Isn't just me or are the people that became his 'friends' extremely naive? One woman who he was friend with in Pasadena describes him as having "no German accent what so ever", while everyone else believed that he was either British or American depending on the story he told him. Sorry, either those people were extremely gullible or deaf. You only have to listen to the guy speak for five minutes and you immediately notice a German accent.
shareI think that he was an extremely good liar and manipulator. Most people take what is told to them at face value.
I think you might be right. When they finally interviewed him, one hour into the documentary, I caught myself being sucked into the stories he was telling the interviewer. I knew they were all lies but I was starting to believe him!
shareNot sure if it applies here but what's the old saying about "if you repeat a lie often enough, people will start to take it as the truth."
Another quote, "Liars ought have good memories." My god, but the enormous memory this guy must have, to be able to keep all his stories straight.
Yes, but ... at some point people were starting to question him because his stories started contradicting, and were suddenly not making any sense. That's when he would move to another place, take on another identity and start all over again.
shareI think it was a combination of him being one of the greatest liars in human history...like a professional athlete of the greats of all times....except at lying. So...he was smart and could weave his way in and out of people and places lying lying lying, and most of the time was before the advent of the internet so they had no way to really piece anything together or a simple "google" search. Within 10 years of the internet being invented...he was caught.
Also, I think when people made a famous person or someone they think is famous they WANT to believe its true as its "exiting" to say you know someone famous and hang out with them etc. so they probably didn't want to check if he was lying, also if he found out he might be offended that they did not "believe" him etc. and end the friendship etc., which all of these people seemed to not want to happen. So a combination of a great liar, no internet for 3 decades, and people WANTING to believe this guy and not wanting it to end. Were they naive, some of them, yea, but there was also all of those other things just as much.
Very good point.
share