Nicholas Rossi: The Disguised Fugitive who Faked his Death | #444

Summary

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RedHanded Podcast #444: Nicholas Rossi – The Disguised Fugitive Who Faked His Death

April 9, 2026
Hosts: Hannah & Saruti

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the "dark, disorientating and deeply narcissistic world" of Nicholas Rossi (born Nicholas Oliverdian), a man who orchestrated an elaborate campaign of deception—faking his own death, assuming various identities (including “Arthur Knight,” a pompous British academic), and evading justice for years as he committed sexual assaults, fraud, and domestic abuse across the US and UK. The RedHanded team unpacks his astonishing chameleon-like existence, pathological narcissism, and the shocking catalogue of crimes, lies, and bizarre theatrics that eventually led to his extradition and conviction.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Early Life & Upbringing ([01:09]–[14:10])

• Nicholas Oliverdian was born in Rhode Island in 1987 to a highly dysfunctional and abusive family.
• His biological father was described as a "psychopathic drug addict" who committed horrific acts, including slitting the family dog's throat in front of his children ([09:16]).
• After his mother remarried Engelbert Humperdinck tribute act David Rossi, Nicholas was adopted and took the surname Rossi.
• Nicholas exhibited extremely defiant and violent behavior from an early age, diagnosed with oppositional defiance disorder and narcissistic personality disorder ([10:23]).
  • Quote: “I honestly don’t think I have seen a clearer example of like a pure narcissist than this.” – Saruti ([11:18])

Failures of the Child Welfare System ([15:56]–[22:33])

• Placed in psychiatric hospitals and a disastrous "night-to-night" foster care program, Nicholas cycled through homes and faced possible abuse and neglect.
• Reportedly both a victim and a perpetrator of abuse while in care; legal officials warned others against trusting his stories.
  • Quote: “We obviously don't know the truth about what really happened... But the care system is horrific.” – Hannah ([18:41])

Becoming an Activist & Public Figure ([22:34]–[25:41])

• After leaving care at 18 and settling a lawsuit against the state for $70,000, Rossi reinvents himself as a child advocacy activist, earning minor local fame.
• Noted for his "chameleon" ability: shifting accent, attire, and persona to fit any environment.
  • Quote: “He is a very good chameleon. But his downfall is he cannot stop attracting attention.” – Saruti ([22:34])

The Crimes of Nicholas Rossi ([25:41]–[41:09])

• Sexual Assaults: Rapes, indecent exposure, and sexual imposition spanning Ohio, Utah, and other states. Victims include women he met online and in person, many of whom reported assaults but saw little justice at the time.
  • Quote: “He just does not stop.” – Saruti ([30:51])
• Fraud: Defrauded foster parents (22 credit cards, $200,000 debt), sued his own victims, started sham organizations.
• Manipulation: Used grandiosity and legal threats (often via blogs and online screeds) to attack his accusers.
  • Quote: “Her acts are tantamount to flying planes into my twin pillars of personal success and public service.” – Rossi, blog post ([31:10])

Escapades & Identity Changes ([41:09]–[54:46])

• Rossi repeatedly fled across state and national borders, using at least 16 aliases and altering his accent and appearance.
• Established relationships with women who later accused him of domestic violence, rape, and psychological abuse.
• Eventually left the US (2017), bamboozling contacts with stories of terminal illness and impending death.

The Faked Death & “Arthur Knight” Persona ([54:47]–[63:54])

• In 2020, Rossi publicly “dies” from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. His fake obituary is filled with self-aggrandizing quotes and melodramatic details.
  • Quote: “His last words were, ‘fear not and run towards the bliss of the sun.’” – Saruti reading the obituary ([50:36])
• Close contacts suspect something is amiss when his “widow” (actually his new wife, Miranda) starts calling everyone.
• In Scotland, he emerges as “Arthur Knight,” a melodramatic, wheelchair-bound academic claiming total innocence and a Dickensian backstory.
  • Notable public antics: Appearing in court in pajamas and dressing gown, speaking in an affected British accent, and leaning heavily on props like an oxygen tank ([04:31]–[07:21]).
  • Audio Moment: “The game is afoot.” – Arthur Knight, echoing Sherlock Holmes ([08:01])

Exposure & Capture ([63:54]–[82:05])

• Investigators connect Knight to Rossi via multiple pieces of evidence: tattoos, fingerprints, and witness recognition.
• His performance unravels in the face of mounting evidence:
  • Inconsistencies in his knowledge of British culture (never heard of “Coronation chicken”).
  • Ex-wife Catherine recognizes him in news footage wearing the same pajamas from their marriage.
  • In court, Rossi cycles through lawyers, delivers grandiose monologues, and ultimately represents himself ([69:10]).
• Despite attempts to hide his tattoos (removed by laser), enough testimony and evidence sealed his identity ([74:21]–[75:40]).
• The revelation that his “clueless” wife Miranda was really his long-time accomplice astounds everyone ([76:10]).
  • Quote: "She was not just Nicholas Rossi’s clueless next victim, she was his accomplice." – Saruti ([76:10])

The Final Unraveling & Extradition ([82:05]–[90:07])

• Even after being formally identified and facing extradition, Rossi sticks to increasingly deranged conspiracy theories, accusing Utah officials of satanic cannibalistic cult activity.
• His tactics, including wild public accusations, end up damaging his prosecutor’s career but fail to help his own case ([83:48]–[86:09]).
• Doctors attest to his physical health—muscle mass in his legs despite performing as an invalid ([86:58]).
• In January 2024, he’s extradited to the U.S. to face a litany of charges.

