WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:03.759 Have you ever thought you knew exactly where a story 2 00:00:03.839 --> 00:00:06.080 was going, only to have the rug pulled out from 3 00:00:06.120 --> 00:00:08.599 under you so violently you actually get whiplash. 4 00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:10.720 Oh. Absolutely, it's the wildest. 5 00:00:10.240 --> 00:00:12.640 Feeling, right, I mean, imagine for a second that you 6 00:00:12.679 --> 00:00:18.280 are doing this massive, thousand piece jigsaw puzzle. You've spent hours, 7 00:00:18.359 --> 00:00:19.519 maybe even weeks. 8 00:00:19.239 --> 00:00:22.039 On it, just agonizing over every little piece exactly. 9 00:00:22.280 --> 00:00:25.679 You've sorted all the edges, You've painstakingly color matched the 10 00:00:25.800 --> 00:00:29.199 varying shades of the sky and the grass. You've totally 11 00:00:29.280 --> 00:00:33.079 convinced yourself you were building this beautiful, serene landscape. 12 00:00:33.159 --> 00:00:35.600 Yeah, you see the big picture, or so you think. 13 00:00:35.759 --> 00:00:38.159 Yeah, And right as you go to place that very 14 00:00:38.200 --> 00:00:41.399 final satisfying piece right in the center, you take a 15 00:00:41.439 --> 00:00:43.359 step back and you realize you have been looking at 16 00:00:43.359 --> 00:00:45.439 a completely different picture the entire time. 17 00:00:45.520 --> 00:00:46.960 Oh that is the worst. 18 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:49.079 Like the landscape you thought you were building is actually 19 00:00:49.079 --> 00:00:53.479 a portrait or a maze or something entirely terrifying and unrecognizable. 20 00:00:53.679 --> 00:00:57.600 That profound, almost dizzying sense of disorientation. 21 00:00:57.799 --> 00:01:00.920 Yes, that collapse of everything you thought was true, And 22 00:01:00.960 --> 00:01:04.200 that is exactly what we are untacking today. Welcome to 23 00:01:04.239 --> 00:01:05.079 thrilling threads. 24 00:01:05.400 --> 00:01:06.680 I am so ready for this. 25 00:01:06.840 --> 00:01:09.359 We have gathered a stack of source material that proves 26 00:01:09.439 --> 00:01:13.719 human deception goes like far far deeper than simple white lies. 27 00:01:14.799 --> 00:01:16.920 We are looking at some of the most mind bending 28 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:19.519 true crime documentaries ever made, and. 29 00:01:19.480 --> 00:01:22.719 We're really dissecting the terrifying lengths human beings will go 30 00:01:22.799 --> 00:01:25.680 to for power, control and survival. 31 00:01:26.120 --> 00:01:28.560 So it's a crucial distinction to make right at the start, 32 00:01:28.879 --> 00:01:31.239 we are not just talking about people who lie to 33 00:01:31.319 --> 00:01:32.239 cover up a mistake. 34 00:01:32.400 --> 00:01:35.760 No, not at all. We are examining the complete, deliberate 35 00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:39.159 fabrication of reality. Deception at the level we are exploring 36 00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:42.359 today is honestly an intricate art form. An art form 37 00:01:42.519 --> 00:01:45.000 wow yeah, I mean it functions as a weapon to 38 00:01:45.040 --> 00:01:47.840 attack and a shield to hide behind, all at once. 39 00:01:48.359 --> 00:01:51.760 And what is truly fascinating from psychological perspective is how 40 00:01:51.760 --> 00:01:54.879 this level of deception reshapes the world like. 41 00:01:54.920 --> 00:01:56.640 Not just for the victims who are trapped in the. 42 00:01:56.599 --> 00:01:59.799 Line exactly, it reshapes reality for the perpetrators who have 43 00:02:00.040 --> 00:02:02.879 maintain it, the investigators who try to unravel it, and 44 00:02:02.959 --> 00:02:05.959 eventually for us as the audience. We are talking about 45 00:02:05.959 --> 00:02:09.080 a phenomenon we might call a pistemological vertigo. 46 00:02:09.439 --> 00:02:12.599 The pistemological vertigo, Okay, I love that term. 47 00:02:12.680 --> 00:02:16.319 It's that dizzy sensation when your foundational understanding of what 48 00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:19.360 is real completely drops out from under you. 49 00:02:19.479 --> 00:02:20.879 I have a feeling we are going to be coming 50 00:02:20.919 --> 00:02:23.159 back to that term a lot today, because I can 51 00:02:23.199 --> 00:02:25.360 promise you this, by the time we finish going through 52 00:02:25.360 --> 00:02:28.400 these sources, you are going to question everything you think 53 00:02:28.439 --> 00:02:29.319 you know about. 