Step aside, Frank Abagnale – Who was the great impostor?
Many people have heard of Frank W. Abagnale, Jr., the check forger turned FBI consultant whose life is depicted in the popular movie Catch Me If You Can. Abagnale cashed more than a million dollars in bogus bank checks during a five-year crime spree before his 21st birthday. He also successfully posed as an airline pilot, a doctor, a lawyer, and a university professor before he was caught in France.
Before Frank William Abagnale, Jr., however, there was Ferdinand Waldo Demara, Jr. Like Abagnale, Demara was a serial impersonator, but much more prolific. His masquerades included civil engineer, deputy bailiff, assistant director of prisons, doctor of applied psychology, hospital stretcher, lawyer, childcare expert, monk, publisher, cancer researcher, and teacher. Demara became known as the Great Impostor.
Ferdinand Demara, Jr. was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, on December 21, 1921. A Roman Catholic, he dropped out of Catholic high school and entered a monastery. Although he soon abandoned the monastic life, he reportedly later recalled this moment as the best of his life. Although American by birth, he joined the Canadian Navy in March 1951. Reporting to the recruiting office in Saint John, New Brunswick, he offered his services as a physician, using the name Joseph Cyr. Canada at the time was involved in a war in Korea, and doctors were in high demand. His credentials were not rigorously scrutinized, and “Dr. Cyr” was quickly commissioned as a lieutenant surgeon and assigned to the medical ship Cayuga, which was performing his duty in the war zone.
Like Abagnale, Demara was extremely intelligent and a quick learner. Although Abagnale worked for about a year as a physician, in his role he did not personally treat patients. Demara, however, performed numerous minor operations and once treated the Cayuga commander’s infected tooth. He acquired the necessary skills by reading textbooks, with the help of his assistant, and the liberal use of anesthetics and antibiotics.
After a raid off the west coast of Korea, three seriously wounded South Korean commandos were brought aboard the Cayuga. Demara ordered the wounded men to prepare for surgery, while he disappeared into his cabin with a surgical textbook. When he got out, Demara saved the lives of all three men and even performed major surgery on one to remove a bullet from his chest.
News of Demara’s exploits attracted media attention. One of those who read the newspaper reports was the mother of the real Dr. Joseph Cyr, who was then practicing in Grand Falls, New Brunswick. Dr. Cyr realized that he had previously struck up a brief friendship with Demara, who was posing as a monk, and Demara had stolen his medical credentials before joining the Canadian Navy. The Royal Canadian Navy, embarrassed by the entire incident, refused to press charges against Demara. Instead, he was honorably discharged with back wages and then returned to the United States.
Demara’s newfound fame made it more difficult for him to continue his life as an impostor. He sold his story to Life magazine and worked a number of short-term jobs. He once used fake credentials to get a job as a prison guard in Huntsville, Texas; however, he was forced to resign after an inmate found an article about him in Life magazine. He later returned to his religious upbringing, working as a mission counselor in downtown Los Angeles and receiving a certificate from a Bible college in Portland, Oregon. During his lifetime, Demara befriended several famous people, including actor Steve McQueen.
Demara’s life story was told in the 1960 book, The Great Impostor, which became a New York Times bestseller and was adapted into a 1961 film of the same name starring Tony Curtis as Demara. Unlike Abagnale, however, Demara fell short of fame and fortune. In the last years of his life, he worked as a Baptist minister and later as a counselor in a hospital in Anaheim, California. When his past was discovered, he was about to be discharged from the hospital. However, the hospital’s chief of staff, who had become a close friend of Demara’s, personally swore by him and he was allowed to stay. He was a very active counselor, seeing a wide range of patients. Due to limited financial resources, Demara lived in the hospital until the end of his life. He died of heart failure in 1982.