Surrender & Sentencing ([88:09]–[90:07])

• Upon return to Utah, he finally drops the accent/act and admits to being Rossi, but claims he was in disguise due to threats from powerful political enemies ([88:09]–[88:54]).
  • Quote: "He refused to say anything because he did not want to give a mouse cheese." – [88:54]
• Both juries in two rape trials deliver guilty verdicts; Rossi is sentenced to two consecutive five-to-life prison terms. He will not be eligible for parole until 2032.
  • Quote: “I quite simply could not disagree more [about being no danger to society].” – Hannah ([90:06])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “He sounds like Voldemort, does he not?” – Saruti, on Arthur Knight’s affected, raspy voice ([07:01])
• “He's just doing a caricature of what he thinks a British person is.” – Saruti ([08:04])
• “He just wouldn’t listen. In school, he hit the mother, hit the grandmother, all the time hit his siblings. I used to have to hold him down. He’d be spitting at me... He was born evil.” – David Rossi, via documentary ([11:32])
• “Her acts are tantamount to flying planes into my twin pillars of personal success and public service.” – Rossi’s blog post ([31:10])
• “If he had applied himself... he could have done anything. Everything he wants to do is be a horrible piece of shit.” – Saruti ([47:55])
• On his obituary: “His last words were, ‘fear not and run towards the bliss of the sun.’” ([50:36])
• “Innocent old Arthur Knight.” – Saruti, mocking his court claim ([81:11])
• “It's a miracle.” – Hannah, after learning Rossi ran from a hospital bed to attack a nurse despite claims of invalidity ([86:58])
• “That is it, guys. That is the very, very, very confusing story of Nicholas Rossi and all of the bonkers shit he got up to and all of the very, very many lies he told.” – Saruti ([90:09])

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Timestamps for Key Events

• [01:09] Introduction to Nicholas Oliverdian’s early life
• [11:18] Discussion on his diagnosed narcissism
• [22:33] Out of care, reinvention as activist
• [25:41] First known sexual assault crimes begin (Ohio, Utah)
• [35:45] Credit card and financial fraud revealed
• [41:09] Domestic violence and brutal marriage to Katherine Heckendorn
• [54:47] Rossi’s fake death and the overblown obituary
• [63:54] The "Arthur Knight" persona emerges in Scotland
• [69:10] Catherine Heckendorn recognizes Rossi on TV
• [74:21] Investigation into missing tattoos
• [76:10] Miranda revealed as accomplice (“Louise” the “widow”)
• [78:43] Identification in Scottish court
• [83:48] Baseless satanic cult accusations against Utah prosecutor
• [86:58] Medical examination exposes Rossi’s fake disability
• [88:09] Rossi finally admits true identity
• [89:26] Sentencing: Two consecutive five-to-life terms (2032 earliest parole)

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Tone & Style

• Saruti and Hannah maintain their signature dark humor and irreverence throughout, with frequent asides, pop culture references, and pointed mockery of Rossi’s delusions and theatrics.
• Memorable running jokes include his “Voldemort” voice, constant costume changes, Sherlockian quotes, and preposterous Britishisms.
• They highlight both the grim reality of his crimes and the laughable absurdities of his persona and lies, striking a balance between critical seriousness and comic relief.

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Conclusion

Hannah and Saruti dissect Nicholas Rossi’s catastrophic journey through narcissism, deception, and criminality, highlighting the failures of systems meant to protect the vulnerable—and their tragic collision with someone pathologically determined to manipulate and harm others. The case stands as a "bonkers" testament to the limits of chicanery—and, ultimately, of justice’s reach, no matter how many disguises are worn.

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Transcript

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[Saruti]

In the spring of 2020, a priest in Rhode island was arranging a memorial mass for a man named Nicholas Oliverdian. Oliverdian was a bit of a minor local celebrity. Fifteen years ago, he'd led a dramatic campaign against the abuse and mistreatment of foster children and had exposed some pretty grim goings on within the state.

[Hannah]

They love that.

[Saruti]

Yeah. He was like, shh. As long as it's not here in the church.

[Hannah]

Now.

[Saruti]

Oliverdian had always been an eccentric kind of guy and his funeral requests were characteristically extreme. His widow was organising the whole thing over the phone from Switzerland and her demands ranged from grand orchestral symphonies to. To making sure the state's top ranking officials were all in attendance. Father Bernard Healy was doing his best to accommodate. But as he was pulling together the finishing touches to this mammoth ceremony, he received a phone call from a police officer. The officer told the priest that Nicholas Oliverdian was an international fugitive who was wanted in five states for a spree of sexual assaults and large scale frauds. Father Healy was shocked, but there was more to come because the officer then told him to cancel Oliverdian's Mass. Nicholas Oliverdian wasn't dead. He had faked his demise to try and escape justice. But they were onto him and he was wanted for extradition by the FBI and Interpol.

