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My fake classmate

Published Wednesday, January 10, 2007 by seanlmccarthy | E-mail this post

Big news around town this week has centered on the mysterious case of Esther Elizabeth Reed, who stole the identity of the missing Brooke Henson and used it to get into both Columbia and Harvard. The New York Post wrote about her here and here, and Boston TV outlets have followed the story, talking about Reed's con as something new in the age of identity theft.

It's not.

One of my Princeton classmates was a famous faker who took the name Alexi Indris Santana and ran cross-country. I knew of him, but wasn't that close to him (unlike some other infamous Tigers of my generation whom I do know better). He turned out to be the much-older James Arthur Hogue. His story is documented in the 2003 film, Con Man, which is available on video. My alma mater even hosted a screening and discussion about the film and Hogue last year during Reunions. Sorry I missed it.

Labels: college, imposters