As the mother of a doctor from Canada Joseph Syrah opened the newspaper and read an article about the heroic deed of his son — brilliant operations, which have been rescued 16 wounded South Korean Marines, brought on Board the canadian destroyer. A doctor on the destroyer, and served as Joseph Cyr. But to the great surprise of the mother of the hero in the pictures was a picture of not her son, and a completely different person.
The investigation began, and it soon became clear that under the name Syrah on the ship got Ferdinand Demara. He really was a genius, just not of medicine, and fraud. Well, and truly possessed a rare talent. Because of medicine had no idea. Before to operate on the seriously wounded military, he just flipped through the books in the cabin.
For the life Demara successfully pretended to be a construction engineer, a Sheriff's Deputy, an assistant prison warden, doctor of applied psychology, a nurse, an expert on child care, a lawyer, a Benedictine monk, a Trappist monk, an editor, a zoologist, a researcher at the cancer tutor. And once established, the existing is still College!
All his failures were not due to professional incapacity, but because of circumstances and because of the thrust Demary to glory. Any of the professions he's mastered instantly and expertly. Why? Exclusively from sports gambling. This man just couldn't live like everyone else. He was boring and uninteresting.
He was pretty good-natured goof, easy-going, confident, and immensely charming. All this, along with talent and a phenomenal memory, and helped him not to cause the slightest suspicion. Surrounding not only believed him implicitly, but admired him. And then refused to believe that they held.
This Unicum was born on 21 December 1921 in a fairly wealthy family. But then his father went bankrupt and moved the family into the neighborhood where dwelt the poor. Young Fred did not dream about such a life, so at 16 he simply ran away from home. First lived with the monks, and in 1941 joined the army as a volunteer. In the army he quickly got bored, and he deserted. Again, life in the monasteries, and then again to the front. He dreamed of becoming an officer, but was not ready for the long journey from soldier to officer. So with the army was over.
So Demary was the character he wanted to achieve everything instantly. Faking a suicide, he took the name of Robert French, bought a psychology degree and began to teach at the College. Students flocked to his lectures, and the leadership could not get enough of on a new employee, because he was able to convey any information easy and fun. And preparing for the lectures Demara at night for the first time in my life studying books and books on psychology.
Then there was the first failure. Demaru arrested for desertion and imprisoned for a year and a half.
It never scared. Freed, he immediately took up the old — bought new instruments. Met with a canadian doctor, Joseph Cyr. The idea is to try yourself in the role of the doctor took control of him. And soon the newly minted surgeon, fake "Joseph Cyr" without difficulty got a doctor on a military destroyer. Again, night classes textbooks, this time medical, and Sire began ... to operate! And successfully. No one ruined life. On the contrary, miraculously, he managed to put on feet of people with severe infections and wounds.
After the exposure he was very lucky — the canadian Navy did not press charges, and Demara returned Home.
Maybe then he waited for the stunning career in some new field. But he could not resist and sold his story to Life magazine. After that, he had no choice, how to live the life of an ordinary person.
That it did not fit his nature. And Demara newly acquired fake ID. This time he decided to become a prison psychologist. But one of the prisoners remembered him in the magazine article, and desmarais had to flee. However, he did not stop and continued to try myself in different fields: as a consultant in the homeless shelter, chaplain at the hospital, scientist, engineer, lawyer ... He was getting harder, fame caught up with him, revelations followed one another. But Damara did not give up.
But the heart could not stand such amount of adrenaline. In 1982, he died of heart failure at the age of 60 years, but managed to fit in one life and several were able to inspire writers and filmmakers, who have immortalized it in books, film and TV series.