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okay hmm Thank You candy for the very
kind introduction as you may have heard
in that introduction I am apparently
Michael Finkel or or am i Michael Finkel
how does anybody here actually know if I
am Michael Finkel I will answer that
question for you you don't no one no one
asked for my ID no one my mother's
maiden name my social security number
nothing like that I just walked into
this conference I didn't even stand in
line to get a badge I just came here and
got miked up and when someone said
Michael Finkel I jumped on the stage and
Here I am I I could be some fake Michael
Finkel who just showed up here and I'm
giving the top look I'm I don't even
have it memorized I'm oh I'm looking at
a piece of paper I don't think a real
Michael phikul would do that maybe I'm
gonna go and collect a Michael finkles
paycheck right after this and would any
of you ever know this is what my story
is about and I don't want to emphasize
right here before I get into this story
that this is all true no fake news here
actually feels a little weird I kind of
feel like this is a late night sort of
story like kind of like a a campfire
story like we should all be sitting
around you know like a fire it should be
did should be dark there should be I
don't know owls hooting and coyotes
calling and I should have like a
flashlight up to my face like this
but the slot that was given to me is in
the morning and so we will have to make
do this is also a creepy kind of crazy
story and I know that everybody tells
you that all I've got a crazy story I've
got a crazy story you hear that all the
time but of course not every crazy story
becomes a Hollywood movie and this one
did starring James Franco and Jonah Hill
and from right here in the United
Kingdom Felicity Jones and the movie
like the book I wrote about it is called
true story which is a bit of a
tongue-in-cheek
title because the main character as you
will soon see is a pathological liar and
also a murderer okay enough bragging
about this let's get into the story when
this story starts back in 2001 I was a
reporter for the New York Times I had
just gotten back actually from several
months of traveling and reporting in
Afghanistan covering the war between the
Northern Alliance and the Taliban and
before that I had spent many many months
in the is in Israel and the Palestinian
territories the story starts with a
phone call my cell phone rang one day
and my home in the northern United
States in Montana and I answered it and
on the other end of the line was a
reporter from a newspaper in Oregon in
the northwestern United States so I
answered the phone and it was one of the
strangest calls of my life probably not
one of the strangest the strangest the
reporter asked me if I was Michael
Finkel of the New York Times I said I
was and he didn't by the way asked me to
prove that I was Michael Finkel of the
New York Times and perhaps I feel maybe
this reporter would not make a very good
private
professional the reporter then told me
that a man named Christian Longo had
just been arrested in Mexico now until
that moment I had never heard the name
Christian Longo the reporter continued
by saying that Christian Longo was
wanted for four murders and really not
just any four murders possibly the most
horrific and unimaginable murders of
them all he was wanted for the murders
of his wife and his three young children
they were all found dead in Oregon
while the likely murderer this Christian
Longo fled to Mexico now I had no idea
why the reporter was telling me this the
reporter mentioned that Christian Longo
had been listed on the FBI's 10 most
wanted fugitives list at the time it was
the same list that contained Osama bin
Laden now this was intriguing especially
to a reporter like myself but I had no
clue why this guy was telling me all
this and so of course I asked why I said
are you telling me all this after
Christian Longo escaped to Mexico the
reporter said he changed his identity
which kind of makes sense for a fugitive
on the run but instead of adopting a
false alias he took on a real one and
apparently he had done an excellent job
convincing others of his new persona
while Christian Longo was in Mexico
wanted for the murder of his wife and
three young children he pretended to be
a journalist and his name in his
newspaper he told everyone he met was
you guessed it
Michael Finkel of the New York Times now
of course I'm a journalist so my
reaction was a journalistic reaction
like
what
how why yeah and anything a journalist
might do and I told the reporter of
course I need some more information I
need to speak with Christian Longo
himself what's going on and the reporter
said well that was impossible Christian
Longo was speaking with no one he was
locked in jail he had been extradited
from Mexico to the United States and
that's why the reporter was calling me
he said he thought I might be able to
provide some insight into this Christian
Longo he thought perhaps we knew each
other I said sorry I don't know anything
about this Christian Longo I have no
idea I have nothing to add I apologize
