The Salvation Army
A little known facet of the search for missing persons is that there are a number of social agencies who undertake to find disappearees. The Salvation Army is the best known of these, and far and away the most efficient. They mostly find missing sons and daughters, relatives who emigrated from the old country and with whom contact has been lost, missing heirs, etc. They are so involved with this work that they even have a periodical devoted to it.
However, the Salvation Army will not undertake an adverse search. That is, they will only act on behalf of a missing person's immediate family or in instances where it would be to the person's benefit to be located. They are comparatively thorough and far-ranging because of their international facilities. But like most tracing organizations, they are primarily concerned with people who are not deliberately concealing their identity and whereabouts.
Insurance Companies
Another example of where big money is involved, thorough searches are more likely, is the life insurance company. All insurance companies as a rule dislike to pay out money under any circumstances. But they dislike paying out big money more than small claims. As most life insurance policies are for $100,000 and up, any death warrants investigation before they will pay up. And this is particularly true where there is no corpse.
Without a cold body you must have the disappearee declared legally dead to collect the life insurance. The life insurance companies do not have to find the person to withhold payment. All they must do is prove that he is alive and healthy somewhere. With the kind of financial incentives involved, insurance companies are likely to mount a much more intensive search than the local Missing Persons Bureau.
CREATING A BULLET-PROOF IDENTITY
"The whole system of identification for people in the United States and most foreign countries is a house of cards. And it's erected on soft, dry sand."
--Gray, in a conversation with the author.
I was in the San Francisco International Airport waiting to catch a plane to Texas when I met the man who provided most of the information for this chapter. He was a smallish man with a neatly-trimmed gray beard, wore an expensive gray suit and carried an aluminum Halliburton attache case which was quite the worse for wear and was also gray in hue. I never learned his name, but I've come to think of him as "Gray."
I struck up a conversation with him because he was such a contrast to the good ol' boy types who filled the waiting area. We chatted in the aimless way of strangers until I casually mentioned I was researching a book on deliberate disappearances and identity changes, at which point he became electrified. I've thought back on the incident many times since and I do not believe he was a disappearee, although the information he gave me about documenting an identity has checked out 100%. Most of what follows is based on my conversations with Gray, which lasted until I deplaned in El Paso.
LOCATING AN IDENTITY
The first step in creating an identity is locating a good one to use. The word "locate" is the key here. While it is possible to
fabricate
an identity from scratch, and many people have done it successfully, it is an extremely difficult way to go about solving a simple problem. And the manufactured identity almost never withstands investigation as well as a genuine identity used by an imposter.
Almost everybody is investigated at one time or another to a greater or lesser degree. It may be the personnel department where you've applied for a job, a bonding company investigating your past before they agree to guarantee your performance, or a prospective father-in-law checking up on his daughter's suitor. Although most of these investigations are not very rigorous, it is fairly easy to turn up enough information (or the lack thereof) to spot a completely fictitious identity. On the other hand, the person who adopts a genuine identity should be able to document it thoroughly enough to avoid discovery.
Assuming a Living Identity
While it is important to build your documentation on a genuine identity, it is a mistake to assume the identity of another living person. Many small time criminals have made this mistake and it has cost them a trip back to jail. They lift a guy's wallet or find some credit cards while engaged in a robbery and go on a coast-to-coast spending spree. Maybe they just use the guy's ID and don't try to spend his money. But what they seem to forget is someone out there has an interest in locating them and putting a halt to their charade: the guy whose identity they copped. And if the theft is reported the police may be looking for someone using the victim's identity.
Of course, there are imposters who have a definite need to appropriate a specific person's identity. Even then, it is very tricky to collect documentation to support the hoax. The imposter might find himself explaining to the authorities how he managed to get a duplicate drivers license after the speeding ticket he received was traced to a man who wasn't even in town that day. The imposter's request for a copy of "his" birth certificate will leave a paper trail that's easy enough to follow. And a duplicate passport, if discovered, could lead to serious trouble.
When the State Department realizes it has issued passports to two different people with the same exact name and vital statistics, the shit is going to hit the fan! One passport is going to be revoked, and there are lots of places in the world where being without that little blue book could literally be a fate worse than death. Of course, it would be difficult for the State Department to cause a