[Hannah]

This is a case that really does sadly, have it all. From angry incel forums, accusations of satanic child abuse and fake accents galore. My specialty. This is one of the wildest stories of deception we've got for you ever in the history of red handed. I'm Hannah.

[Saruti]

I'm Saruti.

[Hannah]

And this is still red handed in case you felt like you needed to check. It's time to enter the dark, disorientating and deeply narcissistic world of Nicholas Oliverdian.

[Saruti]

Just one year after this cancelled memorial for Nicholas Oliverdian, a man named Arthur Knight turned up to court in a motorised wheelchair, breathing through an oxygen tank, wearing a red silken dressing gown, pyjamas and velvet Prince of Wales slippers.

[Hannah]

Prince of Wales in. Did they have Charles face on?

[Saruti]

I think they have like the.

[Hannah]

Oh, the crest, the Fleur.

[Saruti]

What's it called?

[Hannah]

Fleur Elise.

[Saruti]

Fleur Elise. I should know. The Welsh thing. I don't know.

[Hannah]

Oh yeah, you should know that. I don't care.

[Saruti]

That thing on it. But whatever he was wearing, Arthur Knight said he was there to clear up a poisonous case of mistaken identity. According to him, there was an organised conspiracy led by powerful US politicians to pin a series of awful crimes on him. An innocent, seriously ill British academic. He said that the accusation that he'd extravagantly faked his own death to escape justice, well, that was just laughable.

[Hannah]

And fittingly for a supposed British academic, Arthur Knight's backstory was positively Dickensian.

[Saruti]

I also have to say millennium, because there's no accident that this man has chosen the name Arthur Knight to be like, I am so British, my name is Arthur Knight. Come on now. His middle name is fucking Godiva. Like what's happening? It's so hilariously like hilarious. I meant Guinevere. Is that the one in the Arthur story?

[Hannah]

Guinevere's in Arthur. Yeah. Godiva's Nakey.

[Saruti]

Coventry. Naked.

[Hannah]

Coventry. Nakey.

[Saruti]

At least she's still British. I'll keep that.

[Hannah]

His story was a winding tale of pluck and guile in the big city with streets paved with gold. He said had been raised in a grim Irish orphanage before escaping horrifying conditions and fleeing to London to become an East End bookseller. Knight said he lived a quiet, unremarkable life as a lecturer until one day in 2021, he woke up in hospital recovering from a Covid induced coma to find three police officers standing over his bed arresting him as one of the US's most wanted fugitives.

[Saruti]

Knight proclaimed that this was preposterous. In fact, he. He said he didn't even have a passport. Probably because it's not your real name. Throughout the legal proceedings that gripped and confused the world, Knight would rock his statement sleepwear and breathing mask on occasion swapping it for a three Piece suit and round bookish glasses. And sometimes just for good measure, you know, when it was a real serious day in court, he would also throw in a wide brimmed black fedora to tip at reporters when he wanted to make a point. He also speaks in a very clipped British accent which was obscured and made raspy through his oxygen mask. And he appeared on every news outlet that would have him protesting his innocence in increasingly bonkers and passionate pleas. I think you should just have a little listen to you get a grasp of his voice.

[Hannah]

Are you Nicholas Rossi?

[Arthur Knight / Nicholas Rossi (impersonator)]

No.

[Saruti]

Are you Nicholas Oliverdian?

[Arthur Knight / Nicholas Rossi (impersonator)]

Absolutely not. I nearly died. I nearly died and we, we are terrified.

[Saruti]

And look, look, I do not mean for this to sound offensive to anyone who has to wear a breathing mask. He sounds like Voldemort, does he not? He does sound like Voldemort, at least.

[Arthur Knight / Nicholas Rossi (impersonator)]

We are terrified.

[Hannah]

He does. He does.

[Saruti]

And it's fine for me to say it because he's faking.

[Hannah]

He bolstered his claims of a British upbringing by throwing around references to old English sitcoms from the 60s and 70s, Sherlock Holmes quotes and distinctive intellectual sounding phrasing. We all do that. And there's even footage of him standing outside a courtroom shouting, the game is afoot.

[Saruti]

I couldn't find it in time for this recording but I will have the team see if they can find it because it is. I heard it and I didn't write down the fucking timestamp of where I heard it. And he's literally. The game is afoot.

[Arthur Knight / Nicholas Rossi (impersonator)]

The game has just started. The game is afoot.

[Saruti]

Like fuck off. He's so annoying. He's just doing a caricature of what he thinks a British person is.

[Hannah]

He even managed to get a wife while pulling all of this off.

[Saruti]

She's nuts though, Miranda.

[Hannah]

Well that is small mercy. She'd known him for almost a decade and she backed up his every word. So could this man really be a New England raised serial rapist and fraudster hiding in plain sight across the pond? I think we've made it quite clear.

[Saruti]

I know I find it hard to maintain the mystery.

[Hannah]

I think we are only human people,

[Saruti]

you know, but, you know, let's find out.

[Hannah]

Let's find out how he did it.

