his half sister half sister had already shown up and he had no choice but to simply go out and meet her and hope for the best. When Nicholas's half sister, who was named Kerry, saw him for the week, was certain that she would immediately call him out, like, who even is this? This isn't my brother. But to his socks, she just immediately ran over and engulfed him in this massive bear hug, crying and kissing him, telling him how she was so happy that he was finally back. Frederick was stunned but just played along. And in the end, although Kerry noticed that the boy referred to her as Kerry instead of Sissy like Nicholas always had, and he also had a touch of her French accent. She had little doubt in her mind that it was indeed Nicholas. She simply assumed that any part of him that was different was either due to just time or the incredible trauma he had gone through. And since the boy also had the exact same tattoo as Nicholas seemed to know a lot of details about her family, Frederick had done its research and also had the exact same nose that she remembered. Kerry just let go of all four adults and happily welcomed her half brother back home. Neither American nor Spanish officials raised any questions when Kerry vouched for the boy. Of course, the FBI wasn't going to be suspicious of someone claiming to be a missing child. I mean, why would anyone ever claim to be a missing child? It just didn't happen as such. Once Kerry swore under oath that Frederick was her brother and had been an American citizen, he was granted a US passport and was legally now Nicholas Barclay. The very next day, both Frederick and Kerry boarded a flight back to San Antonio. When the plane landed, the members of Nicholas's family, who had all been informed that Nicholas had been found and was returning home, were excitedly waiting for him at the airport. But Frederick was still incredibly nervous that one of them would recognize that he was a complete fraud, decided to wear a hat, sunglasses and gloves to hide his appearance. Again, he was certain that the family, especially Nicholas's mom, Beverly, would immediately call him out. But again, to his shock, they all tearfully hugged him and celebrated his return. And although Nicholas's mom, Beverly, did seem slightly skeptical at first. She later came and hugged him, telling him, I missed you so much. After the reunion, Nicholas was brought home with the family, and since Beverly worked the graveyard shift every night, went to live with his half sister, Kerry, in their cramped trailer home. Over the next few days and weeks, he began to learn and pay attention to what others would say about Nicholas, what Nicholas was like. Using this information, he quickly blended into the family. Every difference between the old Nicholas and the new Nicholas that the family noticed, they simply attributed to his trauma and look past it. It seemed like no one suspected a single thing. Frederick eventually enrolled in high school as Nicholas and did his homework each night. Finally, he had a normal life, a family that cared about him, even friends. But unfortunately, none of that would last for very much longer. In November 1997, just a few weeks after Frederick had settled into his new home, Charlie Parker, a local private investigator, learned about the wild story of how this missing boy had been found after three years. It had escaped some sort of military pedophile ring. He was very interested in the story. And when a local TV channel wanted his help filming an interview with Nicholas, he immediately agreed and accepted. That's up. After tracking down Nicholas to his half sister, Kari's trailer. He actually managed to sit down with him and have a conversation. And when he asked whether Nicholas would be interested in having an interview for the week, obviously loving the attention quickly. Agreed. So a couple of days later, Charlie arrived back to Carrie's trailer with a producer and a camera crew. But as he was watching the interview go on, several things immediately struck him as very odd. The first was Nicholas's English accent, which was very clearly French, which made no sense for a boy who had been born and raised his entire life in Texas. The second thing was that there just so happened to be an old photo of Nicholas Barclay on the wall of the trailer, and when Charlie looked at that photo, he saw that the boy's eyes were blue in it, whereas the current Nicholas were brown. And the third thing was that the current Nicholas ears looked very different from the old Nicholas. That third realization was what really bothered Charlie. He had heard before that ears are the only part of the body that doesn't itch. As such, even then, he immediately knew that this boy was not Nicholas Barclay and was in fact an imposter. This realization sent chills down his spine, and he was terrified that the current Nicholas could be a spy or a terrorist, or worse. But before doing anything for us, he wanted to make sure that he was 100% certain of his conclusion. So Charlie called several ophthalmologists and asked them if ICE could be changed from blue to brown by injecting chemicals. They told him no. He then also called a dialect expert at Trinity University, who told him that even if someone had been held captive for ten years, they would still quickly regain their native accent from their childhood. Once released as such, with all this evidence in his pocket, Charlie immediately went to the FBI about it, as well as Nicholas's mom, Beverly, and told her, I don't mean to alarm you, but this boy is not your son. But Beverly was extremely upset by his words and told him that he was wrong and that he didn't know what he's talking about and that this was how she was confident her son. Now, while Charlie was conducting his investigation, the FBI was also conducting theirs. Veteran FBI agent Nancy Fisher had had her suspicions about the boy ever since he had seen his dark hair roots underneath the dyed blond. As such, Agent Fisher decided to take Nicholas to see a forensic psychiatrist under the cover of getting him treatment for his abuse. This