Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - He Pretended To Be a Teenager - The Frederic Bourdin story

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

The Frédéric Bourdin case is a bizarre and unsettling tale of identity deception, where Bourdin, a French con artist, became infamous for impersonating missing children, including a high-profile case in Texas in 1997. He posed as Nicholas Barclay, a missing American teenager, despite obvious physical differences and a French accent, and even managed to convince the boy’s family. Bourdin was eventually exposed and arrested.

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My whole world is falling apart right now. It's chaos. Watch the Hulu original series. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for Bumno subscribers. Terms apply. So this adult man pretends to be a teenager and he like goes to high school and somehow no one notices. So this story all starts with this kid, Nicholas.

And Nicholas is 13 living in Texas. And one day in 1994 he's out in the neighborhood playing basketball. And suddenly, Nicholas just disappears. Like he's just gone. What happened to him? Well, we'll get to that. Meanwhile, all the way over in Europe is this. French guy, Fred. And Fred is 23 and he's a con man. He's kind of a turd. He's always in trouble.

And he's in trouble because he often does this thing where he'll pretend to be a teenager so that he can stay for free in youth shelters. And in these youth shelters, he'll like hide out there from the police because the police are always looking for him. But then one day in 1997, he's living in this youth shelter in Spain and the director of this youth shelter starts getting suspicious of him. And he's like, I don't think you're really a teenager. And Fred's like, uh-huh-huh, wee-wee, yeah, I am. And so eventually, Fred gets ordered by a judge to prove that he's really a teenager

or the shelter is gonna kick him out, which means the police will probably then find him, because police are always looking for him, and he'll go to prison. And that is when Fred comes up with this crazy idea. He'll just convince the judge that he's an American. But not only that, that he's an American kid who went missing.

Then they'll have to let him go. And so Fred gets to work. He calls the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the United States, and he convinces them that he's this missing kid. And he like describes himself to them and they're like, yeah, we know of a missing kid that fits that description. And they fax over a photo. This photo of a missing teenage boy.

A teenage boy who was out playing basketball three years before and suddenly just disappeared. Nicholas. And so Fred convinces them that he's Nicholas and the National Center for Missing and Exploiting Children sends a member of Nicholas' family all the way to Spain to pick Fred up. So now Fred is going to pretend to be this missing American teenager in order to get out of going to prison in Spain. Here's the thing about this missing teenager Nicholas though. Nicholas was only 13 when he went missing three years ago, which would make him 16 now. So Fred, who's 23 and French and brunette, is going to pretend to be a 16-year-old

American blonde. So he bleaches his hair. And by the way, this is a picture of Fred, and he does not look 16. Like, not even close. Like, look at his geriatric looking ass. But whatever, a few days later, Nicholas's sister, the missing kid's sister, shows up to Spain to pick up Nicholas. And Fred is there waiting and he's like, oh, hey, I'm Nicholas. And I guess the sister believes him, because from there, they fly from Spain all the way back to Texas so that he can be reunited with his family. And so they get there and he meets his whole family and I guess they believe that this 23-year-old man is their missing teenage son and they're all happy to see him. And they have all kinds of questions for him like, what happened to you? Where were you those three

years that you were missing. And of course Fred tells them some bullshit that the day he went missing, he was actually abducted and his kidnappers shipped him off to Spain where he was human trafficked, but that after three years he eventually managed to escape. However, the thing the family really doesn't press him on are the other things. Like, why do you look so old now? Like you could grow a full beard? And how come your eyes are brown? Weren't they blue before? And like you were born in Texas? How come you speak with a French accent? Like, you know, things that should have been addressed right away. So anyway, he starts living there in their trailer home with his sister.

And he tries to live a normal American teenage life. Like he starts going to high school apparently. Like this old-ass man gets on the yellow school bus every morning and he sits in high school classrooms like he's fucking Billy Madison. However, meanwhile, news of Nicholas's reappearance gets around. And his story blows the hell up. And it's all over the local news. He disappeared without a trace three years ago.

Tonight, a San Antonio boy is back home. And so all these journalists and news outlets want to interview Fred. And it starts getting national attention. And Fred's dumb ass starts doing news interviews with journalists pretending that he was this kid who was kidnapped. So clearly, this is all about to fall apart. And that is when this guy steps. his name's Charlie Parker. Charlie Parker is a local private investigator. And one day, Charlie Parker gets a phone call from a producer for the TV show Hard Copy. And they want to get an interview

with Nicholas, aka Fred. And they want to hire Charlie Parker to track Fred down so that they can get this interview. And so he starts looking into this story and right away he can tell something's not right. First of all, this motherfucker's supposed to be 16. He looks 40, Second of all, he's got the wrong color eyes and he sounds French. But then Charlie Parker starts comparing pictures of Fred's ears with pictures of the real Nicholas's ears. And he notices they have different shaped ears. And so Charlie Parker knows this guy is a fraud. And so eventually he gets the phone number of Nicholas's mom and he calls her up.

And he's like, you know that person who you think is your son? Uh, that's not Nicholas. And he mentions the change in eye color and the patterns on the ears. But I guess mom just isn't trying to hear it. She believes that Fred is her son. And so Charlie Parker hits up the FBI, and he lets them know about all of this. Now, the FBI was already investigating this whole case

because it's tied to an apparent kidnapping and possible human trafficking. But whatever, in the meantime, Fred is continuing to get away with all this. And it doesn't look like, Anyone is gonna catch him. Until. Unfortunately, for Fred, he's still kind of a turd. Like, when we started this story, the police were always after him for a reason. Because bro is always screwing up.

Like he didn't suddenly clean up his act because he moved to the United States. No, no, no. So, after a few months of living in Texas, he starts screwing up again. Like he stops showing up to school, and he just stops going. And he gets suspended. Then he steals his sister's car, and he drives it like 500 miles up to Oklahoma, and he gets pulled over for speeding, and bam, he gets arrested. And at one point, he gets a razor, and he starts...

Thf-f-f-f-himself. And so they take him and put him in a psych ward for a few days. Like, this guy's doing all kinds of stuff. Now, at this point, Fred is five months into this con. And with all this erratic behavior and acting out, I guess mom just can't stand it anymore. Or maybe she's finally figured it out. But at this point, she calls up Charlie Parker and she says,

You know what? I think you're right. I don't think this guy is my son. The next morning, Charlie Parker shows up to mom's apartment, and he invites Fred to go eat at a diner with him. And so they go to this diner and they're sitting there and they're eating. And that is when Fred finally gives in, and he admits to Charlie Parker that he isn't this 16-year-old boy from Texas,

that he's actually a 23-year-old man from France. And so eventually, bam, the feds arrest him. And I don't have a mugshot, but here's what his goofy ass looks like in real life. Anyway, he ultimately takes a plea deal and he gets six years in prison. And unfortunately, we never do find out what happened to the real Nicholas, or why he disappeared that day. I mean, there are various theories on what happened, but nothing really concrete. So anyway, that was back in 1998.

And today, Fred, he like lives a normal life, like in France, I think. And he's actually on TikTok. Like he makes videos where he talks about a lot of the stuff he used to do. So, you know, good for him for cleaning up his act.