54 00:02:29.039 --> 00:02:31.400 Trust, oh for sure, about identity too. 55 00:02:31.319 --> 00:02:34.520 And quite frankly, about the people you interact with every 56 00:02:34.639 --> 00:02:38.319 single day. You might find yourself looking sideways at your 57 00:02:38.360 --> 00:02:42.360 digital footprint, your own memories, and your closest relationships. 58 00:02:42.520 --> 00:02:44.439 It really gets under your skin, it does. 59 00:02:44.800 --> 00:02:49.159 But to truly understand how these incredibly dark, sophisticated deceptions 60 00:02:49.199 --> 00:02:51.639 take root, we actually have to start with something that 61 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:54.280 on the surface seems completely. 62 00:02:53.800 --> 00:02:55.360 Absurd, almost laughable. 63 00:02:55.400 --> 00:02:57.520 Really, I want to talk about how abusers use the 64 00:02:57.520 --> 00:03:00.599 sheer bizarre nature of their crimes as a literal shield. 65 00:03:01.039 --> 00:03:03.759 Have you ever heard of competitive endurance tickling? 66 00:03:04.080 --> 00:03:06.919 I can safely say that, until reviewing this source material 67 00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:10.960 for this show, competitive endurance tickling was entirely absent from 68 00:03:10.960 --> 00:03:11.439 my radar. 69 00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:12.840 Right, it sounds like a joke. 70 00:03:12.960 --> 00:03:16.639 And that in itself is the very mechanism of the deception. 71 00:03:16.879 --> 00:03:19.159 It totally is. It sounds like a weird late night 72 00:03:19.199 --> 00:03:21.560 internet rabbit hole you fall down when you can't sleep, 73 00:03:22.360 --> 00:03:25.400 and that is exactly how journalist David Ferrier treated it 74 00:03:25.439 --> 00:03:28.879 when he first stumbled across these videos online. 75 00:03:28.439 --> 00:03:33.520 Videos featuring young athletic men participating in this so called 76 00:03:33.719 --> 00:03:34.639 endurance tickling. 77 00:03:34.840 --> 00:03:37.439 Yeah. Now, Ferrier is a guy who has made a 78 00:03:37.479 --> 00:03:42.159 career out of investigating the weird, fringe subcultures of the world, 79 00:03:42.599 --> 00:03:45.719 so to him, this felt like a lighthearted, goofy human 80 00:03:45.800 --> 00:03:46.639 interest story. 81 00:03:46.960 --> 00:03:50.520 He starts digging and discovers an American company called Jane 82 00:03:50.560 --> 00:03:53.479 O'Brien Media running these monthly events. 83 00:03:53.240 --> 00:03:56.000 And the setup they had was incredibly lucrative, which is 84 00:03:56.039 --> 00:03:58.960 the first hook. You know, young athletes from anywhere on 85 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:01.280 the planet could apply, and if they were selected, this 86 00:04:01.360 --> 00:04:03.240 company flew them out to Los Angeles. 87 00:04:03.280 --> 00:04:04.960 Oh wow, what can all expenses paid. 88 00:04:04.800 --> 00:04:07.319 Trip completely, They put them up for four nights in 89 00:04:07.360 --> 00:04:09.800 a really nice hotel, and they handed them fifteen hundred 90 00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:13.439 dollars in cold hard cash. And the only requirement just 91 00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:15.680 to be tickled on camera, exactly, just be tickled. 92 00:04:15.719 --> 00:04:19.680 On camera, but the narrative pivots violently from a quirky 93 00:04:19.759 --> 00:04:24.879 subculture piece into something deeply sinister. The moment Ferrier attempts 94 00:04:24.959 --> 00:04:27.839 to do basic journalistic due diligence. 95 00:04:27.519 --> 00:04:29.800 Which is just like asking simple questions. 96 00:04:29.879 --> 00:04:32.920 Right when he simply reached out to ask some standard 97 00:04:33.040 --> 00:04:36.439 boilerplate questions about the company, the reaction from the people 98 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:39.279 behind these videos wasn't just defensive, it. 99 00:04:39.240 --> 00:04:42.279 Was aggressively, disproportionately hostile. 