Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2023 July 21

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July 21

Cases of extreme identity theft, like the victims Christine Collins and Irene Silverman?

Christine Collins was a woman whose son went missing. Police gave her a boy, saying he was her missing son. She took him in but stated with evidence the boy was not his son. She was committed to a mental hospital by the police. But the boy recanted and said he was indeed not the son of Collins.

Irene Silverman was a New York City wealthy socialite. She was murdered by the son of Sante Kimes and the latter, who had an elaborate plan to assume the identity of Silverman. The police caught them before the full ploy was realized.

Recently, Viktoria Nasyrova was convicted of trying to kill her befriended look-alike in a ploy to steal her identity.

I am wondering if there are other similar cases where a perpetrator steals and assumes the identity of a victim, after disappearing in one way or the other the latter. Regards, Thinker78 (talk) 05:04, 21 July 2023 (UTC)

Classsic cases are the Tichborne claimant and The Return of Martin Guerre. There are also royal pretenders, like Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck... AnonMoos (talk) 05:46, 21 July 2023 (UTC)

Warwick and York were in no way victims of Simnel and Warbeck, though. —Tamfang (talk) 14:53, 26 July 2023 (UTC)

A good place to start is Category:Impostors. Clarityfiend (talk) 10:20, 21 July 2023 (UTC)

Anna Anderson who pretended to be Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia springs to mind. Alansplodge (talk) 15:20, 22 July 2023 (UTC)

References

Pl. help match the (US) playwrights / monologue

I am working on a monologue stage show draft My Body No Choice which includes a list of 7 US playwrights plus one anonymous playwright. Pl. refer the table given in my draft My Body No Choice.

One monologue mentioned in this linked Guardian news report says ".. One woman, a survivor of childhood abuse, describes having an abortion on 4 July, interpreting the sound of independence day fireworks as a celebration of her autonomy: ..". I could not match this story with 7 playwright names or an anon and monologue descriptions in this Washington post news.

Pl. help match the monologue mentioned in the Guardian with (US) playwrights or monologues mentioned in the table or any other relevant news report.

Thanks-- Bookku (talk) 06:55, 21 July 2023 (UTC)

I’m just guessing, but when you match the keywords from the two articles, "Battered Baby" by V (Eve Ensler) appears to be the match, as they both involve childhood abuse, whereas the others don’t. Viriditas (talk) 19:52, 21 July 2023 (UTC)

@Bookku: I confirmed it’s "Battered Baby" by Eve Ensler. She published the entire essay in her book Reckoning (2023). It’s in Chapter Three ("Mother Hunger"), pp. 62-66. The description of the abortion on July 4 and the fireworks is on the last two pages. She notes it was originally commissioned as a monologue by Molly Smith at the Arena Stage in October 2022 for My Body, No Choice. Viriditas (talk) 22:08, 21 July 2023 (UTC)

After searching other related news I was wondering whether I will get answer for this soon enough. It's really good guessing and search on part of @Viriditas Many thanks. -- Bookku (talk) 03:10, 22 July 2023 (UTC)