[Saruti]

Yes. So the character at the centre of this case, and I do mean character, went by at least 16 different names throughout his life. But the first was Nicholas Oliverdian. He was born in Rhode island on 11 July 1987 and from the start his life was dramatic. His father, Jack Oliverdian, was a psychopathic drug addict. So, you know, baby, that's fun, that's fun. That's really gonna, you know, set you up for a lot of success there. And Jack spent much of his adult life going in and out of institutions and rehab centers. And in the little time he did spend around his three children, he didn't make the best of impressions. When Nicholas was around three years old, he and his siblings watched in horror as their father slit the throat of the family dog in front of them. Not long afterwards, Jack divorced Nicholas's mother, Diana, and disappeared. And for her next relationship, Diana opted to keep things interesting. She married a man named David Rossi, who was the number one Engelbert Humperdinck tribute act in the US at the time. Now, for some of our younger viewers and maybe out of the Western Hemisphere listeners, Engelbert Humperdinck was a wildly popular crooner in the 60s and 70s. Rossi, Diana's new partner, actually adopted the aleverdian kids in 1994 when Nicholas was 7 years old, at which point he took on name number two, Nicholas Rossi.

[Hannah]

And unfortunately, this new all singing, all dancing father figure didn't quite have the grounding influence Diana was probably praying for, because young Nicholas was a lot. He was expelled from school after school for his behaviour which was defiant and contrary to a pathological degree. He was diagnosed with oppositional defiance disorder. And I think I've slept with a few men who will have that. A condition typically identified in childhood that presents as a pattern of uncooperative and hostile behaviour towards peers, parents, teachers and other authority figures. It often includes being spiteful and seeking revenge, and it goes well beyond normal childish misbehavior. Young Nick also chalked up another diagnosis, narcissistic personality disorder.

[Saruti]

Yeah, so when we constantly refer to him in this episode as a narcissist, it's not just us saying that he actually had the diagnosis. And I honestly don't think I have seen a clearer example of like a pure narcissist than this.

[Hannah]

According to his adopted father, David Rossi, he just wouldn't listen. In school, he hit the mother, hit the grandmother, all the time hit his siblings. I used to have to hold him down. He'd be spitting at me. David Rossi is interviewed in the fantastic Channel 4 documentary on this story, the man who Came Back from the Dead. And he says that young Nicholas was born evil.

[Saruti]

In the documentary, David Rossi also recalls a pretty shocking incident from a family holiday when Nicholas was around 10 years old. They had taken a trip to LA and one day Nick's mother, Diana, wanted to go into Planet Hollywood for some souvenirs and she told Nicholas to wait in the car. Nicholas didn't like that and he flew into a rage and started hitting his mother. At which point David, who was on his last nerve, absolutely lost him. He punched Nicholas as hard as he could and then kept punching and punching and punching. By David Rossi's own account, he beat the 10 year old boy bloody, breaking his nose, jaw and teeth. Nicholas was in the hospital for weeks and David was of course arrested for assault. But and this bit is pretty unbelievable, apparently when the judge saw Nicholas's history of misbehaviour institutions and behavioural programs, he let David go with a slap on the wrist for beating the shit out of a child. And this I think was clearly a defining moment in young Nicholas's life. I am not excusing anything that he goes on to do, but I think this is the point at maybe which he learns a lesson that, and again, not defending him, the justice system isn't going to protect him. And also maybe a lesson that he learns is you can trick the justice system and you can get away with things if you say the right things. I don't know, some combination of which. Also the beating, the beating's not going to help a kid that's already got narcissistic personality disorder. And also a kid that has, you know, been beaten by his father before that and had the family dog's throat slit in front of him. It's a big horrible soup.

[Hannah]

But that's how these people happen. Is supes, of course.

[Saruti]

So yes, here you have a child who is clearly already exhibiting some pretty serious behavioural and emotional problems. But if anyone who knew him was like, huh? How can we make this much, much worse? This, this is how you would do that. And also everything we're about to tell you next.

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[Hannah]

Not long after this incident in 1999, Nicholas was put into care. At first a few psychiatric hospitals and then later as a ward of dcyf. DCYF is the Department of Children, Youth and Families. And for Nicholas Rossi, it later became public enemy number one. He was on what was called a night to night programme, which sounds horrific. Yeah, it essentially meant that he would sleep somewhere different every night, usually any sofa or carry cock going in the neighbourhood, and then spent entire days being kept at the DCYF office with nothing to do. But according to Rossi, boredom was the least of his worries.

[Saruti]

And look, I'm not saying it's an easy job or an easy task to, like, deal with children or young people that have got major behavioral problems. Narcissistic personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder. It's not easy. Also, we have to remember this was in the past. This is happening, you know, in the late 1990s, like early 2000s, the research definitely wouldn't have been Wash your mouth out.

[Hannah]

Calling that the past.

[Saruti]

Please, where it is past in terms of, like, you know, the research into how best to deal with these kind of situations would probably have been very backwards. But keeping them bored.

[Hannah]

Yeah, that's true.

[Saruti]

All day in a fucking office and then just moving them around from different house to house every night. This is Just absolutely catastrophic in terms of like, what could have happened here and what did happen here.