100 00:04:42.439 --> 00:04:49.759 We are talking about immediate, vicious legal threats, blatant intimidation tactics, homophobia, 101 00:04:49.800 --> 00:04:54.519 and highly coordinated attempts to completely silence any critics. 102 00:04:54.360 --> 00:04:56.439 Which, if you think about it for more than two seconds, 103 00:04:56.480 --> 00:04:59.120 makes absolutely zero sense. I mean, if you were running 104 00:04:59.120 --> 00:05:02.360 a silly concent tickling competition, why do you have a 105 00:05:02.439 --> 00:05:04.480 vicious team of attack lawyers on standby. 106 00:05:04.639 --> 00:05:05.879 It's the ultimate red flag. 107 00:05:05.920 --> 00:05:07.800 It's like clicking on a funny cat meme and somehow 108 00:05:07.839 --> 00:05:11.240 being instantly redirected to a dark web arms dealership. You 109 00:05:11.360 --> 00:05:13.519 immediately know something is profoundly wrong. 110 00:05:13.639 --> 00:05:16.279 That's a great analogy. So Ferrier keeps pushing, and. 111 00:05:16.279 --> 00:05:20.120 What the documentary Tickled ultimately uncovers has very little to 112 00:05:20.120 --> 00:05:23.759 do with the physical act of tickling, and absolutely everything 113 00:05:23.800 --> 00:05:27.600 to do with power control and a massive harassment ring. 114 00:05:27.839 --> 00:05:30.160 And the sheer scale of the deception is what gives 115 00:05:30.199 --> 00:05:31.920 you that vertigo we talked about earlier. 116 00:05:32.079 --> 00:05:36.959 Behind this entire global operation, behind the Jane O'Brien media facade, 117 00:05:37.079 --> 00:05:40.519 behind the lawyers and the threats, was a single man. 118 00:05:40.800 --> 00:05:44.759 Operating through a complex, dizzying web of aliases. 119 00:05:44.240 --> 00:05:47.839 Yeah, aliases and shell companies, just to exert immense power 120 00:05:47.959 --> 00:05:48.839 over these young men. 121 00:05:49.079 --> 00:05:51.959 And we really need to analyze the specific mechanics of 122 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:54.720 how we got away with this for so long. This 123 00:05:54.759 --> 00:05:56.680 is where the concept of the shield of the bazaar 124 00:05:56.839 --> 00:05:57.879 becomes so relevant. 125 00:05:57.879 --> 00:06:00.000 The shield of the bizarre. Break that down for us. 126 00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:03.800 Well, when we think of abusers or organized harassment, we 127 00:06:03.879 --> 00:06:07.519 expect the methodology to look a certain way, intimidating, violent, 128 00:06:08.040 --> 00:06:09.519 traditionally criminal. 129 00:06:09.199 --> 00:06:11.519 Right, like something out of a mafia movie exactly. 130 00:06:12.079 --> 00:06:16.920 But this perpetrator deliberately hid in plain sight by weaponizing absurdity. 131 00:06:17.040 --> 00:06:18.720 Think about it from the victim's perspective. 132 00:06:19.040 --> 00:06:23.560 Okay, so you are a young, perhaps struggling athlete, You 133 00:06:23.680 --> 00:06:25.639 take a weird gig for easy. 134 00:06:25.360 --> 00:06:29.839 Money, and suddenly this entity turns on you. They threaten 135 00:06:29.920 --> 00:06:32.800 to ruin your life, ruin your career, out you to 136 00:06:32.839 --> 00:06:35.879 your friends and family with these bizarre videos if you 137 00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:37.720 don't comply with their escalating demands. 138 00:06:37.720 --> 00:06:39.879 But why not just go to the police. That's what 139 00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:42.160 I kept asking myself while reviewing the notes for this. 140 00:06:42.240 --> 00:06:45.360 It's embarrassing, yeah, but if someone is blackmailing you, you 141 00:06:45.399 --> 00:06:48.959 go to the authorities. How does someone orchestrate a highly 142 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:52.759 financed harassment ring around something so fundamentally ridiculous without getting 143 00:06:52.759 --> 00:06:53.920 caught by the cops sooner? 144 00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:57.920 Because the abuser knows exactly how the police and society 145 00:06:57.959 --> 00:07:01.439 at large will react. The premise of tickling sounds so 146 00:07:01.519 --> 00:07:05.480 inherently juvenile and silly. The victims are paralyzed by shame. 147 00:07:05.879 --> 00:07:08.120 Oh, I see. They are terrified of the ridicule. 