The Imposter, a documentary on the odd life of French serial imposter Frédéric Bourdin, was just published on Netflix UK. Bourdin claimed to have taken the identities of at least 500 individuals, including three persons who had gone missing. The Frenchman is most known for stealing the identity of 13-year-old American youngster Nicholas Barclay. Nicholas went missing while playing basketball with his pals on June 13, 1994.
Frédéric Bourdin was born on June 13, 1974, to a poor French mother. He lived most of his youth in poverty, suffering adversities. His father’s identity was never revealed to him as a child. On government papers, his father was simply named “X.” Let’s look at 5 terrifying facts about the renowned Frédéric Bourdin. Frédéric Bourdin had a bad habit of lying to his family and playing sick games with them.
1) Frédéric Bourdin’s mother was abusive.
Bourdin’s father was previously unknown, but it was subsequently revealed that he was a guy called Kaci. When Bourdin’s mother became pregnant with him, Kaci was already married. Ghislaine abandoned her son’s father and took on the responsibility of parenting Bourdin her alone. She wasn’t the finest role model for her kid, though, since she was known to drink and go out while her son was alone and left to his own devices. All of this was discovered during his custody fight when he was three years old. His grandparents acquired custody of him and brought him in. During the battle for Bourdin, it was also discovered that his mother had threatened to commit suicide in front of him.
2) Frédéric Bourdin began fabricating tales at an early age.
Bourdin was known to lie often from an early age. After his grandparents won the custody fight, they sent him to a horrible place where he learned how nasty people could be. When he was at school, he used to tell others that his father was a spy and that he wasn’t there because he was on duty. His fictitious tales often captivated his professors and everyone around him.
3) His first bogus identity was that of a non-existent British youngster.
After fleeing to Paris, Frédéric took on his first alias, that of a British lad called Jimmy Sale. He contacted a police officer and said that he had been disoriented. Unfortunately, his inexperience caught up with him after a while. He couldn’t communicate in English, which blew his cover. The escaped juvenile institution was returned to the child who wanted to go to England to start again.
4) He had a good time with his family playing stomach-churning games.
In one case, Bourdin’s family got a heartbreaking phone call informing them that German officials had discovered Bourdin’s dead corpse. The family, bereaved, waited for the casket to come, but it never arrived. They discovered what Bourdin had done afterward. He had a habit of playing nasty games with his own family for attention, and he looked to grow more crazy.
5) He took the identity of Nicholas Barclay, a 13-year-old American youngster.
Bourdin is well known for impersonating Nicholas Barclay, a 13-year-old American kid from Texas. Frédéric Bourdin concocted an intricate story about how he (Nicholas) became engaged in a child prostitution ring, which caused the color of his eyes to change. To solidify his tale, he even colored his hair dark and got a tattoo on his finger.
View this post on Instagram
He managed to persuade authorities and Nicholas’ family that he was truly their missing son with a little bit of confidence and a lot of forethought. Frédéric Bourdin, on the other hand, was only with the Barclay family for five months until his true identity was revealed.
