0:00

Have you ever just wanted a fresh start, a do

0:02

over to say, you know what, I need to reset

0:04

things a bit. Now for most of us, we have

0:06

that attitude around New Year's want to do a New

0:09

Year's resolution, want a fresh start at the year, but

0:11

for other people, they go a bit too

0:14

far at the idea of a fresh start

0:16

and they fake their own deaths in order

0:18

to start a new life. But

0:21

for many people who choose to do that, it tends to

0:23

not work out as well for them. Welcome

0:25

to the Council of Trent podcast. I'm your

0:28

host Trent Horn. Mondays and Wednesdays we talk

0:30

apologetics and theology, but on Friday, FFAF, Free

0:32

For All Friday, we talk about whatever I

0:34

want to talk about. And today

0:36

I want to talk about the world of

0:38

death fraud, the world of pseudocide. There's

0:41

a 2016 book about this by Elizabeth Greenwood

0:43

called Playing Dead, a Journey Through the World

0:46

of Death Fraud, AKA, you know, it's also

0:48

called suicide, sorry, not suicide. That's when

0:50

you actually do take your own life. Suicide

0:54

is when you make people think you've either

0:56

taken your own life. Well, usually though, when

0:58

people commit pseudocide, they don't want people to

1:01

think that they've committed a suicide because they're

1:03

involved in things like life insurance fraud. They

1:05

just want people to think that they

1:08

usually have been the victim of some kind of

1:10

a tragic accident and they're now dead and the

1:12

world should move on without them because they want

1:14

to move on to start a new life under

1:16

a new alias. And

1:19

there are so many facets that

1:21

go into that. So I

1:24

have a review here, a review in the New York

1:26

Times of Greenwood's book that I was going to read

1:28

some of it to you and also share some of

1:30

the other details that go into the world of pseudocide.

1:33

So the review says, how did

1:35

I end up sweating in the backseat

1:37

of a Mercedes in the Philippines driving

1:39

to obtain evidence of my own death?

1:42

Elizabeth Greenwood teases us in the introduction to her

1:44

book, Playing Dead, a Journey Through the World of

1:46

Death Fraud. She was 27 at

1:48

the time in 2013 and saddled

1:51

with compounding student debt. From

1:54

that co-introduction, Ms. Greenwood leaps into an

1:56

anecdote-filled history of and rough primer for

1:58

erasing your status. She

2:01

surely notes that our fascination with vanishing is

2:03

only heightened by the hyper visibility of our

2:05

age. Is it even

2:07

possible to disappear anymore? She wonders when

2:09

every move is monitored if not by

2:11

the National Security Agency then by closed

2:13

circuit TVs drones phones transmitting our coordinates

2:16

and obnoxious friends tagging us on

2:19

Facebook. So right when

2:21

it comes to faking your own death, I mean, you know

2:23

50 years ago when people didn't have

2:25

any kind of background checks or anything like that. You

2:28

could just show up in a brand new town, say,

2:30

I'm John Smith. Of

2:33

course, here's my identification right here. Oh,

2:35

I lost my identification. Can I get

2:37

some new ones right here? It would

2:39

be the drifter that shows up in

2:41

the town or whatever it may be.

2:44

And you could even just go away just

2:46

a few miles, maybe a few hundred miles

2:48

and no one would be the wiser. A

2:50

few hundred miles might even be the equivalent

2:52

of a few thousand miles or going to

2:54

a new country because people weren't connected. But

2:56

now we're hyper connected through the Internet, through

2:58

social media. It's a lot

3:01

more difficult to do that. So Greenwood in the

3:03

book goes through all the different ways that people

3:05

commit pseudocide and the reasons for it. She

3:07

says that typically pseudocide is a

3:10

male phenomena, that it's something that

3:12

men tend to do far more often than

3:14

women. And

3:17

the reasons usually when men fake their

3:19

own deaths, it's because they have money

3:21

problems. When women fake their

3:23

own deaths, it's because they have man problems,

3:25

usually trying to get away from a violent

3:27

or abusive spouse. And so they they change

3:30

their own identity. And

3:32

then the review here goes on to say to test

3:35

the waters, she consults with a privacy

3:37

consultant named Frank Ahern. Frank is in

3:39

his fifties and resembles a Hell's Angel.