148 00:07:08.360 --> 00:07:10.600 Right. If a twenty year old athlete walks into a 149 00:07:10.639 --> 00:07:12.879 police precinct and says, I am being subjected to a 150 00:07:12.879 --> 00:07:16.079 global extortion campaign by a tickling syndicate. 151 00:07:15.759 --> 00:07:17.079 The cops are going to laugh at him. 152 00:07:17.360 --> 00:07:20.199 The immediate reaction from an overworked detective is going to 153 00:07:20.199 --> 00:07:25.959 be skepticism, confusion, or outright laughter. The absurdity creates the 154 00:07:26.040 --> 00:07:29.600 absolute perfect smoke screen for a control freak. 155 00:07:29.920 --> 00:07:34.079 It isolates the victims instantly. It weaponizes their own potential 156 00:07:34.079 --> 00:07:35.399 embarrassment against them. 157 00:07:35.480 --> 00:07:39.000 The perpetrator constructed a reality where the victims felt completely 158 00:07:39.079 --> 00:07:41.759 trapped by the ridiculousness of their own victimization. 159 00:07:41.920 --> 00:07:45.480 Wow, they are literally imprisoned by the punchline of the joke. 160 00:07:45.720 --> 00:07:49.279 The absurdity is the cage. It's terrifyingly effective, and the 161 00:07:49.319 --> 00:07:53.040 sources note that even after the documentary aired, even after 162 00:07:53.199 --> 00:07:56.120 Ferrier bravely exposed all of this to the world, the 163 00:07:56.199 --> 00:07:59.040 lawsuits and the harassment from this man just kept coming. 164 00:07:59.279 --> 00:08:01.399 He was just so insulated by his wealth and his 165 00:08:01.439 --> 00:08:03.519 aliases that he thought he was untouchable. 166 00:08:03.720 --> 00:08:06.800 But the truly frustrating, maddening part of this story is 167 00:08:06.879 --> 00:08:08.639 the lack of a satisfying resolution. 168 00:08:08.920 --> 00:08:10.360 Yeah, that's the tough part. 169 00:08:10.439 --> 00:08:12.120 The man at the center of it all died in 170 00:08:12.120 --> 00:08:16.399 twenty seventeen before ever facing true legal accountability for the 171 00:08:16.439 --> 00:08:17.839 dozens of lives he ruined. 172 00:08:18.040 --> 00:08:20.639 It just proves that the Internet allows people to build 173 00:08:20.680 --> 00:08:25.120 these elaborate, insulated kingdoms of abuse where they can play 174 00:08:25.160 --> 00:08:27.000 god behind a keyboard. 175 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:29.439 And that reliance on the anonymity of the digital world 176 00:08:29.519 --> 00:08:33.759 to construct a false reality transitions us perfectly into our 177 00:08:33.879 --> 00:08:34.799 next case study. 178 00:08:34.919 --> 00:08:38.279 It really does. While the perpetrator and tickled used shell 179 00:08:38.320 --> 00:08:41.639 companies and a bizarre premise to hide his identity, our 180 00:08:41.679 --> 00:08:45.799 next manipulator used the digital sphere for something even darker. 181 00:08:45.639 --> 00:08:49.279 To completely rewrite the fundamental line between life and death. 182 00:08:49.720 --> 00:08:52.399 We're moving from abusers who hide behind a joke to 183 00:08:52.519 --> 00:08:54.279 abusers who hide behind a ghost. 184 00:08:54.480 --> 00:08:57.200 Yes, and this is where it gets deeply terrifying for 185 00:08:57.320 --> 00:08:59.639 anyone who has ever used a dating app. 186 00:08:59.360 --> 00:09:02.279 Which is based half the planet. At this point, let's 187 00:09:02.279 --> 00:09:05.240 look at the source material regarding lover Stalker Killer. 188 00:09:05.519 --> 00:09:09.399 The story starts out sounding like a completely standard, incredibly 189 00:09:09.440 --> 00:09:11.879 relatable modern dating headache totally. 190 00:09:12.279 --> 00:09:15.480 We have Dave Krupa, a mechanic living in Nebraska. He 191 00:09:15.759 --> 00:09:17.679 is fresh out of a long term relationship. He gets 192 00:09:17.720 --> 00:09:19.559 on the dating app plenty of fish and he is 193 00:09:19.720 --> 00:09:20.840 just looking for something. 194 00:09:20.600 --> 00:09:22.559 Casual, nothing serious at all, right. 195 00:09:23.120 --> 00:09:26.320 He briefly dates two different women. He meets Carrie Farver 196 00:09:26.519 --> 00:09:30.720 and Liz Goliard. Then suddenly Carrie just vanishes. She ghosts 197 00:09:30.799 --> 00:09:32.159 him in real life. 198 00:09:31.879 --> 00:09:33.600 But the digital ghosting doesn't happen. 