FRED DEMARA, Known for His 'Rascality, Pure Rascality'

I'm Maria tram Marquis and I'm Holly Fry. And the impostor that we're going to get to know in this episode is a man with a fabulous name, man Waldo Demara Jr. He preferred to be known as Fred, and we want to make a note about his last name. We have looked at various pronunciations for it. Some people say it Demera, some people say it Demara. We're going with Demara, so just know that that's that's where we're defaulting too. But you might hear it a different way

if you go looking for information on him. Fred, as again he liked to be called, was born on December one in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and his family were largely theater owners. Fred's uncle, Napoleon Demarro Senior, another great name in the family, owned several theaters across Lawrence, and Fred's father, ferdman Waldo Demarro Senior, worked in the Old Theater District as a motion picture operator. They were active union members and the

families were pretty well off. His fairly also was fairly devout, and Fred maintained a strong interest and belief in Christianity throughout his life. Mostly mostly we say, because we're actually right now, I'm going to talk about his first con. His first con was tiny. We quote Maria Konokova, who was the author of a book called The Confidence Game. She also went on to say, why and how do

we so easily fall for scams? And Fred's scam he conned, This isn't when he was in high school, he conned a chocolate shop in his hometown into giving chocolates to his entire class when he had no money or intention to pay for them. She went on quote, that's no big deal. But after that there was no turning back.

He was on his way to becoming the great impostor. Yeah. Yeah, So in terms of Christianity, not so much with all the commandments, just that felt right, pick and choose selective commandment. So when the early part of the Great Depression began, it hit his family. Fred's father went bankrupt and the family was forced to relocate and it was then, when Fred was just sixteen years old, that he ran away

from home with the intentions of becoming a monk. He joined a monastery in Rhode Island, and his parents were told, now don't worry by a father demeris of the Trappist Monks. He has joined the most demanding religious order in the world, and he will be home in several weeks. I always that to be He's not going to be able to handle this, and you'll frame him in about a month. He can't hack it. We will take care of him. He'll learn his lesson and go home, and he'll be

home soon. Um. In fact, Fred did join the monastery as what was known as a novice. The monks required novices to live as residents for five or six years before taking their vows, but after four years Fred laughed. He later was quoted saying that it was because of the abbot of the monastery. The abbot, for those who don't know, is the male head of an abbey of monks, so he's the lead dude, and the abbot felt that Fred would be better suited for teaching out in the

world rather than living in contemplation. Four years is a long time though I got to give him some credit. Yes, it is a long time. So Fred left the monastery in and of course World War two was on the horizon, so he listed in the U. S. Army. However, Fred did not really like being in the army, certainly at is not compared to what his time in the monastery had been like, and after just a year he deserted.

While Fred may have run some basic scams here and there in his early years, this is when Fred took on his first false identity. Wanting out of the U. S. Army, Fred decided to take himself to the U. S. Navy, but this time he was using a fraudulent name, Anthony in Olia, who was a real person actually and one of his army buddies. So it's a little bit early, but we're going to take a break here for a word from sponsor, so we can then kind of group

talking about Fred's first real impersonation altogether. Welcome back to Criminalia. We're right where Fred pulls off his first and perhaps his biggest con So initially in the U. S. Navy, Fred going by the name Anthony and Nulia trained as a Corman, which is the equivalent today of like an e m T year of Physicians Assistant. It's a paramedical position. As he soon realized though, this job actually meant that he was going to be serving on the front lines,

and he immediately tried to get out of it. He forged credentials that would allow him to enroll in officer training instead, but unfortunately for him, his forgery was discovered and for Fred that of course meant once again deserting and going back on the run. This time in his life, his resume as an impostor was becoming actually quite lengthy and quite varied. After leaving the Navy, Fred, who did not have any real credentials for well anything, really went

on to teach psychology on college in Pennsylvania. He then posed as a professor of psychology at a school in Washington State. And it's hard to believe, but in fact, while he was in Washington, Fred was so popular in his town he was asked to stay on as sheriff.

