If he was a victim of foul play, the evidence of what happened to him has never been found or identified.

The case is, in the fullest sense of the term, cold.

What The Case Reveals About Identity And Recognition

One of the things that makes the Barclay-Bourdin case so enduringly fascinating is what it reveals about the nature of identity — about how we recognize people and what we actually know when we say we know who someone is.

The fundamental premise of Bourdin’s deception is that identity is, to a significant degree, socially constructed and socially validated.

We are who others say we are, in important ways.