199 00:09:33.720 --> 00:09:38.600 No. Instead, Dave starts getting these relentless, unhinged, deeply threatening 200 00:09:38.639 --> 00:09:40.840 messages from Carrie's phone and email. 201 00:09:41.120 --> 00:09:43.320 And this harassment campaign doesn't just last for a few 202 00:09:43.320 --> 00:09:45.279 angry weeks, it goes on for years. 203 00:09:45.679 --> 00:09:49.799 Years. The police get involved, and naturally, based on the evidence, 204 00:09:50.080 --> 00:09:52.360 their primary suspect is Carrie Farver. 205 00:09:52.639 --> 00:09:57.200 They think she is this incredibly obsessive, dangerous, fatal attraction 206 00:09:57.360 --> 00:10:00.679 style ex girlfriend who just I don't let go of 207 00:10:00.720 --> 00:10:03.279 a guy she dated casually for a couple of weeks. 208 00:10:03.120 --> 00:10:06.200 Which is the most logical assumption based on the digital footprint. 209 00:10:06.559 --> 00:10:08.960 The messages are coming from her accounts, Her phone number 210 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:10.399 is pinging from various towers. 211 00:10:10.559 --> 00:10:13.440 The investigators are following a trail of digital breadcrumbs that 212 00:10:13.519 --> 00:10:15.360 clearly spell out Carrie's guilt. 213 00:10:15.559 --> 00:10:18.879 But this is where the epistemological vertigo hits hard. The 214 00:10:18.919 --> 00:10:23.759 digital evidence eventually revealed a deception so profound, so labor intensive, 215 00:10:24.159 --> 00:10:26.919 it defies her basic understanding of human psychology. 216 00:10:27.159 --> 00:10:30.480 The shocking truth was that Liz Goliar, the other woman 217 00:10:30.559 --> 00:10:34.600 Dave had casually dated, was behind the entire harassment campaign. 218 00:10:34.679 --> 00:10:37.240 But she wasn't just like spoofing to Mary's number to 219 00:10:37.279 --> 00:10:38.799 scare off romantic competition. 220 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:42.000 No, it was so much worse. Liz Goliar had actually 221 00:10:42.200 --> 00:10:45.840 murdered Carrie Farvar, disposed of her body, and then spent 222 00:10:46.039 --> 00:10:48.559 years masquerading as her digitally. 223 00:10:48.759 --> 00:10:52.240 Just to misdirect the investigators and systematically torture Dave. I 224 00:10:52.279 --> 00:10:53.879 just have to pause and really sit with that for 225 00:10:53.960 --> 00:10:54.360 a second. 226 00:10:54.399 --> 00:10:55.320 It's allowed to process. 227 00:10:55.399 --> 00:10:58.440 We swipe right, we invite a stranger into our lives. 228 00:10:58.840 --> 00:11:01.679 We assume the digital foot print matches a living, breathing 229 00:11:01.799 --> 00:11:05.919 human footprint. The sheer psychological stamina it would take to execute. 230 00:11:05.519 --> 00:11:07.960 This, it's practically unbelievable. 231 00:11:08.039 --> 00:11:11.320 Think about it. You murder a woman, you dispose of her, 232 00:11:11.759 --> 00:11:14.200 and then instead of fleeing, instead of laying lo you 233 00:11:14.240 --> 00:11:16.679 wake up every single day for years. You log into 234 00:11:16.679 --> 00:11:19.240 her accounts, you adopt her voice. 235 00:11:18.879 --> 00:11:20.559 You pretend to be the woman you killed. 236 00:11:20.759 --> 00:11:24.440 Yes, just to ruin a man's life, while simultaneously pretending 237 00:11:24.440 --> 00:11:26.799 to be the supportive girlfriend to that very same man 238 00:11:26.879 --> 00:11:28.919 in real life. It's sickening. 239 00:11:29.240 --> 00:11:32.799 It requires a level of cognitive dissonance and malice that 240 00:11:32.919 --> 00:11:34.639 is almost impossible to comprehend. 241 00:11:34.960 --> 00:11:37.720 I remember reading about a similar case where a person 242 00:11:37.799 --> 00:11:40.799 maintained a fake persona for a few months and talked 243 00:11:40.799 --> 00:11:44.000 about how exhausting it was. Liz did this for years 244 00:11:44.039 --> 00:11:45.879 with the highest possible stakes. 245 00:11:46.200 --> 00:11:50.519 It dives into the unique, unprecedented terror of the digital age. 246 00:11:50.600 --> 00:11:53.120 Before the Internet, if you killed someone, they were gone. 247 00:11:53.159 --> 00:11:54.279 They were just gone. 248 00:11:54.480 --> 00:11:56.799 But we now live in a world where it is 249 00:11:56.960 --> 00:12:00.559 entirely possible to keep a dead person alive online to 250 00:12:00.559 --> 00:12:04.759 torture the living. A person's digital existence can now outlast 251 00:12:04.840 --> 00:12:06.639 their physical existence. 