you're the first person to tell me about
this Christian Longo and we eventually
hung up now obviously I remember this
vividly I was like all my journalistic
senses were a little tingly and I was
wondering what's going on and I decided
well I'll send Christian Longo who's
ensconced in jail and talking to no and
I'll send him a letter in jail and I
wrote him a letter I said I was a
journalist I said I was the real Michael
Finkel and I included my phone number in
a couple of weeks later my phone rings
and I look at the caller ID and it says
inmates call and I answer and I don't
know how many of you spend time speaking
with inmates but if you do you might
know that before you can actually talk
to someone there's like this whole
recorded message it's like this legal
boilerplate about it's the government
binding arbitration limitation of
Liability terms and conditions etc it
goes on for a while and then finally it
says to accept this call dial one after
the tone and then there was a beep and I
dialed one Christian Longo I said I was
already to ask them these questions I'm
the real reporter remember I'm gonna ask
him these questions but the first thing
Christian Longo
did before I had a chance to ask him
anything without any salutation without
any small talk he asked me a question
how do I know he said that this is the
real Michael Finkel anyone could have
written me that letter he said trying
for a scoop this is exactly what I
imagine a good privacy professional
might do I think I may have compared
privacy professionals with psychopathic
murderers I hope you apologize I hope
you forgive me can we go on
so this Christian Longo wanted me to
prove that I was me it's sort of an odd
situation I'm not really sure how to
answer I said if you were here I could
show you my driver's license do you know
my mother's maiden name my social
security number
I don't said Christian Longo well I said
I think you're just gonna have to take
this one on faith not good enough he
said and I felt in his voice as if he
were like giving me some sort of
challenge or puzzle that I had to solve
but I didn't solve it I was stuck I
don't know what to tell you I said I was
prepared for that
he said smugly I've made a quiz for you
I was sort of astounded but actually I
was a little bit relieved and then
Christian Longo over the phone jail to
Montana proceeded to give me a 13
question quiz all of them about tiny
details in my stories that I had written
now I had no idea how he had known about
these details but first I figured I had
to pass this test I'm actually it was
kind of a hard test when I finished
writing an article I usually I'm sick of
it and I sort of jet it right out of my
mind and I don't really remember these
details and in fact I believe I got the
first two questions wrong I think one
cliff I think one question was what's
the name of a villiage someone lives in
in Afghanistan and another question was
how much money did this laborer make in
a year and I was these are details I do
not remember and I I thought for a
moment that I would be unable to prove
that I was really me and it was felt
like some sort of existential conundrum
in the end I was able to prove that I'm
me and then this fake Michael Finkel
tells me over the phone and in follow-up
calls and in many letters what it was
like to pretend to be me he said that he
had been reading my articles for quite a
long time and before the New York Times
I worked for travel magazines and sports
magazines I even wrote for skiing
magazine for a while and he had read my
articles for years he said he liked the
style he liked the adventures he said he
always wanted to be a journalist himself
able to just hop around the planet and
write the type of articles I write now I
am NOT a well-known writer not famous
writer not by a long shot in fact I
think I just have one fan and he turns
out to be
a psycho-killer but you take him where
you get him in this business Longo said
that he was a married at age 19 and he
had three kids immediately after he had
no time for a job like that which is a
situation I know what quite well I
happen to have three young kids and a
wife right now and I know how much time
it takes and he told me that my stories
he said struck what he called his
jealousy bone he also told me I love
this you have a writing style he said
that I was not embarrassed to call my
own then he proceeded to tell me how
easy it was to fool other people
he said all throughout his time in
Mexico at hotels at bars with people he
met on the bus he said that he was a
reporter from the New York Times he
bragged like I just did about all the
stories he had written he told these
tourists ah he was there on assignment
oh he said he was doing a story on Mayan
mysticism and exploring all the ancient
ruins Mayan ruins of Mexico I lived out
a dream Christian Longo told me
now I actually tracked down several of
the people Christian Longo the fake
Michael Finkel met in Mexico and they
all said they unquestionably believed he
was actually a reporter for The New York
Times named Michael Finkel here's one
quote he was well-spoken polite
obviously intelligent it made perfect