Fred Allway was on the prowl, saw a new opportunity and a new life to vanish into Laminais College in Alfred, Maine, was founded in nineteen fifty one by the brothers of Christian instruction and joining the Brothers as Brother John Payne was a pretty easy way for Fred to take on a new identity. But he walked away from all of this in nineteen sixty. But this time it wasn't because you know, the time was approaching for him to take

holy orders and he wanted to duck out instead. He left when the Brothers decided that they were going to rename the school to Walsh College instead of naming it after him. Now, whether he did or he didn't, Fred believed it was his idea to start the school, and he was angry that he wasn't recognized for it. They didn't even name him as rector or chancellor of the new college. So he left again. And Fred next took to the and this is a surprise, the Royal Canadian Navy.

He wasn't a sailor, he wasn't a Canadian citizen. But one of his most impressive impersonations was when he joined the RCN in March nineteen sixty one. What makes this even more impressive is that he did so as a surgeon. Fred didn't actually have any of the degrees that he flaunted, or any education or training in any of the careers he tried, but he was intelligent and the people he

knew said he had a remarkable memory. So Fred, using the name Dr Joseph Sear, visited the recruiting office in St John, New Brunswick and offered his professional services as a doctor, and he was commissioned as a surgeon lieutenant. This sounds shocking, but you know, processing a recruit normally would have taken about three months, but because there were so few medical officers, authorities were very lax on this screening and luckily for Fred, that included background checks as well,

and so in no time at all. Dr Sear, who was really Fred, was assigned to the Naval Hospital in Halifax and subsequently to h MCS Cayuga. He joined the ship in Esquimalt. This is the ship's second tour of duty in Korean waters. As a fake surgeon in the Royal Canadian Navy, Fred actually did perform real surgeries, believe it or not. His first was dental work on the infected tooth of Cayuga, commandered Captain James Plumber. Fred's secret

to success as a fraudulent medical practitioner was threefold. One read a few textbooks to rely on the help of the sick birth attendant, and three dispensed a generous amount of anesthetic and antibiotics. I can believe that last one, uh Sear, also tended to seriously wounded men and performed surgeries that involved complicated procedures like extracting a bullet during chest surgery, or even amputating a foot. But Fred, as Doctor Syr, was not a doctor, and thankfully none of

his patients died. That to me is the one mercy of all this, right, OK, somebody with no real training going in and digging bullets out of people, amputating a foot. My goof Peter Godwin Chance, who sailed with the fictitious Doctor Syr, had once been treated by him for an infected toe, and Peter remembered him, as we quote, an affable man who was always the life of the party,

though he neither drank alcohol nor smoked cigarettes. According to Dr John Jay Zane, who was Fred's personal physician, Fred was considered to be quote a lifesaver by many members of the crew of the Cayuga, and of course that would have been under his false identity of doctor Sear. The Canadian Navy discovered who doctor Sear really was, and that was Fred. When the real doctor Sears mother saw a news article about a man named Dr Joseph Seer

on the Cayuga, and that story was fake. There was an actual doctor Joseph Seer whose medical records Fred had stolen. The fake doctor Sear's name made it all the way back to the real doctor Seer, who was practicing medicine in Grand Falls, New Brunswick. We've talked about this before, like when somebody is just using your name doing stuff's gonna come back. But here's where it gets to me really mind boggling. Even after Fred was found out, the

Canadian Navy didn't press charges. How is that possible? Because they were embarrassed by what happened, so the authorities in the matter declined to take any action, presumably hoping to just kind of keep the whole thing as quiet as possible. Fred was actually honorably discharged, which is also mind boggling. He was released from service and he was shoot back pay plus active service credits in the amount of just

under a thousand dollars. He was then driven to the border and turned over to the United States Immigration Office, and there weren't any outstanding warrants for him in the United States, so he was just free to go with his honorable discharge and his back pay having put how

many people at physical risk through shenanigans um. So yeah, So after his discharge from the Canadian Navy, Fred of course again reinvented himself, and this time he decided to return to monastic life in Louisville, Kentucky, pretending to be a monk, something that Fred returned to on and off through his life. UM he used the name Robert Linton French. So Robert Linton French was, like Dr Sear, a real

person and a real doctor. And through what we would now call social engineering, Fred was able to get copies of French's credentials include being his birth certificate, all just by mail. As Dr French. Fred traveled to Chicago, where he studied philosophy and ethics at DePaul University. He was, it was rumored, a natural in the field. But remember