252 00:12:06.120 --> 00:12:08.240 And in the hands of a psychopath like Liz Goliar, 253 00:12:08.600 --> 00:12:12.279 that digital ghost becomes a highly effective weapon of misdirection. 254 00:12:12.480 --> 00:12:15.919 And consider the incredibly complex dilemma that's presented for law enforcement. 255 00:12:16.039 --> 00:12:18.279 Oh Man, the poor detective. 256 00:12:17.919 --> 00:12:20.279 Right, one of the lead investigators in the case, as 257 00:12:20.279 --> 00:12:23.840 to pivotal paradigm shifting question, how do you prove a 258 00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:27.159 murder without a body when the victim is seemingly texting 259 00:12:27.200 --> 00:12:27.799 you every day? 260 00:12:27.919 --> 00:12:30.679 That is wild. The detectives had to first prove that 261 00:12:30.759 --> 00:12:35.639 Carrie was actually dead despite her active digital presence, and second. 262 00:12:35.960 --> 00:12:38.919 That Liz was the one who killed her, Relying almost 263 00:12:39.080 --> 00:12:42.240 entirely on painstaking digital forensics. 264 00:12:42.440 --> 00:12:45.960 They had to map out IP addresses, trace overlapping timelines, 265 00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:48.759 and prove that Liz was physically holding the device that 266 00:12:48.840 --> 00:12:50.399 was sending the messages from Careery. 267 00:12:50.600 --> 00:12:53.440 Ultimately, Liz Goliar was convicted of first Green. 268 00:12:53.320 --> 00:12:57.360 Murder, but the psychological toll on Dave, who thought he 269 00:12:57.440 --> 00:13:00.600 was being hunted by Careery, and on Creery's family who 270 00:13:00.679 --> 00:13:03.399 held out hope she was alive because of those messages, 271 00:13:04.399 --> 00:13:06.200 it is simply incalculable. 272 00:13:06.279 --> 00:13:08.919 It is the ultimate violation of our modern reality. 273 00:13:09.080 --> 00:13:11.720 You're being terrorized by a phantom, and that phantom is 274 00:13:11.759 --> 00:13:14.080 being orchestrated by the person sitting right next to you 275 00:13:14.080 --> 00:13:15.600 on the couch watching you suffer. 276 00:13:16.120 --> 00:13:19.679 Exactly. But while Liz Goliar hid behind a screen, behind 277 00:13:19.720 --> 00:13:21.559 the ones and zeros of the Internet to pull off 278 00:13:21.559 --> 00:13:26.159 her deception, some manipulators have this sheer audacity, the unbelievable 279 00:13:26.200 --> 00:13:30.240 sociopathic nerve to steal identities right to people's faces. 280 00:13:30.320 --> 00:13:33.519 We are moving from digital ghosts to physical impostors, and 281 00:13:33.559 --> 00:13:35.679 this brings us to a case that deals heavily with 282 00:13:35.720 --> 00:13:38.799 the fragility of our own perceptions and the terrifying concept 283 00:13:38.799 --> 00:13:39.960 of wilful blindness. 284 00:13:40.200 --> 00:13:42.639 Let's talk about this source material for the impostor. 285 00:13:42.919 --> 00:13:45.679 This is a case study and how desperately human beings 286 00:13:45.759 --> 00:13:50.080 want to believe a comforting lie rather than face a devastating, 287 00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:51.200 horrifying truth. 288 00:13:51.480 --> 00:13:55.799 It challenges everything we assume about parental instant and recognition. 289 00:13:56.000 --> 00:13:58.679 This story is so wild it feels like a bad 290 00:13:58.840 --> 00:14:03.279 rejected Hollywood's script, but it is entirely documented truth. We 291 00:14:03.320 --> 00:14:05.440 have a guy named Frederick Bourband. 292 00:14:04.960 --> 00:14:07.919 A French serial impostor well into his twenties. 293 00:14:08.120 --> 00:14:11.519 Yeah, he has dark brown hair, dark brown eyes, a 294 00:14:11.559 --> 00:14:15.039 five o'clock shadow, and a very noticeable distinct French accent. 295 00:14:15.200 --> 00:14:20.039 Yet somehow this man manages to convince authorities and subsequently 296 00:14:20.080 --> 00:14:24.000 aggrieving family in Texas that he is their missing teenage son, 297 00:14:24.480 --> 00:14:25.519 Nicholas Barclay. 298 00:14:25.639 --> 00:14:28.519 Now let's look at the real Nicholas. Nicholas was a 299 00:14:28.519 --> 00:14:32.360 blonde haired, blue eyed, thirteen year old kid from San Antonio, Texas. 