Stuff You Should Know - How Can I Erase My Identity and Start Over?

Episode Date: September 18, 2008

Everyone dreams of snagging a fresh start at life. Whether you've thought of changing your dull given name, or just disappearing entirely, this HowStuffWorks podcast will tell you what it takes to erase your identity. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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at the Alabama Industrial School for Negro children and how those five girls changed everything. Listen to unreformed on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. Josh Clark, Chuck Bryant. We're here for you. How are you doing, Chuck? I'm doing well, Josh. I'm doing pretty good too, Chuck. I drank a vault on an empty stomach. I'm about to chew the cover off this microphone. I'm ready to go. You got another one lined up, huh? I do. I do. This is my second one right here. I don't even know what that is. I'm about to pass

out, actually, but try to make it through. Yeah, please don't. I can't carry this. So I've got a great news item for you. You ready? Sure. Okay, so it turns out the sovereign nation of New Zealand actually enforces its law that you can't give a child the name over 100 characters long, and you can't give a child the name that could prove socially handicapping. You want to hear an example? Charles Manson? No. No. And arguably, I like it. I think it's very lilting and sweet, but it's arguably worse than Charles Manson. There was a nine-year-old girl who was in the midst of a custody battle with her parents, and the judge found out what the girl's name was, and how much she hated it, and actually made her a temporary ward of the court so she could legally

change her name herself. Let's hear it. Tallulah does the hula from Hawaii. Wow. I'm not kidding. Is that two names? One name? No, that's her first name. I'll spell it together. No, it's separate words, and I think they actually even spelled it correctly, like the is not capitalized, that kind of thing. That's ridiculous. But I was reading this BBC article on it, and they brought up some other examples of names in New Zealand that some made it through, and some didn't. There are a couple bizarre ones that made it through, like number 16, Bus Shelter. Bus Shelter? Yes. And another one that made it through was Midnight Chardonnay, which I think Q Grant probably has designs on that poor child. Yeah, I think it's no secret how that child was conceived. Exactly,

yeah. But there are a few more that didn't make it through, like, yeah, Detroit, sex fruit, and the twins, fish and chips. The federal government, or maybe even local government, moved to block those names. Really? But I'm curious though, is Charles W. Bryan, is that the name your parents gave you? Did you change it? No, Charles Wayne, I was named after John Wayne, which is a true story. Is that right? Yeah. I didn't know what the W stands for. Yeah, that's it. I'm Wayne. Now I do. Well, if you have your original name, you know anything about this kind of thing? Is this in your field of expertise per chance? You know, my wife actually changed the spelling of her first name, although not legally, but

while she spells it, you know, when she fills out her driver's license records and on her bank account, it's all spelled the Emily with an IE and not Emily with a Y, but she never legally got it changed. But it just kind of goes to show how you can change these official documents without really having the court say you can. Yeah, just by setting precedent, right? Exactly. But there are legal routes to do this kind of thing, right? Right. And I think I know what you're getting to. Yes. Chuck, how could one erase their identity and start over? That's a great question. Unfortunately, I hate to spoil this for the listeners, but there's really no way that you can completely erase your identity in this day and age, at least in the United States,

without the government doing it for you. Yeah, technology has made it a lot more difficult to commit just about any kind of crime, huh? Yeah. In the old days, you could do, there was one thing called a paper trip, which is you could assume the identity of like a dead infant and get their records and claim their identity as your own. It's depressing, but effective. Yeah. Or what? Yeah, you can't do that anymore, though, because, you know, computer records nowadays and everything, it makes it really difficult to completely erase your identity. So I guess even if you do change your identity, there's still records of your former identity linking the two together, right? Exactly. So if you're on the run from somebody,

like you can change your name pretty easily. If you have special circumstances, you can change your social security number, but you have to prove to the government that someone's either been misusing yours. And another reason you can change your social is if you're a victim of domestic violence and you really need to, you know, go underground where your ex-husband or ex-wife, I guess, if, you know, your victim of spousal abuse is a husband. Which is actually not paid nearly enough attention to. Husband abuse. I'm not kidding. It actually is a real problem. Men don't feel the least bit confident in admitting that they are abused by their wives. They're not going to tell you it's out there, you know? Sure. Well, that's a podcast

for another day. Sure. Well, let's do it. We'll put it on a calendar. Agreed. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy number one is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute 2200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah, and they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs, of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm the prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty, exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops, are they just, like, looting? Or are they just, like, pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call, like, what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid for it. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. There is no need for the outside world because we are removed from it and apart from it and in our own universe. On the new podcast, The Turning, Room of Mirrors, we look beneath the delicate veneer of American ballet and the culture formed by its most influential figure, George Balanchine. There are not very many of us that actually grew up with Balanchine. It was like I grew up with Mozart. He could do no wrong. Like, he was a god. But what was the cost for the dancers who brought these ballets to life? Were the lines between the professional and the personal were hazy and often crossed? He used to say, what are you looking at, dear? You can't see you. Only I can see you.

Most people in the ballet world are more interested in their experience of watching it than in the dancers' experience of executing it. Listen to The Turning, Room of Mirrors on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So, like I said, you can change your social for several reasons. It needs to be approved. You can change your name. It depends what state you live in for the process you go through. But it generally costs, you know, 50 bucks or under and a judge actually rules. I thought that was interesting whether or not you can change your name. Well, that's only if there's objections, right? Well, they make a ruling regardless and it's always yes unless there's an objection. Okay, so you basically, to change your name, you have to advertise it in the legal organ, usually the county newspaper. And this is for the great state of Georgia that we live in.

