Frédéric Bourdin wasn’t always a criminal. As a child, he was lonely and longed for the stable family he never had.
Maybe it was this longing that turned the young French boy into one of the greatest imposters of all time–one that would move from France all the way to the United States with his ruse.
Offering hope and then heartbreak, Frédéric Bourdin would slip into the lives of families and replace their missing loved ones.
He would remain there until discovered–anywhere from days to months later.
Who is Frédéric Bourdin, also known as “The Chameleon”, and how has he been able to fool so many people into believing his false identities?
Here we will delve into the extraordinary life of one of the world’s great tricksters and his most famous impersonation that shook the world–assuming the identity of missing child Nicholas Barclay.
Frédéric Bourdin’s Troubled Early Life
Born on June 13, 1974, Frédéric Bourdin’s life was chaotic from the get-go. He never knew his father, and his mother, Ghislaine Bourdin, abandoned him.
He was raised by his grandparents starting at the age of 5, who moved him to Mouchamps, a small hamlet near Nantes, France.
Already feeling distant and unliked by his peers, Frédéric Bourdin would weave fantastical tales about his life to make himself seem more interesting.
Even if he was not well-liked by the other children, his teachers saw something bright in the young boy. Frédéric Bourdin had a vivid, active imagination and loved to draw comics to express himself.
Things took a dark turn when Frédéric told his grandparents he had been inappropriately touched by a neighbor and was ignored.
He drew himself drowning in one of his comics, and his behavior became so severe he had to be sent away to a boarding school.
After more years of causing chaos during his youth, and unwelcomed back at his grandparents, Frédéric Bourdin ran away to Paris, hitchhiking his way there. He was just 16 years old.
In Paris, Frédéric Bourdin became someone else for the first time–a British teenager named Jimmy Sale.
Since he didn’t speak much English, this ruse didn’t last long. But it did inspire Frédéric Bourdin and set him on the path he would follow for the rest of his life.
Over and over again Frédéric would assume fake identities to gain everything from simple sympathy to food and even places to live. One by one these identities would fall apart, but he was never dissuaded for long.
Frédéric Bourdin Becomes Nicholas Barclay
While Frédéric was honing his impersonation skills, a family in San Antonio, Texas, was grieving their missing son.
Nicholas Barclay, age 13, went missing while playing basketball with his peers on June 13, 1994. His parents waited for him to arrive home, but he never did.
Three years later, across the world in Linares, Spain, 23-year-old Frédéric Bourdin was about to get kicked out of the youth home he was staying in. By this time, Frédéric had a decent-sized criminal record and no interest in going to jail.
He knew he wouldn’t be able to prove he was a Spanish youth, but what if he set his sights much farther away–the United States, for example?
In a stroke of genius, Frédéric Bourdin called the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the United States, claiming that he was the director of a Spanish homeless shelter.
He told the worker on the other line that he had a frightened American teenager at his shelter, giving a vague description in order to cast a wide net.
All he needed was an identity, and never imagining an imposter could be calling, the NCMEC worker gave him one–Nicholas Barclay.
After receiving a picture of Nicholas via fax, Frédéric decided the impersonation was doable. Frédéric told the woman at the NCMEC that his frightened American teenager was indeed Nicholas Barclay.
Before he knew it, the F.B.I. and U.S. Embassy had been contacted, and Nicholas Barclay’s family was on the phone. Somehow, Frédéric managed to convince them over the phone that he was indeed Nicholas.
Shortly after, Nicholas’s sister, Carey, arrived to pick her brother up. Instead, she was greeted by Frédéric.
Against all odds, the brown-haired, brown-eyed Frédéric had been thorough enough in his disguise to fool Carey.
He bleached his hair and even got Nicholas’s tattoo. There was no changing his eye color, though, so Frédéric had a story for that too. He told his new family that he was kidnapped by a child exploration ring that had changed his eye color.
Carey swore under oath that Frédéric was Nicholas, and within days, they were on a flight back to Texas.
Or, for Frédéric Bourdin, on his way to Texas for the first time, where he would face his most challenging impersonation yet.
Life In Texas
Somehow, the 23-year-old Frédéric Bourdin continued to fool Nicholas’s family once they landed in the United States.
The entire family was there to greet Bourdin and Carey, and it was a warm welcome. The only person who seemed hesitant was Nicholas’s mother, Beverly, but even she came around soon enough.
Living with Carey, her husband, and their children, Nicholas adjusted to life in the cramped trailer while he continued to research how best to become Nicholas Barclay.
Everyone was convinced, despite a lingering French accent and the suspicious brown eyes. It took five months for things to fall apart.
Frédéric Bourdin’s Deception Is Discovered
Charlie Parker, a private investigator out of San Antonio, was about to become Frédéric Bourdin’s worst nightmare.
After being hired by the television show “Hard Copy” to investigate the kidnapping and supposed rescue of Nicholas Barclay, Parker went to Carey’s residence to interview him.
Bourdin was happy to talk, but Parker couldn’t shake a feeling that something was off. He looked at a childhood picture of Nicholas, and noticed something odd. Nicholas in the picture had completely different ears than the false Nicholas in front of him.
Charlie Parker knew that ears were an identifying trait, and contacted authorities with the information that he had. Soon, the F.B.I. took fingerprints from Bourdin and quickly concluded that he was NOT Nicholas Barclay.
The game was over. Frédéric Bourdin had been caught.
He was sentenced to six years in prison for passport fraud and perjury before being sent back to France.
Frédéric Bourdin’s Later Impersonations
Even after spending six years in American prison, Frédéric Bourdin was not content to live his own life once he was back in Europe.
Making up identities wasn’t enough anymore for Frédéric Bourdin. He craved the rush of becoming someone real. Some of his later impersonations include:
● In 2003, Bourdin took on the identity of missing French 14-year-old Léo Balley despite being nearly 30. This claim was disproved by D.N.A.
● Next, he tried out the identity of Spanish youth Rubén Sánchez Espinoza in 2004. He was once again found out, and sent back to France.
● The following year, now in his thirties, Bourdin became Francisco Hernandez-Fernandez, a Spanish teenage orphan. With this identity, he attempted to attend school, disguising everything from his walk to his balding head.
He was discovered within a month and imprisoned for four months.
Currently, Frédéric Bourdin is living under his own identity. He married in 2007 and had five children with his wife, Isabelle. In 2017, he announced that Isabelle had left him.
Bourdin claims he will never impersonate anyone again and is happy to live as Frédéric Bourdin. Whether The Chameleon will strike again is yet to be seen.
The Imposter
In 2012, Netflix released a documentary detailing Frédéric Bourdin’s crimes called The Imposter. Netflix had managed to get interviews from not just Frédéric Bourdin, but also Nicholas Barclay’s family.
The documentary was a runaway success, receiving universal critical acclaim for its depiction of Frédéric Bourdin’s shocking crimes. The Imposter holds a 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes and was nominated for multiple awards.
Sources
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/08/11/the-chameleon-annals-of-crime-david-grann
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