Ferdinand Waldo Demara, Jr., a high-school dropout, posed as a monk, a professor of psychology, a cancer researcher, a penal officer, a teacher, and a surgeon, all without the proper education or certification. As a surgeon he successfully performed amputations and even thoracic surgery.
Ferdinand was portrayed by Tony Curtis in the 1961 movie, “The Great Imposter.”
More about Ferdinand Demara, Jr.
Ferdinand Waldo Demara Jr., famously known as “The Great Impostor,” was one of history’s most prolific and successful con men. Armed with an extraordinary memory and supreme confidence, he took on dozens of high-level professions without credentials.
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He Performed Successful Surgeries at Sea with Zero Medical Training
During the Korean War, Demara posed as Dr. Joseph Cyr, a trauma surgeon aboard the Royal Canadian Navy destroyer HMCS Cayuga. When wounded soldiers were brought aboard, Demara ducked into his cabin, speed-read a medical textbook on the required procedures, and performed multiple surgeries—including extracting a bullet lodged near a patient’s heart and amputating a foot. Every single one of his patients survived. -
His Heroic Fame Was His Own Undoing
Demara’s flawless surgical work on the Cayuga was so impressive that it attracted news coverage. The real Dr. Joseph Cyr’s mother read a newspaper account of her son’s “heroic” actions aboard a navy vessel in Korea and knew something was wrong, as her actual son was practicing medicine in New Brunswick, exposing the fraud. -
He Served as the Dean of Philosophy at a College
Posing as “Dr. Robert Linton French,” a religiously oriented psychologist, Demara landed a position at Gannon College in Erie, Pennsylvania. He wasn’t just a lecturer; he was made Dean of the School of Philosophy and taught courses in general, industrial, and abnormal psychology—even authoring a booklet titled How to Bring Up Your Child. -
He Possessed a Photographic Memory
Demara lacked formal higher education, having run away from home as a teenager, but he possessed an extraordinarily high IQ and a photographic memory. This allowed him to absorb textbooks rapidly, memorize technical jargon, and pass himself off as an authority on nearly any subject overnight. -
He Faked His Own Suicide to Escape the Military
After going AWOL from the U.S. Army during World War II, Demara joined the U.S. Navy under a stolen name. When he failed to get the naval assignment he wanted, he staged his own suicide by leaving his clothes and a suicide note on a beach before slipping away under another new identity. -
He Ran a Maximum-Security Prison Section
Demara assumed the identity of Dr. Ben W. Jones and secured a position as an assistant warden at a maximum-security prison in Texas. He successfully instituted prison reform policies and gained the trust of inmates and guards alike before a prisoner recognized his face from a news article and turned him in. -
He Co-Founded a Catholic College
Demara spent significant time trying to become a monk, joining various religious orders throughout his life. Under the alias Brother John Payne, he helped found LaMennais College (now Walsh University) in Alfred, Maine, where he served as a chancellor. -
He Was Played by Tony Curtis in a Hollywood Film
His exploits inspired a best-selling 1959 biography, The Great Impostor by Robert Crichton, which was adapted into a 1961 feature film starring Tony Curtis. Demara was also cast in a small role as a hospital surgeon in the 1960 horror film The Hypnotic Eye, where ironically, observers noted he was terrible at scripted acting. -
He Claimed His Primary Motive Was “Pure Rascality”
Unlike most con artists, Demara rarely stole money or sought great personal wealth. He was primarily motivated by prestige, the challenge of slipping into high-status roles, and the opportunity to do good. When asked about his motivation, he famously cited “Rascality, pure rascality”. -
He Ended His Life as a Legitimate Hospital Chaplain
In his later years, after his fame made it impossible to adopt new fake personas, Demara went back to serving others legitimately under his real name. He became an ordained minister and worked as a hospital chaplain in Anaheim, California, until his death in 1982.
Perhaps more famous was Frank Abagnale Jr., the real person portrayed in the move “Catch Me If You Can,” Starring Leonardo DiCaprio