[Hannah]

And we asked you how you could make it worse. And this is the first thing that popped into my head which just shows what this job has done to me. Nicholas said that he was frequently beaten, cut, abandoned, out in the cold and sexually assaulted. He later laid the blame squarely at the door of the DCYF for failing

[Saruti]

to ensure his safety so soon. As soon as he could, he tried to get out of the system. Nicholas had been working various small jobs at the Rhode Island House of Representatives since he was just 14. He started as a page in the House's Catholic Church, but soon he started speaking to Representatives, running little errands for them, and eventually became a legislative aide. And he even became close enough with one, a man named Brian Coogan, that he actually started repeatedly begging Brian Coogan to adopt him. Nicholas would show Coogan horrific cuts, scrapes and bruises across his body, telling him about the nightmarish conditions that he was enduring in the care system. And a shocked Coogan did come very close to adopting the precocious mystery child. Could this be a turning point for young Nicholas?

[Hannah]

Nope. Because a Family Court Chief judge, Jeremiah S. Jeremiah, we had a Herbert G. Herbert the other week as well. What is happening? Jeremiah S. Jeremiah actually pulled Coogan aside and told him that the boy was lying. He said that Nicholas's wounds were all self inflicted. And he said that everything the boy had told Coogan he had gone through, from the violence to the sexual assaults were actually things that Nicholas was doing to other children. Rhode island had just run out of places to put him. We obviously don't know the truth about what really happened whilst Nicholas Rossi was in care. Considering the brazen lies he tells throughout the rest of his life, it wouldn't be an enormous shock if he was making some of it up. And the care system is horrific. Yeah.

[Saruti]

I mean, like he could easily be lying, as this judge went and told Coogan. But it's also true that children in the care system in any country are the most vulnerable to potential abuse. Yep. And the whole night to night program in particular sounds like an absolute recipe for exploitation.

[Hannah]

It would kind of be a miracle if he wasn't.

[Saruti]

Yeah. So it wouldn't surprise me if Nicholas Rossi had been mistreated and this exacerbated the already problematic behaviour that he was displaying. But I do have to say there's also no doubt that he was harming the other children that were in care with him. And it may also provide if he was sexually abused while he was in care or abused in any sense. Not an excuse, but another horrible ingredient to throw into our disgusting soup of shit that he is climbing out of. Like it might provide another psychological explanation for a lot of his later behaviour. A need to regain control, a mistrust of systems, a disassociation from his own identity, and worst of all, violent anger against any target that he could assume control over.

[Hannah]

So after Rhode Island, Nicholas Rossi was moved between various foster families in Nebraska, Florida and capital of incest in the whole of the United States. Ohio. Look it up.

[Saruti]

Oh, is it?

[Hannah]

Ohio is the number one state for incest.

[Saruti]

Lovely.

[Hannah]

To the point where there's a bit of a, like dark running joke amongst social workers. But social workers has to have to have dark humour otherwise they'd all just collapse. If someone is a victim of incest. Oh, you're from Ohio. It's that prevalent?

[Saruti]

No, it's also where this season of Love is Blind is being filmed.

[Hannah]

Really?

[Saruti]

It is.

[Hannah]

Find it here.

[Saruti]

Yeah, I'll talk about it on under the Duvet next week because there was too much this week to talk about. It's a lot.

[Hannah]

And Nicholas Rossi reported being physically and mentally abused with every single one of the foster families he was placed with. Rossi left DCYF care when he turned 18 in 2005 and he moved in with a couple in Ohio who became his de facto foster parents. After about four years, he returned to Rhode island with a massive axe to grind and attempted to sue everyone that had been involved in his care in federal court. And he won, settling out of court for about $70,000, which for a care leaver is. Obviously that's a lot of money for anybody, but I think like someone I met who's a care leaver like quite a few years ago, took out a loan to learn to drive because she needed a car for the job she wanted and she was like, well, what else is going to do? I've got no parents who's going to buy me a car. Like I had literally no other option.

[Saruti]

I just think in society we do not talk enough about looked after children.

[Hannah]

I agree.

[Saruti]

They are hands down any other demographic, any other way you want to cut it, slice it, whatever. They are the most vulnerable and I don't think we pay any attention to them whatsoever.

[Hannah]

Nope.

[Saruti]

But also, fuck Nicholas Rossi. So, yeah, he goes, he's successful in court, he wins a large amount of money, $70,000, like Hannah said, that is not insignificant. Also, that was 20 years ago, lot of money. And this is when he starts his activist era, for which Nicholas came with a fresh new look, shaving off the scraggly teen beard, he acquired some thick rimmed glasses, a black suit, and a shiny new briefcase. The thing you have to understand about him is he's very charming when he wants to be. That's how he's able to get himself this, like, de facto set of foster parents who look after him in Ohio. They trust him completely. Like, he is very charming when he wants to be. He's also a total comedian. He changes his garb, he changes the way he speaks. And as much as I taking the shit out of the accent, like, if you didn't pay that much attention, you would just think he was British. Like, it's when he goes too far that you're like, what? That's so. You're being so strange. Like, he is a very good chameleon. But his downfall is he cannot stop attracting attention because even this activist era, if he had just taken the $70,000 and run off and still done the horrific things he did, probably wouldn't have fallen quite as hard as he does. So, yeah, he's got his suit, he's got his briefcase, and he's ready to go. And he actually managed to get some minor local fame making impassioned speeches on behalf of kids in the DCYF care system, demanding that it be shut down so the terror could end. And let's have a little listen to his. One of his speeches.

