How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found, Doug Richmond [a court of thorns and roses ebook free txt] 📗

is almost a necessity. A car is probably the only really expensive item a single person needs. He can pay cash for room, board and clothing out of his regular income, but it is usually out of the question for him to buy an automobile this way.

If a lamster winds up doing the eight-to-five for a company that has a credit union, he should by all means join and make regular deposits. Credit unions often have plans whereby their depositors are allowed to borrow their own money for a slight charge. That is, if one has $ 1000 on deposit, it is dead simple to borrow $500 and pay interest on it, paying off the "loan" directly out of your paycheck. Meanwhile, your deposit pays interest to you, although at a somewhat lower rate than you are paying to the credit union. People do this all the time, for the same reason a disappearee would want to: borrowing your own money and paying it back will lead to a better credit rating than you could achieve through a dozen schlock shops.

There is one kind of credit problem that is peculiar to the identity changer. You may have assumed the identity of someone who was deep in debt himself. If the name of the person whose identity you copped is unusual, you could already be on a credit bureau's shit list without even knowing it. This is one of the reasons why an identity changer assumes only so much of another's identity as is absolutely necessary, and why it is so important to start with a new and pristine Social Security number. Most credit records these days are tied wholly or in part to the Social Security number. All it takes is the difference of one digit to completely confuse most information retrieval systems.

If the identity you assumed comes with credit problems, and your name is already on a bad-risk list, you can correct the "mistaken" identity if you have carefully documented yourself with unique ID.

DISGUISE

While a thorough search for a missing person is rarely ever conducted, a wee bit of disguise is definitely a good idea for an identity changer. The observation that "it's a small world" can be a scary but true prospect for the disappearee. Leaving his wife behind in Wilmington, Connecticut, he forgets that her sister, who he met once or twice over the holidays, lives in Carson City, Nevada -his new home. As he reaches for a piece of lingerie to purchase for his girlfriend's birthday, he turns around and who do you think is looking him over trying to think where she's seen this man before?

Gotcha!

It never ceases to amaze me just how often I run into people I knew when I was a kid but haven't seen for years, or relatives I forgot I had, or old flames, etc. When you add to that the people you've met in your work life, friends of your friends that you've seen casually many times, and gas station attendants, barbers, grocery clerks, postal delivery people, etc., the number of people out there that are familiar enough with your face to remember who you are is staggering! All it takes is just one of them to make you and connect it with something they read about your having committed suicide, and you're a goner. Considering the possibilities, and the repercussions of being identified, a little disguise might just be the best buy in the history of insurance.

By "disguise" I do not mean the Lon Chaney, Hunchback of Notre Dame type of getup. A lamster doesn't need much of a change in appearance to effect his purposes. Even so simple an exercise as a change in clothing from what one ordinarily wears and a change in hairstyle are enough to throw off even one's friends and relatives. A detective for the California Police Department once told me that it is not at all unusual for parents searching Berkeley's Telegraph Avenue area to fail to recognize their own children when they meet them face-to-face.

There are six general ways that a person is recognized:

1) Gait.

2) Overall appearance.

3) Shape of the head and face.

4) Voice.

5) Features. Not the same as #3, above.

6) Location.

A simple disguise that changes any or all of these items of identification is all that is required for good, basic camouflage. Let's take them in order.

It is relatively easy to deliberately change the way you walk. But it is only too easy to forget to keep in character when tired, or when you think no one is watching. To rule against this contingency you can make it impossible to return to your original gait in moments of stress or absentmindedness. One way to do this is to wear shoes of different heights. A good orthopedic shoemaker could add 1/4" to the heal of one shoe and subtract the same amount from the other. You will automatically be forced to adjust your gait to compensate for the 1/2" difference. Once you fall into your new gait it will never be forgotten as long as the trick shoes are worn, and perhaps even with regular shoes.

Another way to change your walk is to permanently attach some object inside one shoe of every pair you own or buy. As we all know too well, the smallest little particle stuck in your shoe causes enough discomfort to change the way you walk. The item should be identical for each pair of shoes, and it should be placed in exactly the same place. A good choice is a thumbtack with the pointed edge pushed into the sole of the shoe. The rounded back of the tack should be enough to alter your gait without crippling you for life.

Overall appearance is determined to a marked degree by clothing, weight and posture. Most of us have had the experience of meeting our dentist or corner policeman out of uniform and completely and embarrassingly failing to recognize him. Similarly, a man who