3:42

She writes the word freedom is tattooed

3:44

across his broad shoulders and he uses

3:46

profanity in a way that borders on

3:48

Zen poetry. Mr. Ahern tells

3:51

her that he helps people disappear,

3:53

not fake death and that the

3:55

distinction is crucial. It's illegal to

3:57

file any official paperwork about your

3:59

fabricated death. death, but it's perfectly

4:01

legal, if difficult, to disappear. And

4:04

that's something a lot of people don't know

4:06

about pseudocide, is that it's legal, in most

4:08

cases, to walk away from your life and

4:10

disappear, and people just don't know what happened

4:12

to you. So it's legal to do

4:14

that, but when you try to fake your own death,

4:17

you end up committing illegal

4:19

activities fairly quickly.

4:22

If you try to create a new identity, for

4:24

example, you're going to end up committing identity fraud,

4:26

if you try to create a person who never

4:29

existed, or take a dead person's identity and assume

4:31

it as your own. If you try

4:33

to get a lease, you try to get

4:35

even like a rental agreement, try to buy

4:37

an asset like a car, you

4:39

try to get a credit card, you're going to

4:41

end up committing identity fraud if you're trying to

4:43

live a life in a

4:46

first world country and trying

4:48

to fake your own death. That's why

4:50

in Greenwood's book, she says, if you really

4:52

do want to fake your own death and

4:54

assume a new identity, you really should go

4:56

to more of a developing country or one

4:58

that has pretty lax identification requirements and a

5:01

country where the American dollar goes a lot further.

5:03

So if you were trying to fake your own

5:05

death and just walk away from your life, let's

5:07

say you've saved up $50,000 in

5:09

cash, you're not going to go very far if

5:12

you try to create a new identity here in

5:14

the US or even in most European nations. So

5:17

she says one of the most popular countries that people

5:19

disappear off to would be Thailand. You go

5:21

there, American Westerners, they're at

5:23

least not despised, not looked down upon

5:25

in that country. And American

5:28

dollars can go pretty far in Thailand. And

5:30

it's not that hard for you to create

5:32

a new identity, get some kind

5:35

of a menial job or even some job that's

5:37

like of decent working quality and just pick that

5:39

up because of the lax standards there. But trying

5:41

to start a new job and a new life

5:44

in America, in the US or in England, it's

5:46

going to be a lot more difficult. And

5:49

when it comes to the illegal aspects, the other illegal

5:51

aspect, of course, is life insurance.

5:54

If you fake your own death and then your life

5:56

insurance is paid out to a beneficiary and then you

5:58

get a hold of the money. Well then

6:00

now you've committed insurance fraud and you

6:02

can definitely go to prison

6:05

for a decent while for that. So the

6:07

article goes on to say one investigator calls

6:09

staged deaths an outlier in the insurance fraud

6:11

game, making up maybe 1% of

6:14

the cases. Miss Greenwood's research reveals

6:16

that death fraud is a heavily male phenomena.

6:18

As I said earlier men looking to disappear

6:20

tend to have money problems. When

6:22

it's women they tend to have violent man problems. So

6:26

some of the fundamental tasks on the

6:28

offing yourself checklist are more easily accomplished

6:30

than you might think. For instance producing

6:32

a body. So what

6:34

Greenwood says in the book is that the number one

6:36

way people will go about trying to fake their own

6:38

death is large open bodies of water to

6:41

say oh, you know what happened to them?

6:43

Oh, you know, I died when I was

6:45

out on my boat and fell overboard and

6:47

you leave the boat out there then people

6:49

find it and you're not on the boat.

