Surely many have heard this name - Frederick Bourdin. The police have been interested in this French serial impostor for a long time. Frederick even received a nickname in wide circles - “Chameleon”.
Birth and childhood
Bourdin was born on June 13 in 1974 in Nantes (department of Haut-de-Seine). According to media reports, the boy is the illegitimate son of Gislen Bourdin. As it turned out, the woman initially wanted to have an abortion at the request of her father and grandfather Frederick, but eventually refused and gave birth. Gislen became a mother at the age of 18. In an interview with one of the local channels, the mother said that Frederick's father was an immigrant from Algeria. Upon learning that a casual connection brought him a child, he immediately disappeared, leaving Gislen to the mercy of fate with the baby. The police also found out that the woman was very fond of drinking and taking a walk at night.
Gislen also told the press that at the age of 5, she gave her son up to grandfather and grandmother to France. At 12, the boy ended up in an orphanage.
Debut reincarnation
Frederick Bourdain is known for posing as other personalities. According to him, he managed to feel himself in the role of 500 strangers to him. As it turned out later, three of them were missing teenagers.
Even in early childhood, the boy called the police, introduced himself as strangers or even lied that he did not remember his name. As Frederick Bourdain himself later admitted, he often shouted into the phone and asked for help. The guy claimed that his parents beat him and he ran away from home.
In general, there were a lot of similar stories. He did this all over Europe for a long time. The press and the police were perplexed: why did a 30-year-old man impersonate orphans, because he had no mental deviations, and he didn’t really need money.
It should be noted that Frederick lived in more than 15 countries and knew 5 languages perfectly.
Nicholas Barclay
In 1997, when the young man was 23 years old, he declared that his real name was Nicholas Barclay. The boy disappeared on June 13, 1994 from San Antonio , Texas. The real Nicholas was 13 years old when he went to play basketball with friends. Since then, no one has heard of the boy.
To conduct his fraud, Frederick Bourdin went to the United States to the parents of the missing Nicholas. And although the boy who disappeared had brown eyes, Chameleon managed to convince his relatives that it was their miracle that their son was found. The Frederick family said that he had escaped from those involved in child prostitution. He spent more than 5 months with Nicholas's family before his fraud was revealed.
In 1997, one of the local detectives brought the guy to clean water. The law servant worked with a film crew who was filming a film about the Barclay family. Then he suspected something was amiss.
Disclosure of fraud
In 1998, FBI agents received permission to take fingerprints and a DNA sample from Nicholas. Later it turned out that the guy is Frederick Bourdin (Chameleon). In the same year, the fraudster admitted in court that he had perjured and forged a passport. For this act, he received 5 years in prison.
Next scam
In 2003, Bourdin moved to Grenoble. There he found new victims for his scams. This time he impersonated Leo Bally, a 14-year-old boy who has been missing since 1996. Parents did not believe the words and immediately sent a "false son" to take tests. And again deception and prison.
Next, Frederic Bourdain, whose biography is described in our article, introduced himself as Ruben Sanchez Espinoza, whose mother died in a bombing in Madrid. After such deception, the police decided to deport the restless impostor to France.
In 2005, Bourdain pretended to be Francisco Fernandez, a 15-year-old orphan. For a whole month, Chameleon lived in the orphanage of Jean Monnet in the city of Pau (France). He said then that his parents died in a car accident. Frederick dressed like a teenager and walked like a teenager. He covered his bald head with a baseball cap and used depilation cream so that no one would notice his stubble.
And failure again: one of the teachers watched the program about his “exploits” and handed the liar to the police. Bourden later received 4 months in prison. In court, Frederick admitted that in this way he seeks the attention and love that he was deprived of in childhood. Orphan Bourdain pretended many more times.
Personal life
On August 8, 2007, Frederick Bourdin and his wife (civil) signed. A man has been courting a girl for over a year. At the moment, the couple has three children. As Frederick told one of the newspapers, he no longer wants to pretend to be someone. Now in his family there is enough love and attention.
"Impostor". Movie with Bourdin
In 2010, a picture entitled “The Pretender” was released. The director and screenwriter of the tape was Jean-Paul Salom. The plot was based on real events. The Impostor (film) narrated about Bourdain, who pretended to be Nicholas Barclay. Frederick was played by a young talented actor Marc-Andre Gronden. In 2012, a documentary picture was released on the same topic.
Character
When Bourdin met with one of the journalists for an interview, he fully described the life of his interlocutor. An employee of the magazine was very surprised when Frederick called his name, place of residence, exact date of birth and the name of his wife. When asked why this was necessary, Bourdain replied: "I must know with whom I am communicating."
It is worth saying that during the interview Chameleon said the following phrase: “When you fight with monsters, make sure that you do not become one of them.”
We hope that Bourdin will never return to his past life.