Robert wasn't really a student at DePaul. He was supposed to be living a monastic life in Kentucky and it was getting close to the time when he would take his holy orders. But before that happened, Fred vanished. A few years later, he graduated from Mulnoma School of the Bible in Portland, Oregon, where his first ministerial assignment was as pastor of the Cherry Grove Baptist Church in Gaston, Oregon, and he was well liked in the community, but things

were starting to catch up. He couldn't quite escape the rumors of his previous life of fraud, and some members of the church actually enjoyed his presence, but other members were kind of worried that they were part of a big con That's an understandable concern. Absolute Fred resigned from that position, also not a surprise. We're going to take a break for a word from our sponsor, and when we come back, we're going to talk about the time

when Fred went on trial. This is going to include some sensitive information and we will announce a warning beforehand. Welcome back to Criminalia, all right, let's get into the story of Fred and the school he opened and his eventual trial. After his life in Oregon, Fred went on to pose as an educator with special skills and counseling troubled youth, and he convinced a group of investors to

purchase a Lutheran campsite in the Madera, California area. It was there he built the Calvary Ranch School for Boys in ninete it opened its doors today. This this kind of school would be known more as a therapeutic or behavioral boarding school. It's this school that landed Fred in court in Madera County in May sixty four. Now we're going to pause here for a moment because this is important.

For the next two minutes and a few extra seconds, we timed it, this conversation and discussion of Fred's life is going to include the issue of child sexual abuse, which we understand might be very triggering or upsetting for some listeners. So stay safe, mute us for a couple of minutes if you want, and then meet us back here. It was Monday, May fourth, sixty four when Fred's fake

life really began to unravel. Authorities removed students from his school, and although Fred seemed puzzled by the event, he did immediately drive to Los Angeles to find his friend and famous lawyer, Melvin Belly. Now, Fred and Melvin had a longstanding relationship, and Fred had called upon Melvine's legal counsel more than once. Fred was at this point, saying child molestation accusations and auto theft charges. That theft charge got added when Fred drove what was the school's car to

Los Angeles to meet Melbourne. Fred turned himself into the Los Angeles authorities and he was back in Madeira County the next day. Melvine was an interesting lawyer. He was known as the King of Torts, which very basically meant that he was very good at getting his clients out of things such as assault, battery, or intentional infliction of emotional distress. Fred spent a week in the Madera County jail without saying a word, and he didn't have to.

Melvin said everything for him. On the day of Fred's trial, the crowd in Judge Alec Brown's courtroom was overflowing. Melvin argued the charges were fabricated and without proper evidence, showing otherwise that his client Fred should be set free. The jury was made up of seven women and five men, and it took them fewer than thirty minutes to decide on a not guilty verdict. Fred, though, was not free.

The prosecution produced three additional witnesses who accused Fred of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and that meant that another trial was happening. Yes, So Fred's second trial began just about a month later on June at the Madera County Superior Court. The jury consisted this time of nine women and three men. Melvin called character witnesses to the stand, who testified that Fred had done nothing inappropriate.

This was a case where his client was being harassed by several boys at the school because Fred had punished them. While it could be argued their charges were truthful, it also couldn't be proven that they weren't. So at the end of the day on June four, after an hour of deliberation, the jury found Fred not guilty on all charges. Those who knew Fred noted that he became pretty despondent at this point. Quote the strings all ran out on him. According to Melvin, quote, there was no way to channel

or exploit his tremendous talents. But I never heard him say he had any regrets about anything. Unlike other con artists and imposters and just sort of a lot of people that we talked about on this show. Fred he didn't steal, and he didn't defraud for money. His his main goal was to gain notoriety. He wanted to be special. He became so well known. He was highlighted in Time magazine and Life Magazine and in a variety of other publications.