300 00:14:32.480 --> 00:14:34.879 The physical discrepancy isn't just a matter of him aging 301 00:14:34.919 --> 00:14:35.519 a few years. 302 00:14:35.600 --> 00:14:38.440 It is a complete biological mismatch. And yet Burdin gets 303 00:14:38.440 --> 00:14:41.279 on a plane, flies to America, meets his family, and 304 00:14:41.320 --> 00:14:42.320 they welcome him home. 305 00:14:42.519 --> 00:14:45.080 They literally take him into their house, enroll him in 306 00:14:45.120 --> 00:14:46.679 high school, and live with him. 307 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:50.639 The initial visceral reaction from anyone hearing these facts is 308 00:14:50.679 --> 00:14:53.159 a resounding how is that physically possible? 309 00:14:53.399 --> 00:14:58.799 Exactly? How do you not recognize that this grown french 310 00:14:58.840 --> 00:15:02.320 man with brown eye is not your blonde, blue eyed 311 00:15:02.320 --> 00:15:03.080 text and child? 312 00:15:03.399 --> 00:15:07.080 The cognitive gap is so vast it seems unbridgable. If 313 00:15:07.120 --> 00:15:10.919 you can't recognize your own child's eye color, I just 314 00:15:10.960 --> 00:15:12.120 can't wrap my head around it. 315 00:15:12.240 --> 00:15:14.919 But the story doesn't just stop at the physical impossibility. 316 00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:17.919 No, it doesn't. Once Bourden is finally exposed, because you 317 00:15:17.960 --> 00:15:21.440 can't fake eye color in Age Forever, a private investigator 318 00:15:21.440 --> 00:15:25.399 eventually figures it out, Bordena doesn't just apologize and go 319 00:15:25.519 --> 00:15:26.360 quietly to jail. 320 00:15:26.399 --> 00:15:27.799 He drops an absolute bomb. 321 00:15:27.879 --> 00:15:31.000 He suggests quite forcefully that the Barclay family knew he 322 00:15:31.080 --> 00:15:32.200 wasn't Nicholas. 323 00:15:31.799 --> 00:15:35.080 All along, and that they had their own, dark, sinister 324 00:15:35.200 --> 00:15:37.200 reasons for playing along with the charade. 325 00:15:37.399 --> 00:15:40.639 Nicholas Barclay, should be noted, has never been found. Borden 326 00:15:40.759 --> 00:15:43.559 actually has this incredibly chilling quote in the Sources where 327 00:15:43.559 --> 00:15:45.720 he says, I didn't need to be Colombo to put 328 00:15:45.720 --> 00:15:48.120 all the pieces together. They killed him. Some of them 329 00:15:48.120 --> 00:15:49.639 did it, some of them knew of it, some of 330 00:15:49.639 --> 00:15:50.799 them choose to ignore. 331 00:15:50.559 --> 00:15:54.960 It, which forces us to analyze an incredibly uncomfortable psychological 332 00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:58.200 debate regarding grief versus willful complicity. 333 00:15:58.320 --> 00:16:00.000 Okay, unpack that for us. 334 00:15:59.759 --> 00:16:02.679 On one hand, you have the immense blinding power of trauma. 335 00:16:03.399 --> 00:16:06.360 When a family loses a child to the unknown, the 336 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:10.039 desperation to have them back, to have closure can create 337 00:16:10.080 --> 00:16:12.399 a psychological state of profound denial. 338 00:16:12.720 --> 00:16:15.080 I mean, I guess the human mind is a remarkably 339 00:16:15.240 --> 00:16:17.200 fragile and malleable instrument. 340 00:16:17.399 --> 00:16:21.320 Under extreme duress, it can literally overwrite sensory input. The 341 00:16:21.360 --> 00:16:25.200 psychological literature on confirmation bias shows that if the emotional 342 00:16:25.240 --> 00:16:29.519 payoff is high enough, people will ignore eye color, age, discrepancies, 343 00:16:29.600 --> 00:16:30.320 and accents. 344 00:16:30.440 --> 00:16:31.720 They will invent rationalization. 345 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:35.440 Exactly the family convinced themselves his eyes change color from 346 00:16:35.480 --> 00:16:38.559 medical trauma, where his accent changed from being held captive 347 00:16:38.600 --> 00:16:41.960 by a European pedophile ring. The brain protects itself from 348 00:16:41.960 --> 00:16:44.159 the agony of loss by accepting the impostor. 349 00:16:44.320 --> 00:16:46.159 But I'm sorry, I have to jump in and push 350 00:16:46.240 --> 00:16:48.600 back on that heavily. I refuse to accept that grief 351 00:16:48.639 --> 00:16:51.000 alone causes this level of blindness. 