The UnXplained With William Shatner: Season 1 Episode 14

Leading Double Lives

This episode looks at what drives an impostor to defend their false persona at any cost. In 1951, Ferdinand Demara impersonated a Canadian Naval Surgeon and performed successful surgery on nineteen soldiers wounded in the Korean War - despite not having any medical credentials. In the case of 'Clark Rockefeller' a.k.a Christian Gerhartsreiter, the motivations can be quite grandiose. Gerhartsreiter, a German emigre, fooled his wife, friends, and family into thinking he was a member of the prestigious Rockefeller family.