Right, okay, I got you. So it does that for several weeks and, you know, if somebody notices and they have an objection, they can object. And I actually know of an instance where that happened. You remember Jeff Killooly? Oh, who? So apparently, knee-capping America's sweetheart can get you some really bad press in this country. Right, because he famously hit Nancy Kerrigan, ice skater named Nancy Kerrigan, in the knees with a crowbar. Yeah, on behalf, he claimed of his wife, Tanya Harding, who was in competition for Kerrigan for, you know, America's sweetheart, that kind of thing. So after the whole thing dies down, a couple years after Killooly petitions to have his name changed to Jeff Stone, there were plenty of Jeff Stones that lodged formal objections, including, oddly enough, I heard the guy who played Jeff Stone,

the son on the Donna Reed television show from the 60s. Isn't that weird? Wow, small world. So people do object, but I think you have to be a little unsavory for somebody not want you to share their name. Right, and I would think Killooly would have changed his name before that, just for the simple fact that his name was Killooly. Right, exactly. But that's just me. Yeah, so you've given us a couple good reasons. Can you give us any famous cases of people changing their identities? I can. Well, let's hear it.

Well, there's a really recent one, Radovin Kratich, the Serbian leader from Bosnia-Herzegovina, right? Yeah. Back in the Balkan Wars, there was a lot of ethnic cleansing going on. And Radovin Kratich was one of the ones who was committing genocide against the Muslims in that area. So the war's end, the U.S. indicts him for crimes against humanity. He drops out. Apparently he was still something of a hero to the Serbian population around there. He was hiding in plain sight to an extent. He actually grew a beard and became an alternative health guru and was living quite publicly in Belgrade. Wow. Finally, we get a very pro-American, pro-West leader in that area and the next month, Radovin Kratich is under arrest and on trial.

So war crimes is a pretty good reason to change your identity as well. Yeah, I think when I was researching this article, I found that a lot of people that inquire about this on the Internet, you can get certain websites will say they'll change your name, but it's really just a big scam. You can use a fake ID or reuse a bunch of the same records over and over. And it's really, for those of you out there that look into these, it's just a big money rip off. That's one of those things where if you want it done right, you have to do it yourself, I would imagine. Especially if you're having trouble with your identity through identity theft or whatever. But I guess if your identity gets so ragged out, it doesn't matter who you trust it to to change it for you. I wonder if the percentage of people changing their identity is on the rise, what with identity theft just exploding all over the place. Yeah, I think that's one of the problems that the Internet is identity theft and it's also one of the problems of people not being able to change their identity because of the paper trail via computer.

So it's sort of a double-edged sword. So Chuck, do you want to give our listeners the number they can call if they're interested in changing their social security number? Do you want them a spousal abuse or if your social security number has been tampered with, you can call 1-800-772-1213 to inquire to the SSA about what you can do. And for all the great details, you can read Chuck's article, How Can I Erase My Identity and Start Over on HowStuffWorks.com and stick around to find out what article makes Chuck think of Frankenstein right after this. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Be sure to listen to the War on Drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. There is no need for the outside world because we are removed from it and apart from it and in our own universe.

On the new podcast, The Turning, Room of Mirrors, we look beneath the delicate veneer of American ballet and the culture formed by its most influential figure, George Balanchine. There are not very many of us that actually grew up with Balanchine. It was like I grew up with Mozart. He could do no wrong. Like he was a god. But what was the cost for the dancers who brought these ballets to life, where the lines between the professional and the personal were hazy and often crossed? He used to say, what are you looking at, dear? You can't see you, only I can see you. Most people in the ballet world are more interested in their experience of watching it than in a dancer's experience of executing it. Listen to The Turning, Room of Mirrors on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. We're back. Thanks for hanging around. I don't blame you. What article is it, Chuck?

Well, it's sort of misleading. It's not Frankenstein, the doctor who created the monster. But it's the awesome 70s instrumental groovy song, Frankenstein. Do we have to pay anybody for that? I don't think so. If you paid anyone, it would be Johnny Winner because that's his song. Okay, all right. And you can ask me why? Yeah, this is kind of, not only did we start, you misled me to mislead the readers and now I'm just as confused as ever. Why would that possibly remind me of Frankenstein? What article are you talking about?

Well, because Johnny Winner famously has albinism, along with his brother, fellow musician Edgar Winner of the Edgar Winner group. They're both albinists. Certainly, it runs in the family. So the article, how albinism works, that's the one. Because if you just sit there and Frankenstein plays over and over in your head every time you read it. Over and over and over. I get the earworm. Well, that's fantastic, Chuck. So you can read all about albinism and all sorts of other interesting articles on howstuffworks.com. Check it out.

For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. Let us know what you think. Send an email to podcast at howstuffworks.com. In 1980, cocaine was captivating and corrupting Miami. The cartels, they just killed everybody that was home. Setting an aspiring private investigator on a collision course with corruption and multiple murders. The detective agency would turn out to be a front for a drug pilot who would claim he did it all for this CIA. I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco. Join me for Murder in Miami. Chuck, I'm walking into the devil's den.

Listen to Murder in Miami on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 1968, five black girls were picked up by police after running away from a reform school in Mt. Megs, Alabama. I'm writer and reporter Josie Deffie Rice, and in a new podcast, I investigate the abuse that thousands of black children suffered at the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children and how those five girls changed everything. Listen to Unreformed on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.