Even to "keep track" of the activities of the abandoned family members can be a risk. I was astonished at the number of identity-changers who knew in minute detail what was going on in their previous existence!
And it should go without saying that no matter how tender the moment, or how great the temptation to confide, he should never divulge or even hint at the identity change to young ladies. Or not-so-young ladies. Exclamation Point! The old gag about the fastest methods of news dissemination being telephone and tell-a-woman is as true today as when it was coined some hundred years or so ago.
An astonishing number of disappearees violate this obvious and basic rule, to their ultimate sorrow, and identity-changers of all people, should know only too well how vindictive a woman can be when sufficiently provoked.
A little-appreciated facet of disappearing and identity switching is the extreme vulnerability of a vanisher to blackmail. And his absolute helplessness in the face of it, short of disappearing again.
A man died not too long ago down in Naples, Florida. He was the business manager for a family with extensive holdings throughout the country. Happily married, he and his wife were quite popular in the community.
Almost before his body cooled his "wife" spirited it out of town for burial. Whereupon the real Mrs. X turned up. Seemed our successful Floridan was really a disappearee out of Cleveland, Ohio.
In the resulting legal imbroglio a very interesting fact came to light. His original wife had been milking him for several hundred dollars a month for years as the price for keeping her mouth shut. How she managed to locate him in his new identity no one knows. My guess is that he was seen on the street by somebody who knew him in his original existence and promptly tipped off the original wife. Florida is, after all, an extremely poor choice for a vanisher from Cleveland because so many people from that city spend the cold weather months in Sunny Florida.
On his death the original wife made every effort to get her hands on his Florida estate, including the very home in which he had resided in bliss with his new lady. Fortunately for the latter he had anticipated this and had taken the proper legal steps to protect her rights. So the new "wife" was able to salvage at least some of the Florida holdings. Her popularity in the community helped in this, too.
The original wife, by the way, had managed to have him declared dead in Ohio and had collected his life insurance, in addition to the regular monthly payments she'd been bleeding him for. This in turn put her in a very interesting relationship with the insurance people!
POSTSCRIPT
On rereading the manuscript I've come to the conclusion that perhaps it is the men who don't disappear who should be pitied. They are the grouchy, embittered, ulcer-ridden men one sees every day, bound by ties of duty, loyalty and fear to a life they detest, hopeless in their forties, old before their time in their fifties.
In this age of loud and vocal minorities, the disappearees in our midst--and they are legion!--who constitute a minority group in every sense of the word, are refreshing in that they aren't hollering for handouts, howling about discrimination, or complaining about their lack of opportunity. And though in modern society the problems of an adult with no "paper background" are manifold and pressing, these people go calmly about overcoming their problems unaided, alone and with a complete absence of bitching.
And I believe it can be truly said that they are the only group that has come anywhere near to beating the system.
I salute them!
--Doug Richmond
REFERENCES
The following books are good sources of further information on the topics discussed in this work.
MISSING PERSONS
SEARCH, by Jane Askin, Harper & Row, New York, 1982.
Written for adoptees searching for their biological parents, it discusses how paper trails many years old can be used to locate a person.
HOW TO FIND MISSING PERSONS: A Handbook for Investigators, by Ronald George Eriksen 2, Loompanics Unlimited, Port Townsend, WA, 1984. The definitive manual for skip tracers and private eyes.
AMONG THE MISSING, by Jay Robert Nash, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1978. Interesting stories on people who have disappeared permanently.
ID IN AMERICA
THE PAPER TRIP I and THE PAPER TRIP II, Eden Press, Fountain Valley, CA, 1984 and 1985.
The classic and original books "For a New You through New ID."
NEW I.D. IN AMERICA, by Anonymous, Paladin Press, Boulder, CO, 1983. Excellent material, just what the title says.
MAIL ORDER I.D., by Michael Hoy, Loompanics Unlimited, Port Townsend, WA, 1985. Definitive guide to fake ID sold through the mail, with names & addresses of sellers, and photos of their products.
ID IN OTHER COUNTRIES
HOW TO GET ID IN CANADA, by Ronald George Eriksen 2, Loompanics Unlimited, Port Townsend, WA, 1983.
This book is to Canada what the above books are to the USA.
PAPER TRIPPING OVERSEAS: New I.D. in England, Australia and New Zealand, by Tony Newborn, Paladin Press, Boulder, CO, 1985. The title is self-explanatory.
FINDING WORK
HOW TO STEAL A JOB, by Bill Conners, Financial Management Associates, Phoenix, AZ, 1977.
A good book on the "hidden" job market, with a good section on how to create a fake job history.
TEMPORARY EMPLOYMENT: The Flexible Alternative, by Demaris C. Smith, Betterway Publications, White Hall, VA, 1985. Excellent guide to finding temporary employment.
GUERRILLA CAPITALISM: How to Practice Free Enterprise in an Unfree Economy, by Adam Cash, Loompanics Unlimited, Port Townsend, WA, 1984. The definitive guide to evading taxes and keeping a low profile in the Underground Economy.
HOW TO DO BUSINESS "OFF THE BOOKS", by Adam Cash, Loompanics Unlimited, Port Townsend, WA, 1986. Just what the title says--the sequel to the above book.
GETTING CREDIT
THE COMPLETE CREDIT BOOK, by Bruce Brown & Tom Nelson, Inflation Reports, Los Angeles, 1986.
A fine guide to obtaining credit, including howto get a Visa or Mastercard with no credit check
.
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