In seven, Time Magazine called him, and we quote, audacious, unschooled but amazingly intelligent pretender who always wanted to be a somebody but succeeded in being a whole raft of somebody else's. Fred got what he wanted and it was a thrill. There were even rumors at one point that he was Frank Sinatra's bodyguard, which I mean, come on, must have given him a huge dopamine hit. Right, I'm

very important now. When the Bangor Daily News interviewed St. George School's teacher Dana Smith, who had been principal at North Haven High School during Fred's brief tenure there, Dana's memories were as follows, and we're quoting. You could paint him any color you wanted. You could paint him as a scoundrel, a rogue, a good friend, because he was a little bit of all. Most of all, he was unusual, but he has a good memory, and that is what

life consists of. Very confident, very personable, Dana continued that he was the kind of guy who was quote always looking for the shortcut. He wanted to be someone something. He loved titles, but he didn't want to put in the time in the work. I guess he was too impatient. It's like she knows him best of all. Who would think that the principle that you had at your high school would be the one who would know you so.

In addition in two Things Like Life magazine and Time Magazine, author Robert Creighton immortalized him in his debut novel called The Great Impostor. The book was a hit and was developed into a movie in one and it starred Tony Curtis as Fred, which had did be pretty cool for Fred. Creton also wrote The Rascal and the Road, which was

his memoir about his experiences with Fred. Fred's celebrity reputation is what got him the one acting role that he ever had, at least a legal acting role that everybody knew was acting. He played the character of a hospital doctor in the movie The Hypnotic Eye. It was reported in the press that while Fred was a convincing actor in real life, it did not translate to film. He was a man with his face on the cover of magazines, and he was in a movie, and he still got

away with all of his schemes. I kind of love that he was cast as a character of a hospital doctor before right exactly, I can extract that bullet for him. Um. Closer to the end of his fraudulent career, though, Fred became the warden of a prison in Huntsville, Texas. Yes, really he was the warden, and he was going under the name of Ben W. Jones, his own he was got him in this instance. He was caught after showing a prisoner a magazine story about himself. He just couldn't

resist trying to get a little clout. Like a lot of people who pretend to be someone else, Fred often, as we've talked about here, stole the identities of living people. However, as we've said, for Fred, his main goal was not money. He just wanted the status and the fame and just one more cheat. He just loved it. Whenever he was asked to describe his motives, he replied, rascality, pure rascality.

Oh yeah, Fred. So we mentioned earlier that he got away with things, but it's true that he never faced legal penalties. Let's say that, um, it's not true to say that had never gotten hot water. His capers led to charges against him for several things, including fraud, forgery, theft, embezzlement, resisting arrest, vagrancy, and public drunkenness. But Melvin always took care of everything. It's good to have a really good friend who's a lawyer. Fred's later years were far less

glamorous than his earlier life had been. For eight years, Fred lived in semi obscurity in Orange County, California, and there he worked first as a Baptist minister and then as a visiting counselor at Good Samaritan Hospital in Anaheim, doing so until health conditions forced him to stop. When Fred's passed exploits were discovered in the late nineteen seventies, the hospital could have dismissed him, but right in line

with the rest of his life, they didn't. Fred had worked as a visiting chaplain and had developed a really close friendship with the chief of stats, so when he personally vouched for Fred, Fred was allowed to remain as chaplain.