6:51

I guess you must have fell overboard in

6:53

quiet tranquil waters and he couldn't get back

6:55

on the boat. Well, how

6:57

could that have happened? Or

7:00

people make it look like that you you went

7:02

swimming or kayaking. That's an example that we'll share

7:05

here shortly and that you you know, you're you've

7:07

disappeared in a large body of water and the body is not going to

7:09

be found. Greenwood says that's actually a

7:12

terrible idea. If you're gonna fake your own death, don't

7:14

do large open bodies of water because

7:16

people are insurance, there's two people looking

7:18

for you. The police will be looking for you, especially

7:20

if you disappear and you're gonna be arrested for a

7:22

crime. Samuel Israel

7:25

III, he was a

7:27

I think a hedge fund manager who

7:29

was convicted of a crime. He

7:31

then parked his car on a bridge, wrote

7:33

Suicide is Beautiful and The Dust on the

7:35

car, which is I think the theme song

7:38

from MASH, jumps over the

7:40

bridge, lands in construction nets under it

7:42

and then was found hiding

7:44

in an RV a few weeks later because even if you

7:46

you know, he jumped off a bridge and landed in a

7:48

river. Well, usually the body is gonna wash up at

7:51

some point or if you disappear in a bay

7:53

or even out at sea, the

7:56

investigators know where the currents are going. Usually a

7:58

body ends up ends up being discovered. Or

8:00

people are, they're just naturally suspicious of it, whether

8:02

it is the police or looking for you because

8:04

you disappeared before you're supposed to go to prison.

8:07

Or life insurance investigators, that life insurance

8:09

policies will usually delay paying out if

8:12

no body can be produced. And so they're

8:14

gonna wait to see if this is a

8:16

suspicious circumstance or not. Now,

8:18

the only other case where you

8:20

can get away with a faked

8:23

death without a body is if

8:25

you're able to realistically tie your

8:27

faked death to a large disaster.

8:29

So for example, in the September

8:31

11th attacks, the collapse of the

8:33

World Trade Center, there were

8:35

people who used insurance fraud to say

8:37

they had actually died in the attacks or made

8:39

up fake identities of people who never existed, say

8:41

that they died in the attacks. Though

8:44

there's another case actually of a woman who claimed to

8:46

have been a survivor, someone

8:48

who was in the towers and lived, and

8:50

she was never actually there, she was just some random woman from Spain

8:53

with this story. So in disasters, there's these

8:55

fake stories that can emerge. And

8:58

when you have, what would it be, millions

9:00

of tons of concrete and steel coming

9:03

down, at least hundreds of thousands,

9:05

not millions of tons coming down on someone, a lot

9:07

of those bodies are just never gonna be recovered. And

9:10

so if you can realistically tie yourself that

9:12

you were there in that situation, that's one

9:14

way. But most people, when they decide they

9:16

want to commit pseudo-side are not in that

9:18

situation. So they pick large open bodies of

9:21

water, people get suspicious. But

9:23

according to the article, you

9:25

can actually get a, find a corpse

9:28

and pay money in developing nations. People

9:30

say that that's you with, it's

9:33

not as much trouble as you might think. So

9:35

the article says, a relatively robust number

9:37

of morgues are in the sales business, especially

9:39

in places where corpse security is a low

9:41

priority. Steve Rambam, a fraud investigator,

9:43

is quoted as saying, you can just go

9:46

into any city morgue in almost any developing

9:48

country, ask to see the unclaimed bodies and

9:50

cry, oh, it's poor Uncle Marco. They'll

9:53

be happy to get a body off

9:55

their hands. So If you go

9:57

to a developing country, it's not as hard to

9:59

find a body. Bird to produce abiding. Many

10:01

people here in the Us will take the

10:03

disappearance by water and also in Europe as

10:05

well. When people are doing this as a

10:07

book covers, pile on the most famous case.

10:10

Especially if you're from England, you'd remember this

10:12

will be the case of John Darwin who

10:14

is presumed dead in two thousand and Two.

10:16

There. Was later discovered and arrested by

10:18

Uk authorities in two thousand and seven

10:20

for faking his own death in order

10:23

to commit insurance fraud. So are already

10:25

a little bit about that case because

10:27

it's it. Pulls a lot of threads

10:29

together, including them. The common mistakes people

10:31

make a have you will get caught.