[Hannah]

And I was subjected to torture, beatings, assault in various forms. I was refused to contact anybody that these facilities are dangerous.

[Liberty Mutual Advertiser 2]

My question to Rhode island, why are we paying for them?

[Hannah]

They filled the beds to population and then some. They cut services and then they reaped in the profits.

[Saruti]

He even founded an advocacy group called Nexus Government lobbying politicians and popping up at fundraisers and galas across town. This is the other thing. He's a man who doesn't grow up with money. He grows up in a very, you know, difficult household and then jumps from, you know, care home to care home. But he fits in at all these, like, very prestigious events that he goes to. Like I said, he was working as a legislative aide. He's working, rubbing shoulders with these politicians. He's going to all these galas. He's, like, doing all these things. He fits in, which is, you know, again, I don't want to sound like I'm giving him credit, but you have to admit, he's very good at what he does at the start. And local media could not get enough of this young, plucky voice of the little guy who was out there fighting the good fight. The foster system was indeed broken and he was out there speaking truth to power and making a difference. He was forthright, fearless, charismatic and tenacious, and lots of people thought that he would go far. But there were stories popping up about Nicholas Rossi's behaviour in those four years before he reinvented himself as this professional activist.

[Hannah]

So before we get back to the madcap escaped fugitive chase across the world, we have to talk about what he actually did. And it's not pretty or fun. The first assaults linked to Nicholas Rossi date back to 2006, when he was 18 and fresh out of care. But before all of the serious campaigning had started, he met a girl online and they got on. But when they met up, he started intensely pressuring her to have sex with him. And when she refused, he raped her. The girl assumed that she wouldn't be taken seriously, so she didn't report it at the time. And she was right, because the following year, another 18 year old woman did go to the police and accuse Nicholas Rossi of rape. But he was not arrested or charged.

[Saruti]

The next incident took place when he was in Ohio. In 2008, Mary Grabinski, a 19 year old student at Sinclair College in Daytona, got a ping on MySpace. And this was old school MySpace, where you could message other people who were listed as fellow students at your college.

[Hannah]

I remember.

[Saruti]

Yeah. And up popped a profile from a man named Nick. Nick and Mary started messaging and soon met in as public a place as it gets at the college cafeteria. Nick was friendly and the pair got on. Then he offered to walk Mary to class, but out of nowhere, he switched and forced her down into a basement stairwell. Nick then pinned Mary against the wall and started trying to kiss her. Nick pulled down his trousers and started masturbating. Mary said she begged him to stop and he replied, I'm almost done, don't be a bitch. He then ejaculated on the wall behind her. Mary escaped and ran to class, but when she got out of her lesson, Nick was outside waiting for her.

[Hannah]

He started apologising and making excuses, telling her that she was so beautiful. He just couldn't help himself and he begged Mary not to tell anyone, but she did. Thankfully, she went to the police and she pressed charges. Good. And soon, Nick was revealed to not be a student at Sinclair, or anywhere else for that matter. Nicholas Rossi was found guilty of public indecency and sexual imposition. His jail sentence was suspended, but he was required to undergo counselling and a treatment programme and to register as a sex offender for 15 years, which is important later on because his DNA and fingerprints were taken and added to a national database of sex offenders.

[Saruti]

And his reaction to all this? Well, it will tell you everything you need to know about the sort of audacious narcissist that we're dealing with here. Nicholas Rossi, or Nick, as a convicted, not rapist, I guess, convicted sex offender at this point tried to sue his victim for the defamation and emotional distress that had been caused by the trial. He's convicted.

[Hannah]

Doesn't surprise me even remotely.

[Saruti]

Nicholas also demanded a retrial based on a vague MySpace post that he presented to the courts, which he claimed proved his innocence. But there's no point even going into it because it was all revealed to be completely fabricated anyway, and the judge obviously threw the entire case out, calling it beyond frivolous.

[Hannah]

Rossi wasn't done, though. He decided to take this to the court of public opinion, writing a blog post entitled. My personal 9 11. In this post, he starts off by saying that all of the allegations against him are false and that it was just a consensual kiss that had happened between him and Mary Grabenski and she was on a campaign to discredit him. And that was all he says in this post. My life and freedom has been under attack and my life has effectively been ended by Mary's evil act of terror. And he also goes on to say that this is an injustice on par with the attacks of September 11th. He also says that Mary, like Osama bin Laden, is a scoundrel who is out to destroy personal freedom at any cost.

[Saruti]

He's nuts. But I.

[Hannah]

Yes, he is nuts, absolutely. But, like, what he's saying is an amplified version of Brock Turner's dad. Like, we do live in this. The majority of men think they can land a plane. Like, I can understand why this is. Obviously, this is a completely, like, grandiose version of it, but all of the sentiments are all around us all the time.

[Saruti]

Yes, but I don't think the majority of men think that you can masturbate on somebody and then if you are convicted, not even the majority of people that would do that think they can then sue their fucking accuser. He is just like, on another plane of reality. It's really quite something. He just does not stop.

[Hannah]

No. He writes, her acts are tantamount to flying planes into my twin pillars of personal success and public service. My goals and aspirations crumbled to the earth, amassing a huge heap of rubble. And if that's not enough for you? There's a video as well.