352 00:16:51.039 --> 00:16:52.279 You don't buy the trauma angle. 353 00:16:52.519 --> 00:16:55.519 I can understand thinking someone looks different after three years 354 00:16:55.759 --> 00:16:58.639 I cannot understand looking into the dark brown eyes of 355 00:16:58.679 --> 00:17:02.080 a grown Frenchman and seeing a blue eyed Texan child. 356 00:17:02.480 --> 00:17:03.679 It is definitely a stretch. 357 00:17:03.879 --> 00:17:05.880 Is it really possible to want to lie to be 358 00:17:05.960 --> 00:17:10.039 true so badly that your brain literally rewrites what your 359 00:17:10.200 --> 00:17:13.279 very own eyes are seeing in broad daylight? Or is 360 00:17:13.319 --> 00:17:14.119 Bordin right? 361 00:17:14.480 --> 00:17:17.960 Was this family using this obvious con artist as a 362 00:17:18.039 --> 00:17:23.200 convenient walking alibi because they were somehow responsible for Nicholas's disappearance. 363 00:17:23.319 --> 00:17:27.599 It creates this horrific, tense standoff between a documented master 364 00:17:27.720 --> 00:17:31.079 manipulator and a potentially complicit, guilty family. 365 00:17:31.279 --> 00:17:33.599 And the brilliance of the way this story is documented 366 00:17:33.680 --> 00:17:36.519 is that it leaves you completely suspended in that ambiguity. 367 00:17:36.759 --> 00:17:38.400 It doesn't give you the comforting answer. 368 00:17:38.519 --> 00:17:41.400 You are forced to question the reliability of every single 369 00:17:41.440 --> 00:17:45.079 person involved. Bordin is a known liar, so you can't 370 00:17:45.079 --> 00:17:49.319 trust him. The family's actions defy logic, so you can't 371 00:17:49.319 --> 00:17:49.960 trust them. 372 00:17:50.200 --> 00:17:52.599 It highlights that sometimes deception isn't just a one way 373 00:17:52.599 --> 00:17:56.000 street where a predator fool is a victim. Sometimes deception 374 00:17:56.119 --> 00:17:57.599 is a symbiotic relationship. 375 00:17:57.759 --> 00:18:00.960 It's a dark economy of lies. Foster needed a home 376 00:18:01.000 --> 00:18:03.759 and a stage, to perform on and the family needed 377 00:18:03.759 --> 00:18:06.400 a son, either to heal their grief or to serve 378 00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:08.480 as a distraction from a much darker truth. 379 00:18:08.559 --> 00:18:11.480 They fed off each other's lies. That concept of symbiotic 380 00:18:11.519 --> 00:18:14.559 deception is deeply unsettling, very much, and it ties right 381 00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:17.200 into our next source, which also deals with the malleability 382 00:18:17.240 --> 00:18:21.720 of reality and memory, but from a completely different, intensely 383 00:18:21.920 --> 00:18:22.759 intimate angle. 384 00:18:22.880 --> 00:18:26.359 We are moving from external deception a stranger tricking a family, 385 00:18:26.880 --> 00:18:28.680 to internal deception. 386 00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:30.640 Where the lie comes from the person you trust most 387 00:18:30.640 --> 00:18:33.440 in the universe. Let's look at the source material for 388 00:18:33.680 --> 00:18:36.319 Tell Me Who I Am? This one is an absolute 389 00:18:36.359 --> 00:18:39.240 emotional gut punch, it really is. Here is the setup. 390 00:18:39.720 --> 00:18:42.440 A young man named Alex Lewis gets into a horrific 391 00:18:42.559 --> 00:18:45.480 motorcycle crash when he is eighteen years old. He wakes 392 00:18:45.559 --> 00:18:48.680 up from a coma with severe, profound amnesia. 393 00:18:48.799 --> 00:18:52.000 He literally remembers nothing of his life, his parents, his childhood, 394 00:18:52.039 --> 00:18:52.759 his own name. 395 00:18:52.960 --> 00:18:55.559 The only thing The only person he recognizes when he 396 00:18:55.599 --> 00:18:59.200 opens his eyes is his identical twin brother, Marcus. 397 00:18:59.559 --> 00:19:04.799 So Marcus takes on the monumental, godlike task of reconstructing 398 00:19:04.839 --> 00:19:08.160 Alex's entire life and his memories from scratch. 399 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:11.720 Marcus essentially becomes the sole author of Alex's reality. He 400 00:19:11.759 --> 00:19:15.799 tells him about their supposedly idyllic childhood, their loving, eccentric parents, 401 00:19:15.839 --> 00:19:17.880