He just squeaked out at every problem, in addition to allowing him to stay on because Fred had limited finances, and because of his friendship with one of the major owners of the hospital, he actually continued to work and live in the hospital until his death, which came just two years later. He eventually developed complications from conditions such as type two diabetes and heart disease, and he died of heart failure at age sixty on June seven in

West Anaheim, California. Okay, so there's actually one more story that's pretty far fetched and totally not verified, but it seems like the kind of thing that Fred would want us to read about him. So we do know that Fred had friendships for the variety of notable people during his life, including an alleged close relationship with the actor

Steve McQueen. Already I've cocked an eyebrow on this one, but as the story goes, it was Fred who gave McQueen his last rites, so regardless of whether or not the two may or may not have been friends as far as we can tell. When McQueen died in New Mexico in nineteen eighty, Fred was already seriously ill himself in California, and it's really likely at that time that those paths never met. I guarantee you. Fred started this rumor right absolutely, Like he's he's just hanging around, He's

like friends with everybody. How about Steve Queen? Do I ever tell you that I gave Steve McQueen's last right That was me? That was me? Yeah, I was like two years before I died. It was me. So I actually don't think that Fred would enjoy a mocktail. But Holly, what do you have for us? Um? Yeah, since he was not apparently a drinker, except he'd been arrested for public drunkenness at some point in life, it wasn't a drinker.

At some points he was reformed perhaps maybe maybe well this one you can drink it in the reformed version or not. Um. And it's a super simple mocktail that I'm calling pure rascality. I'm glad to use that word because it's so perfect for him. It's an one of the easiest ones I've ever done. But I kind of threw it together like as my early test, thinking what am I going to add to this? And I liked it so much in its basic form that every time I tried to add something, I was like, nope, nope, nope,

this takes away from what we achieved initially. It is literally just four ounces of pink lemonade and four ounces of ginger beer. And the reason I love this is because if you are one of those people that likes the sensation of drinking a cocktail, you know that that inherent little bit of like bite or sting that you get from alcohol content or whatever, but you're not You're not drinking for whatever reason. The ginger beer kind of gives you the illusion of drinking an alcoholic drink when

you're not getting it totally totally. And it's also just like, for some reason, the pink lemonade and the ginger beer have this great relationship where they just acts in each other really nicely. It was a lovely accident to do an alcoholic version. I added, this will shock you. Uh did you add vodka? No? I added bourbon, what like my Holly added bourbon right um, which is also uh well.

And my thinking was that for the people like me that you know, bourbon doesn't always sit well on my palette, that mocktail version has so much character of its own that like the parts of bourbon that I don't really like, I cannot taste right. So you get that sort of interesting like smell of bourbon. You know there's bourbon in

it because it's unmis takable um. But the ginger beer, it takes the edge off of the flavor to it, and it gives it its own edge, because ginger beer is, of course, can be very bity depending on on what brand you buy. Different brands have different levels of like tartness or or that unique ginger bite. But I would drink it in mocktail version all day, every day if I could. It's so yummy. Actually can't recall the last

time that I had pink lemonade. I know, I am, you know, because we do these I look at the grocery store aisles differently than ever before. And I have only recently, you know, started actually going back to the grocery store myself instead of doing delivery and stuff since I have been vaccinated. So I had this marvelous I mean, it felt luxurious, like just walking into the grocery store and just standing and looking at you know, produce like and it just jumped out of me and I kind

of had the same thing. I haven't had pink lemonade and a time like lemonade all the time but it's bad. I could mix that with a variety of interesting things, and so I grabbed some and it's great with ginger beer. It turns out, uh yeah. And I also just love ginger beer because it mixes so well with so many things and does interesting things to so many things. It's like you feel like a magical chemist. But at the end of you're refreshed. This thing is like a really

good warm weather summertime is coming. Drink for sure, Yeah, for sure, with pink lemonade, ginger beer, a little bit of bourbon, maybe a little bit in shore, although it would go great with vodka. That's like the easiest combo in the world. Right, But if you would like to hang out with us again, we'll be back here next week with another mock tail that you can also turn into a cocktail and another story of adventure and imposturism.

So we hope we see you back here. Things Criminalia is a production of Shonda and Audio in partnership with I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from Shonda land Audio, please visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.