[Saruti]

Yeah, the video is so much. And again, it's just like. It's like he's not real. The video starts with epic, booming, dramatic orchestral music. In the documentary, the guy who's talking about it nails it. It sounds like the start of like a Star wars film. Like, it's very, very dramatic.

[Hannah]

Do you think he does that for. Does he actually believe it's this grandiose? Or is he doing it to get attention on it? Or is it like, does he enjoy people thinking he's really cringe? Like, what? I think.

[Saruti]

No, I think he is. It's the grandiose delusions. It is the grandiose delusions. Like, he genuinely, I think, believes all of this. And so, yes, you've got the music. It's all very dramatic. Then in this video, up comes huge white text on a black background. It starts by describing Rossi and listing all of his accomplishments, like saving little orphans from big bad political forces. And of course, it's written in the third person because, you know, he never likes to pretend that he is the one blowing his own trumpet. He likes to pretend that it's always other people saying how great he is.

[Hannah]

Oh, I see.

[Saruti]

And we'll see multiple examples of that throughout this episode. So, yes, this big text reads after he's talked about all of his accomplishments. However, a parasitical liar known as Mary Grabinski destroyed Nicholas's dream and mission, just like the group home employees who beat him. And it goes on and on like this. And later it kind of seems to imply, not even imply. He basically says that humanity itself is at risk if Mary Grabinski is allowed to go unpunished for what she has done. And it ends with, we need Nicholas. Needless to say, this is a man with a planet sized case of main character syndrome. Though I think that is putting it mildly. He is pathologically as narcissistic as we have ever come across anybody, any offender on this show. And yeah, you've got all the grandiosity that you would expect with such a character. Now, it probably won't surprise you in the slightest to find out that he also got pretty active in the men's rights scene online. He posted on incel blogs and forums and started to position himself as an academic intellectual, publishing essays on philosophy, sociology and everything that's wrong with the world. Despite having zero legal training, he gave legal advice to the extremist website A Voice for Men, which has been labelled a hate group. And this is wholly unsurprising people like Rossi. And let's say somebody like Andrew Tate will seek out isolated men in spaces like this to radicalize and then have them serve as their own personal supply of narcissistic fuel. He talks on there like he cares about these people and what they got. No, it's just to feed his fucking ego. And it's like a direct line of supply straight into his brain.

[Hannah]

On his Wikipedia, Rossi claimed to be a Harvard scholar, political scientist and sociologist.

[Saruti]

He's very good at editing Wikipedia pages.

[Hannah]

But to be clear, surprise. He never graduated Harvard, despite saying he had on his Wikipedia his dating profiles and his self penned online biographies. He briefly studied comparative literature on a remote extension program offered by Harvard, which is not even remotely in the same universe as actually going to Harvard. It's like me touching the wall of Cambridge. It's the same thing. Especially when he didn't even graduate the online program. He was thrown out after the university discovered that he was a registered sex offender. He also bizarrely got a tattoo of the Brown University crest on his shoulder, despite also never attending Brown. But we'll get back to his body art later on. But for now, just to fact check his ever expanding catalogue of lies, Rossi never graduated from any university. He didn't even graduate high school.

[Saruti]

Anyway, all the offences we have described so far took place while he was still in Ohio. And just before we move on, there's one last thing to add to that rap sheet. He was later accused of taking out 22 credit cards in his then foster father's name and running up debts of $200,000. But if you thought that mounting accusations of sexual assault are now large scale fraud, because yes, of course, his foster parents went to the police. If you thought that would slow Rossi's role, you would be wrong. By November 2008, he was living in Utah and trawling the Internet to meet yet more women. He ended up dating one woman known only as Ms. For two months. In that time, Nicholas pressured her to give him money for rent and he locked her in his bedroom to sexually assault her. Then in the same year, he attacked a 21 year old former girlfriend known as KP, pushing her onto a sofa and forcing her to have sex with him. Police reports show that she reported having said no at least 10 times while crying, but that Rossi still forced her into intercourse without a condom. After the assault, Rossi allegedly told KP that it was all her fault because she was mentally unstable and too emotional to deal with.

[Hannah]

This is when his bespectacled briefcase toting campaign had started, but the assaults didn't end. So all the while, as he was striding out in front of the state representatives with all of the press attention he could muster, he was attacking women like it was his job or like he was an elected member of parliament. He locked himself in an apartment with one woman. He took her phone and unplugged the TV so she wouldn't know the time. She fought off his relentless sexual advances, and he got more and more worked up until he said if she left, he would stab himself in the chest. Classic. Not particularly swayed by this last threat, the woman who eventually managed to get out ran into a nearby shop and called the police. In another case, he invited a woman who he had met online for dinner, and she agreed to go back to his apartment. But when she turned him down, he flipped and demanded that she pay him back for dinner and drove her to an ATM and forced her to give him $200. Then he forced this woman to fill out a form saying that she was a sex addict and that the money was to pay for his therapy. And then he filmed her signing it. Between 2010 and 2011, four more women filed complaints. Nothing happened. And after all of that, Nicholas Rossi got married twice.

