It sounds like something straight out of Kafka: After having your identity stolen, you try to get justice, only to be arrested and involuntarily hospitalized. That’s what happened to William Woods. Or, rather, that’s what happened to the man who said he was William Woods. Was he the victim or the thief? You’ll have to read this bonkers story from Charlie McCann to find out.
People often assume that university police “aren’t real cops,” he told me. The man probably saw him as “a keychain-dangling flashlight-carrying security guard.” Mallory wanted to show him he could crack the case.
He set about getting his hands on everything he could find relating to William Woods from New Mexico and William Woods from Wisconsin. Soon he had a thick stack of documents: birth certificates, criminal histories, mug shots, fingerprint cards. The two men’s lives had been merged into one voluminous case file. Mallory set about trying to disentangle them.
More picks from 1843 Magazine
A Vintage Watch Broke Auction Records. Then the Rumours Started.
“As demand for luxury watches has rocketed, the business has become beset by skulduggery.”
The Grab List: How Museums Decide What to Save in a Disaster
“Billions of dollars’ worth of art is imperilled by climate change. Curators will have to make sacrifices.”
The Great Syrian Beach Trip
“A visit to the seaside once risked arrest and torture. Now people are soaking up the sun.”
The Kremlin Put Her on Trial. She Stole the Show.
“Why did the Russian state go after an experimental theatre director?”
The School for Wildlife Traffickers
“Chinese criminals are recruiting Malawian orphans into the ivory trade.”
Dying for Gold: Who Killed the Miners of Buffelsfontein?
“South Africa’s government blockaded hundreds underground. The results were deadly.”