10:34

Even if you do convince people that

10:36

you've died in the life insurance money

10:38

is paid out, you're always on the

10:40

run. You're always in a situation where

10:42

people are you risk being discovered, You

10:44

risks people finding you that if the

10:47

investigators. What they'll say, Life Insurance best hitters

10:49

in the police will say we can make

10:51

as many mistakes as we want. You only

10:53

have to make one mistake. The guy who's

10:55

on the run and we could find yourself

10:57

your way successfully sake your own death. Used

10:59

to follow the protocols of something like Witness

11:02

Protection near the witness protection program the Us

11:04

Marshals put on if you're spying and the

11:06

mob and yet to disappear so you know

11:08

finds you know no one and Witness Protection

11:10

has ever who is abided by the protocols

11:12

of the of the program. Has ever

11:15

died or they have a hundred percent record

11:17

of that. but they're very clear you when

11:19

you a new identity you can't do with

11:21

their ironclad rule is you cannot contact people,

11:23

have your old life can't go back and you

11:25

to girl favorite restaurant. Can't go see old friends,

11:27

Can't go see old family because you're just

11:29

gonna end up being discovered and found out

11:31

you just you just can't do that. So.

11:34

But. That's how people when they do disappear, that

11:36

longing for their old life for that morbid

11:38

curiosity of what it was like. It.

11:40

Just gets the better of them as I there

11:42

was a guy in Belgium he faked his own

11:45

death just to see who would show up at

11:47

his funeral and he arrived at the funeral in

11:49

a helicopter to see who cared enough about him

11:51

to to shop at his funeral. So I it

11:53

ends up getting the best you see. Here's what

11:56

happened with with Darwin: the Darwin Case in two

11:58

thousand and two monsieur. The article here. He

12:01

was paddling out to see

12:03

Ah at Seaton Carew. That's.

12:05

A that's a resort in Durham in

12:08

England had this year along the North

12:10

Sea. Any is paddling our into it

12:12

and then he didn't come back and

12:14

he was reported missing after failing or

12:16

appear to work. A. Large

12:19

see scale. Ah, large large scale see

12:21

search was undertaken. About sixty two square

12:23

miles of coastline were searched. No sign

12:25

of Darwin. But then they found his

12:27

paddle in the wreckage of his kayak.

12:30

But. They did not find his body and

12:32

there already is a little a suspicion here

12:34

because the investigator said the North sea was

12:36

very calm when he went out. The don't

12:38

know why he would have gotten so much

12:41

trouble and died. and also if the kayak

12:43

was discovered on the coast, why wasn't the

12:45

body discovered as well or elements of the

12:47

body? So there are these suspicions, but not

12:50

enough to really nail down something had happened.

12:52

So eventually a death certificate was issued for

12:54

him and then two thousand and three. His

12:56

wife was awarded a two hundred fifty thousand

12:59

pound life insurance policy. so. During that time

13:01

before the policy came out, Darwin was actually in

13:03

a rented room next door to his old house.

13:05

I think I might even been like a hole

13:07

in the wall for and we'll go from the

13:09

rented room back into the into the house Though

13:11

I don't know why he had to be in

13:13

the rented room. I guess he didn't want to

13:15

be in the house. you the people are coming

13:17

over, investigators, others you know you don't want to

13:19

be at the house and wife's friends come over

13:21

and they see the your there but he was

13:23

able to go from the bed. It was called

13:25

a bedsit a rented room in England to go

13:27

back over into the house. And

13:29

then eventually him he fully move back

13:31

into the old house after they got

13:33

the the insurance money. And

13:36

then he got a passport and got a fake

13:38

identity Jon Jones They do say by the way

13:40

to fake your own death or also even if

13:42

you do when his protection keep your first name.

13:45

he spent your whole life responding to it so

13:47

you might will keep your first name. Now.

