Very interesting post! I have a feeling the Feds are going to figure this one out. Since this man is still alive, a lot of doors are still open. In the mean time --what a mystery!
Chris Yarbrough | Homepage | 03.23.08 - 6:13 pm | #

Kinda looks like Kevin Spacey as "John Doe" in SE7EN, doesn't he?
Nancy Collins | 03.23.08 - 7:17 pm | #

Looks like DNA needs to be called in...
kob | 03.23.08 - 9:32 pm | #

Maybe someone from his past will recognize him and come forward. My guess he has been hiding from something big like murder.
colette | 03.24.08 - 2:03 am | #

Look at this pic...His names Lawerance Fishman, wanted since 1980's for killing his Dad and attempted murder of his mother.
WOW!
WOW | Homepage | 03.24.08 - 12:01 pm | #

Look at this pic...His names Lawerance Fishman, wanted since 1980's for killing his Dad and attempted murder of his mother.
Maybe he is the John Doe from Seattle. Looks alot alike!
http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/fugiti.../ fishman_lw.htm
WOW | Homepage | 03.24.08 - 12:02 pm | #

There is a resemblance. But Fishman had brown eyes. John Doe's eyes are light-colored, either green or blue.
Steve Huff | Homepage | 03.24.08 - 12:09 pm | #

Fishman's also listed as 5'11", roughly 4 inches taller than John Doe.
Sarah | Homepage | 03.24.08 - 3:54 pm | #

That too, Sarah -- but at least one newspaper report gave Doe's height as 5'10" -- wouldn't be surprised if that's an error, but until I got something definitive, I decided to leave the blog entry reading "medium height."
Steve Huff | Homepage | 03.24.08 - 4:07 pm | #

SEATTLE - A Seattle man who has lived under so many assumed names, even federal investigators were not sure who he is or what he has been up to, has been identified.

KING 5 News has learned he is Scott Andrew Shain, born in 1955. The FBI says Shain was identified thanks to the help of the Social Security Administration. His parents apparently identified him by checking his picture on the FBI website.

Agents still don't know the full extent of his criminal background, but they do know that he served in the U.S. Air Force.

http://www.king5.com/topstories/ ...M.20fdef93.html
WOW | 03.24.08 - 4:21 pm | #

Update: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/lo...html? source=rss

"SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

Authorities finally put correct name to man who used 32 aliases
Suspect identified as Scott Andrew Shain

Last updated March 24, 2008 9:55 p.m. PT -- By PAUL SHUKOVSKY AND KATHY MULADY -- P-I REPORTERS

A mysterious "John Doe," who officials said had 32 aliases when he was arrested here by federal agents, has been identified as Scott Andrew Shain, a federal law enforcement official said Monday.

The 52-year-old man was arrested last week in Seattle. They found him living in what one agent described as a "hovel" -- a unit in a small dilapidated office building on lower Queen Anne with no bathroom or kitchen. His fingerprints had been altered.

He's in federal custody, accused of identity theft and fraud.

Monday, they finally announced his name.

Federal officials said Shain has gone by various names -- occasionally his own -- for at least 25 years. He had a Washington driver's license in his own name. When he was arrested last week, he was working as a deliveryman for a company in Kirkland, said FBI spokeswoman Robbie Burroughs.

Shain's lawyer, federal public defender Paula Deutsch, said he'd been living at the Queen Anne address for six years.

During a detention hearing Thursday, Deutsch asked that he be released pending trial. At that time, she called her client Michael Sheridan.

Federal prosecutor Jo Vanderlee called him Doe.

Vanderlee argued that the suspect is dangerous, noting that a search of his home turned up a handgun.

Shain, accused of assuming the identity of teenage boys who died decades ago, is wanted on old warrants from Colorado and Seattle police.

In 1989, before he could be prosecuted in Colorado for allegedly passing bad checks, impersonation and menacing with a handgun, he fled. He's now wanted for escape, too.

Shain apparently was born in Boston, and had been in the Air Force, but washed out of flight school.

The suspect burned his fingertips with chemicals in an apparent attempt to alter his prints, and Seattle police said he made concealed-weapons permit applications in 1991 and 1998 under other false names.

Agents in Seattle were alerted to Shain's many names in October when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police asked the FBI to contact a man who was trying to get a copy of his birth certificate.

The tip led to the tangle of names and identities.

Eventually, his true name was confirmed by family members and military records, said the FBI spokeswoman.

Shain, who is being held at the Federal Detention Center at SeaTac, faces seven criminal charges, including fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Agents are investigating whether Shain used his aliases to steal money.

P-I reporter Paul Shukovsky can be reached at 206-448-8072 or paulshukovsky@seattlepi.com.

© 1998-2008 Seattle Post-Intelligencer"
RockyMtnMom | 03.25.08 - 5:25 am | #

I actually updated the blog entry with this info yesterday afternoon. This was a more detailed article than the one I linked to, though -- thanks.
Steve Huff | Homepage | 03.25.08 - 7:21 am | #

http://tinyurl.com/3c87op
His Highschool has been looking for him for a reunion:
Help us find your lost classmates.

Unfortunately, NEC has lost touch with some of your classmates. If you have e-mail or other contact information for any of the people listed below, please let us know so that we can keep them informed of reunions and other NEC activities.

Sharon Battersby, Richard Bilkin, Cynthia Canary, C. Clark, Barbara Fitzgerald, Marie Kleiman, Gary Magby, Carolyn Olson, William Owens, Arne Sanders, Robert Schuyler, Scott Shain, Thomas Smith, Mary Snyder, Karen Taylor, Elizabeth Tuck, Albert Williams.


And his family has shut down their geneology page http://tinyurl.com/3b3s2x

Scott Shain : 03.25.2008 : As a reminder, we have disabled the connection to our genealogy search database due to what we hope are temporary technical difficulties .. in the interim, you can try locating Shain information via the family search pages for Shain or related proper name listings.
jadensmokes | 03.25.08 - 1:22 pm | #