sense to me that he was working for the
New York Times he had a good sense of
humor another person told me that he
asked the fake Michael Finkel if he was
married and the fake Michael Finkel said
he used to have a wife and the guy said
what happened and he said I got rid of
her and implying that they had been
divorced now Christian Longo the fake
Mike Finkel said that the question he
was most often asked by these people was
how much do you get paid for an article
which was actually a question I
do get asked and the answer is
distressingly little he even purchased a
notebook and started to take notes he
gave out a made-up New York Times email
address to people who asked if they
could contact him and possibly try and
get their own works published which by
the way happens all the time to real
journalists it all felt so natural Longo
told me it made him feel important then
he met a woman an attractive young woman
who was trying to become a photographer
she brought her cameras to Mexico to
work on her fledgling career as a
professional photographer and Christian
Longo the fake Michael Finkel
immediately hired her she thought that
she had had the break of her career I
spoke with her she sent an excited email
to her mother saying she just got in a
big break she bumped into a New York
Times reporter and now she was on
assignment and these two worked together
for weeks they hiked jungle paths they
visited ruins they got up afar dawn to
beat the tourists they explored
underwater caves they climbed Mayan
pyramids and this woman was snapping
photos and this fake reporter was taking
notes this is what Christian Longo said
we worked as a well-oiled
photojournalist team and as I think you
are probably wondering yeah they
embarked on a romance as well now I have
been on assignment many many times with
some very attractive people and even
when I was single
that never happened to me and I actually
I actually was wondering for a while if
Christian long ago was doing a better
job of being me than I can do being me
now he even Oh Christian even went so
far as to draft an email to an editor at
the New York Times
explaining the article he wanted to
write and it's fortunate that he was in
a non-internet zone when he wrote that
and that before he mailed it the FBI
caught up with him and arrested him and
I sometimes wonder just how far he would
have gone and what if he was a really
good writer what if he was a better
writer than me anyway he was arrested by
the FBI was extradited from Mexico and
put in jail in Oregon where he was
awaiting trial
now after Christian Longo told me this
quite crazy story he also told me that
he was innocent of the murders and that
he would prove it to me now I'm not
going to go into this too much other
than to tell you after a ridiculous game
of cat and mouse that lasted more than a
year he did not prove it to me or I'm
happy to say to a jury he was found
guilty of the four murders and was
sentenced to death and to this day
Christian Longo is on death row at the
Oregon State Penitentiary now I
certainly hope nothing like this happens
to any of you but you are in this sort
of business the business where others
want to take information that belongs to
somebody else and use it for their own
nefarious purposes and how do you know
I've just listened to the last speaker
and been watching the news I feel like
it is an essential thing that everyone
in here is doing and not only that it
seems to grow more and more essential by
the day and I have to tell you one of
the very scariest things about Christian
Longo
is that he is not scary at all not one
bit I met with him in jail several times
he was handsome charming well-spoken
basically with all the people in Mexico
said about him certainly much better
looking than me the people who can do
the most harm it turns out are often the
ones you might least expect to do that
long go up into the night of the murders
apparently never seemed to have a
violent moment in his life he seemed to
be an attentive father and loving spouse
he went to church every weekend he was
clean-cut unfailingly polite everybody
seemed to like him several women in his
church that I interview told me they
used to nudge their husbands and say why
can't you be more like Christian Longo
trust people but verify I think is the
expression and I think the case of
Christian Longo shows just why your job
is so important and so necessary you
never know where privacy is going to be
breached how information will be stolen
and used from what source data piracy
will arise it seems to come from the
most unexpected places not merely
psychopathic killers your vigilance is
needed I for one am most appreciative
for your work now before I conclude
there might be one small clue that I can
offer you no one not one person I
interviewed said they ever heard
Christian Longo use a swear word now
there we are I find this absolutely
unbelievable no swear words never I
think the lesson here that I'd like you
to take away
is never trust a person who doesn't use
a swear word are we all in agreement
here
I sure hope so thank you
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