13:49

unless it's a really really unique first name

13:51

keep your first name change your last name

13:54

eyes or he picked jon jones ah the

13:56

since we're buys on pick john smith how

13:58

much of us nondescript I'm trying to hide

14:00

my identity name is that. Sorry for any John

14:02

Joneses who are listening to the podcast. But they

14:05

go and then you travel around and they were

14:07

using the money. They were planning to try to

14:09

find a new life and that's when they started

14:11

looking at Panama. So they went to Panama to

14:14

start a company there and rent

14:16

out properties. And he was with a Panamanian

14:19

real estate agent who took a photograph of the two of

14:21

them, John and his wife, which was later put up on

14:23

the internet. And that evidence later came

14:25

back to haunt him when the

14:27

authorities got more and more suspicious. And

14:30

then we're mounting a case against him.

14:33

So in doing that, his wife became

14:35

suspicious. Sorry, his wife became an optical

14:37

suspicion because she's supposed to be this

14:39

grieving widow but she's selling her home,

14:41

moving to Panama, going on foreign holidays,

14:43

what they call vacations in England. I'm

14:45

going on holiday. And

14:47

so one of her coworkers, so

14:49

Anne, his wife, a coworker of hers

14:52

heard her on the phone talking

14:54

to John, her husband who's supposed to

14:56

be dead. And that's where

14:58

the suspicion, though somebody actually saw him before

15:01

that point when he was in the rented

15:03

room. And that was back in

15:05

like 2003, a guy said, oh,

15:07

all she's supposed to be dead. And

15:10

he tells him, don't tell anyone about this. And the

15:12

guy said he didn't want to the police because he

15:14

didn't want to get involved. So when you go back

15:16

to your old life, you're going to end up getting

15:18

caught or it's just so easy for

15:21

something you do. There was another case of a guy,

15:23

he had faked his own death

15:25

but then he was involved in some kind of

15:27

local art show or a contest and he was,

15:29

the picture was taken of him, it was put

15:31

online, his relatives who thought he was dead see

15:33

it when they were Googling about him and the

15:35

hobbies he used to do. So

15:37

the internet, it just, it scoops you up. It's

15:39

very hard to get away from it. So

15:42

then when he was in Panama, his wife booked him

15:44

an airline ticket to go back to England because he

15:46

missed his sons. Once again, when you miss your old

15:48

life, that's what ensnares you. But they

15:51

changed the Panamanian visas to

15:53

require identity verification. And

15:55

Darwin knew he was going to be found out

15:58

because he had a fake. identity,

16:00

Judge John Jones. So he returned to

16:02

England, went to the police station, and

16:04

he claimed that he had amnesia for

16:06

the past five years, and he

16:08

just got his memory back and had no idea what

16:10

happened. Of course they didn't buy

16:13

that for a second because they had now all of

16:15

this evidence to show he was in cahoots with his

16:17

wife, they had been traveling together, and so

16:19

it's a very interesting case, and then I

16:21

think he and his wife ended up getting,

16:23

I think it was like six years in

16:25

prison because of that. So yeah, so that's

16:27

some of the elements of pseudocide. I can't

16:29

remember if I said this earlier

16:32

or because I actually recorded this episode

16:34

before and the audio got completely messed

16:36

up, so I apologize if

16:38

I'm repeating myself here because it's my second

16:40

recording of it. But if

16:42

you really did want to disappear, it's very hard

16:44

to do in the States. You need to go

16:46

to a developing country like Thailand is probably one

16:48

of the most popular ones that people pick because

16:50

you can go there, you can assume a new

16:52

identity very easily, get a job, even a decent

16:54

job, and they don't really look

16:56

down on Americans as much in Thailand, and if you've

16:59

already saved up a lot of money here

17:01

in the States and you want to disappear, your money can

17:03

go a lot further there than it would in other

17:05

countries, which is probably why the Darwin's

17:07

were looking at a country like Panama.

17:10

So Latin America, Southeast Asia are very

17:12

popular destinations for those who just want

17:14

to disappear. But if you are thinking

17:16

of disappearing, don't do

17:18

that. I mean I'm sure that the problems in

17:20

your life are not as bad as you think

17:23

they are, and also if you're thinking of doing

17:25

it, odds are you'll probably, especially if you're trying

17:27

to fake your own death and commit identity or

17:30

insurance fraud, you'll probably be found out and make

17:32

things just that much worse for you. So thank

17:34

you guys so much for listening. I hope you

17:36

all have a very blessed weekend.