The Nicholas Barclay impersonation was the most famous of Bourdin’s deceptions, but it was far from the only one.

Various journalistic accounts of Bourdin’s career describe him as having assumed hundreds of false identities over the course of his life.

Most of these were less elaborate and less public than the Barclay case — brief impersonations that provided temporary housing or social services before being exposed or abandoned.

The pattern across these many deceptions is consistent: a troubled, parentless, or abandoned teenager.

A social service system designed to help vulnerable young people.