psychiatrist concluded from Nicholas's grammar and style of talking that he simply could not be American and was most likely French or Spanish. But when Agent Fisher also shared this information with Nicholas, his family, and insisted that this boy was absolutely not their son. Beverly and Kerry both insisted again that she was wrong, that the psychiatrist was wrong, and that they knew, without a shred of a doubt that this boy was Nicholas. He simply knew too much about the family to not be Nicholas. But when Agent Fisher then asked if she could take some of Nicholas's blood for a DNA test to check and verify for certain, they both refused. And Beverly was furious at her, insisting that she was trying to steal her son for a second time. But Agent Fisher was determined to get a definitive answer once and for all, and four months later came back with a court order to force Nicholas to give both his fingerprints, as well as a sample of his blood. Despite Beverly's best efforts to protect her son, even just laying on the ground and insisting that she would never get up until Agent Fisher left, nothing worked. And when Agent Fisher went to go look for a DNA and fingerprint matched to the samples that she'd collected further, he knew that the jig was up, that it was all over. Shortly after the FBI's fingerprint and DNA collection, Nicholas's mom, Beverly, apparently finally came around and realized what was unfolding in front of her. She contacted private investigator Charlie Parker and told him that she believed that the boy living with them was an impostor. The next morning, Tolley invited Nicholas out for breakfast at a diner to talk things over to his SOC. After nearly five months of having arrived in the U.S. as Nicholas and living with Nicholas's family, the boy admitted him that he was not, in fact, Nicholas Barclay. Beverly was not his mom. Carrie was not his half sister. My name is Frederick Bordelon, and I'm wanted by Interpol. The boy said. And when Charlie quickly excused himself to the restroom to call Agent Fisher, he found that she had just discovered Fred, too, because identity as well. After running his prints in DNA, the documents that he had received indicated that Frederick was a 23 year old French man who had a long history of crime and impulsive behavior, very similar to the behavior exhibited in this case. As such, Frederick was soon arrested, and on September nine, 1998, he pled guilty to passport fraud and perjury and was sentenced to six years in prison. More than three times the recommended sentence. But interestingly, the story doesn't end there. In fact, it takes a very telling twist. You see, towards the end of Frederick's time living as Nicholas. He began to become very suspicious of just how willing the mom, Beverly and the half sister Kerry were to believe that he was Nicholas. Even in the face of such mounting evidence, they continued to defend him. And Frederick remembered that even at the very beginning, when he first met Beverly, she hadn't seemed all that excited at all to finally see her son again after three years and actually refused to live with him because she said it was too upsetting. Which in his eyes seemed suspicious and with how poor his story and disguise were. Nicholas began to suspect that the family had known all along from the very start, that he was not Nicholas. But still they had brought him in and treated him as Nicholas regard this because they needed a cover. You see, according to Frederick, one time when Beverly was very drunk, she had confessed to him that she and her older son, Jason, had accidentally killed Nicholas and covered it up as a disappearance in his eyes. They had taken him in to avoid having anyone continue to dig into the case and potentially eventually discover that they were the reason he was gone. And this made sense to him because Jason, his supposed brother, didn't even come see him until more than an entire month after Frederick had arrived as Nicholas and only came to see him finally when other family members came and just dragged him out. Their first time meeting was very tense and Frederick could even tell that Jason knew that he was not his brother, but still just didn't say anything. However, despite the existence of other evidence supporting Frederick's claim enough to warrant an FBI investigation into it, both Beverly and Keri for firmly denied this, saying that Frederick was a pathological liar and simply could not be trusted. It's really one of those situations that we'll just never know what really happened. Let me know what you guys think. But after the FBI investigation found nothing, the case was dropped. And to this very day, no one knows what happened to the real Nicholas Barclay. In 2003, within mere months after being released from prison in the US and sent back, deported back to France, Frederick went right back to his old life and stole the identity of yet another missing child, a 14 year old French boy named Leo, who had been missing since 1996. But this time he was caught very quickly using DNA testing and despite trying to assume a few more fake identities over the next few years and not being too successful, likely because he was over 30 by this point, he decided to turn over a new leaf in 2008. Further, he got married and adopted a cat, and soon after he had five children. Today, he's left his career as an imposter in the past, and although I'm not too sure what he's up to now, he is active on TikTok. You can find his account by searching his name. In total, Frederick claims that he has assumed over 500 different false identities and he's listed among Time magazine's top ten imposters ever. However, he maintains that the only reason he became an imposter in the first place was to just find love in a family. Today, hopefully, he's found a loving family and he says he only lives for his children and for his cat. With that being said, that'll do it for today if you're new here. My name is Andy. I tell bizarre, true stories once a week. As always, please let me know your thoughts, feedbacks, ideas, story suggestions down below. I'll see you guys soon.