The very first suicide from the San Francisco Bay Bridge was actually a pseudocide. The person in question was a San Francisco Supervisor, similar to a councilman or alderman, who was embroiled in a little dispute with the accounting types over the disposal of some official funds.
When the situation got serious he took the easy way out and was written off the books as a bridge suicide even though his remains were never located. Sometime later he was discovered selling bibles door-to-door down in Texas.
I heard about another pseudocide through one of my phone contacts. A young fellow who had suffered as much of his wife and job as he could handle decided the best alternative was to bow out of that life forever. He spent months accumulating documents, planning for his new life, and hatching an elaborate plan for disappearing. In all this he was aided by a close buddy, which is very unusual. Most disappearees go it alone.
The disappearee left his house late one night in his car to meet his friend. His friend had borrowed his sister's car, which was registered in the name of his brother-in-law. To go with the borrowed car, the friend had a fake driver's license using his brother-in-law's name with his own photograph. The two of them drove their cars to a nearby bridge. I believe it was the Golden Gate, though the caller wouldn't identify the bridge.
It was a foggy night and visibility on the bridge was almost nil. The disappearee-in-the-making pulled up along the curb at the middle of the bridge, laid his billfold on the seat, then joined his friend who had pulled-up slightly in front of him. Together they flagged down a passing motorist, telling the driver that they had seen someone jump off the bridge but they couldn't get to him in time to stop him. They asked the motorist to go phone the police while they waited at the scene.
The disappearee had planned his deed well. The billfold he left on the seat was absent any picture identification of the supposed jumper, though there were plenty of pictures of his wife and relatives and a lot of non-picture ID. When the police arrived, they told them the story. The police took down their names; the disappearee had a complete set of fake ID already assembled for his new identity and his friend used his brother-in-law's name and ID.
The police accepted the story at face value, and why not? Bridge suicides are not uncommon, but witnesses to them are rare. Here the police had two sober, reliable-looking witnesses. There was never a thorough investigation made and as no body was found there wasn't a coroner's inquest which would have required the witnesses to appear in court. The incident was listed officially as a suicide and the young disappearee left the scene feeling like "a new man."
As clever as this pseudocide was, I believe that a serious identity changer would forgo the fake-death routine for an out-and-out disappearance. Our young bridge-jumper has taken a number of unnecessary risks. For one, his new name is now in official police files and is tied-in with his old identity. What if his "ex"-wife wanted to speak with the witnesses herself? Also, both of the witnesses' names might well appear in a newspaper police-beat column. Think of the surprise of the disappearee's friend's brother-in-law as he read his name in the paper as a witness to a suicide. He might consider it just a coincidence of identical names. Then again, the license number of the brother-in-law's car is likely in the police file, too. What if the wife, unable to track down the witness that was in fact her husband, used the name and license plate of the other witness to track him down? She might be very suspicious if the brother-in-law swears he lent his car that night to a man she knows was her husband's best friend.
If the bridge-jumper had a life insurance policy, chances are they would investigate even if the police didn't. Insurance companies are all-too-familiar with the phony bridge suicide routine, as they have uncovered quite a few not-very-intelligent frauds by people who hoped to use their own life insurance proceeds to get themselves out of debt. With the information contained in the police report the insurance investigators would probably have enough grounds to withhold payment even if they couldn't find the disappearee.
The greatest mistake of our bridge-jumping friend was involving someone else in his plans. One of the ground rules of successful identity change is to keep your plans to yourself. The friend who so freely helps you execute your plans may not be able to withstand the pressures exerted by relatives or the police to locate the missing person.
Your friend may help you destroy your old life but doesn't want to see your scheme destroy his life. And you won't be there to hold his hand as the police try to coerce your whereabouts out of him.
Do It Alone
Successful identity changers keep their plans to themselves. Further, they rarely take anyone with them when they go. Regardless of what you read in the tabloids, it is very unusual for a man to take his mistress with him into his new life. Of course, women often run off with men and change their names, whether they get married or not. But this does not constitute a disappearance and identity change in the context of this book. It is very difficult for a person to successfully change identities alone. It is damn near impossible to do it in tandem.
Children pose a somewhat different problem. Every now and then the mass media have a heyday with the case of a
