Frederic Bourdain. Childhood, tricks, family, movie famous impostor

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Surely many have heard this name - Frederic Bourdain. The police have been interested in this French serial impostor for a long time. Frederick even received the nickname "Chameleon" in wide circles.

Birth and childhood

Bourdain was born on June 13, 1974 in Nantes (department Hauts-de-Seine). According to media reports, the boy is the illegitimate son of Ghislaine Bourdain. As it turned out, the woman initially wanted to have an abortion at the request of her father and grandfather Frederick, but in the end refused and gave birth. Ghyslaine became a mother at the age of 18. In an interview with one of the local channels, the mother said that Frederic's father was an immigrant from Algeria. Upon learning that a casual relationship brought him a child, he immediately disappeared, leaving Ghyslaine to her fate with the baby. The police also found out that the woman was very fond of drinking and walking at night.

Ghislaine also told the press that at the age of 5 she gave her son to be raised by her grandparents in France. At the age of 12, the boy ended up in an orphanage.

Debut reincarnations

Frédéric Bourdain is notorious for impersonating other people. According to him, he managedfeel like 500 people he doesn't know. As it turned out later, three of them were missing teenagers.

Even in early childhood, the boy called the police, presented himself with false names or even lied that he did not remember his name. As Frederic Bourdin 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 pretend to be orphans, because he had no mental disorders, and he did not particularly need money.

It should be noted that Frederic lived in more than 15 countries and knew 5 languages perfectly.

Nicholas Barclay

In 1997, when the young man turned 23, he stated 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 his friends. The boy has not been heard from since.

To carry out his scam, Frederic Bourdain went to the USA to the parents of the missing Nicholas. And although the boy who disappeared without a trace had brown eyes, Chameleon managed to convince his relatives that this was their miraculously found son. Frederick told his family that he had run away from those involved in child prostitution. He spent more than 5 months with Nicholas's family before his deceit was revealed.

In 1997, one of the local detectives brought the guy to clean water. The officer of the law worked with a film crew that was filming a film about the Barclay family. That's when he suspected something was wrong.

Revealing the Fraud

In 1998, FBI agents obtained permission to take fingerprints and a DNA sample from "Nicholas". Later it turned out that the guy is Frederic Bourdin (Chameleon). In the same year, the deceiver confessed in court that he had perjured himself and forged a passport. For this act, he received 5 years in prison.

Next Scam

In 2003 Bourdain moved to Grenoble. There he found new victims for his scams. This time, he posed as Leo Balli, a 14-year-old boy who has been missing since 1996. The parents did not believe the words and immediately sent the "false son" to take tests. And again deceit 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 a deception, the police decided to deport the restless impostor to France.

In 2005, Bourdain posed as Francisco Fernandez, a 15-year-old orphan. For a whole month, the Chameleon lived in the orphan college 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 depilatory cream tono one noticed his stubble.

And another failure: one of the teachers watched a program about his "exploits" and handed over the liar to the police. Bourdain later received 4 months in prison. In court, Frederick admitted that in this way he is looking for attention and love, which he was deprived of as a child. Bourdin pretended to be an orphan many more times.

Private life

August 8, 2007 Frederic Bourdain and his wife (civilian) signed. The man courted the girl for more than a year. The couple currently has three children. As Frederic told one of the newspapers, he no longer wants to pretend to be anyone. Now his family has enough love and attention.

"Imposter". Film with Bourdain

In 2010, a picture called "The Pretender" appeared on the screens. The film was directed and written by Jean-Paul Salom. The plot was based on real events. The Pretender (film) was about Bourdain pretending to be Nicholas Barclay. Frederic was played by a young talented actor Marc-Andre Grondin. In 2012, a documentary on the same topic was released.

Character

When Bourdin met with one of the journalists for an interview, he fully described the life of his interlocutor. The magazine employee was greatly surprised when Frederick gave his name, place of residence, exact date of birth and the name of his wife. When asked why this was necessary, Bourdain replied: “I need to know who I am talking to.”

It is worth saying that during the interview, the Chameleon said the following phrase: "When you fight with monsters, make sure that you do not become one of them."

We hope thatBourdain will never return to his past life.