[Saruti]

His first marriage, however, ended after just one week, after he beat his new wife for not being able to stop her infant son from crying. And after this, in 2015, Rossi reinvented himself once again. And it was this same year that he met Katharine heckendorm. She was 26, and this being Utah, Catherine was, of course, a recent convert to the Church of Latter Day Saints. She had gone to a singles ward where young, single Mormons meet to do activities and get to know each other. Here, Catherine met Nick, and things quickly developed. He showered her with gifts, jewelry, and flowers, and he persuaded her to marry him in secret after just six months. But the very next day, he hit her for the first time. The violence gave way to intense control, with Rossi telling Catherine how to dress, how to behave, and who she was allowed to see. He borrowed more than $50,000 from her and lost his temper whenever she asked for the money back. During their marriage, Catherine was constantly sexually and physically assaulted by Rossi. He once even took her phone away and locked her in a bathroom for days, where she only survived because she was able to get water from the bathroom sink.

[Hannah]

But she stayed with him. And one day, Catherine went down to the basement to tidy up, and she found a load of cardboard boxes that belonged to her husband. Inside them, Catherine found dozens of black notebooks they contained pages and pages of women's names alongside intimate details of their personal lives. The notes spanned years and catalogued women across dozens of different states, noting down their class schedules, their likes and dislikes, and their daily habits. It was a chronicle of years of predation. Catherine wanted nothing to do with any of this. And so finally, after a month of constant brutal violence and fear, she reported Rossi, who was arrested for domestic violence, and he and Catherine separated. Characteristically, Nick made the divorce proceedings as difficult as he possibly could, never once showing up to court, even wearing disguises to avoid being served notices in public. And by the time the divorce went through, Nicholas Rossi was nowhere to be found,

[Saruti]

probably because by this point, he was very much in demand. After the case of Mary Grabinski, the student at St. Clair College who was assaulted in a stairwell in 2008, Rossi had been required to register, as we told you, as a sex offender. But predictably, he hadn't. And like the fact that it's left up to him to do.

[Hannah]

I think we've come across them before. I think they have to take themselves down to the station. Of course they're not going to do that. No.

[Saruti]

I want to think things have changed and this is just 2008, but the fact that it was ever that.

[Hannah]

I wouldn't hold your breath.

[Saruti]

Shocking. So between that and the assault of his ex girlfriend, kp, in the same year, Nicholas Rossi secured a plum spot on Ohio's most wanted list. And it wasn't long before the FBI joined the party, too. They had started investigating Rossi after he defrauded his foster parents in Ohio. And when they dug deeper, they found that the finances of the foundation he had started that were allegedly to help abuse children didn't even nearly add up. And then in Utah, Rossi gained the attention of his most formidable enemy yet. David Levitt.

[Liberty Mutual Advertiser]

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[Liberty Mutual Advertiser 2]

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[Liberty Mutual Couple]

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[Liberty Mutual Couple]

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[Hannah]

Yeah, the bird looks out of your league.

[Liberty Mutual Advertiser]

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[Liberty Mutual Advertiser 2]

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[Liberty Mutual Advertiser]

And Doug. There's nowhere I wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual, Even if it means sitting front row at a comedy show.

[Liberty Mutual Advertiser 2]

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[Liberty Mutual Couple]

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[Liberty Mutual Advertiser]

We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual together.

[Liberty Mutual Couple]

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[Hannah]

Yeah, the bird looks out of your league anyways.

[Liberty Mutual Advertiser]

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[Liberty Mutual Advertiser 2]

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[Hannah]

In 2018, Republican candidate David Levitt was elected as Utah county attorney, and he was trying to shake things up. He had spent years leading the charge to try and remove the death penalty, and it was actually abolished when he came into power. He also ramped up efforts to bring perpetrators of sexual assault to justice, ensuring a large grant to test huge numbers of backlogged rape cases. One of these, which had sat on a shelf for more than 10 years, came from an assault in Orem, Utah, in 2008. It was entered into the database and hit on Nicholas Rossi. Levitt made it his mission to track Rossi down and make him pay. But Levitt had no idea who he was dealing with.

[Saruti]

And soon after, Katherine Heckendorn finally got her divorce from her absent ex, the investigation went global. Authorities quickly found that Rossi had left the US in June 2017, flown to Dublin and not come back. So they had an international manhunt on their hands. Investigators tracked him down to the address of a woman named Michelle Minnaar, an Essex resident who had filed a rape claim against Rossi. Once again, it had started online with Michelle and Rossi exchanging messages while Rossi was still in the US he seemed charming and educated, and Michelle was intrigued. But within just a few days of starting this conversation online, Rossi started talking about flying over from the US To England to visit her. Michelle was a bit weirded out and asked him to chill, but Rossi was adamant, and within weeks, he was standing on her doorstep in the middle of the night. And he stayed for five weeks.

[Hannah]

I think it is astonishingly rude to even request to stay in somebody's home for more than one week.

[Saruti]

I agree.

[Hannah]

I think it is the limit.

[Saruti]

Oh, that's the upper limit.

[Hannah]

I just think it is abhorrently rude.

[Saruti]

She literally doesn't even know him. They just talk on the Internet, and then suddenly he just turns up outside your door. And it is genuinely like, the worst case scenario. He's there because he's on the run from the law for being a rapist. Like, it doesn't get any worse than this. Well, it does, actually, because of everything you're about to tell us about. I don't want to.

[Hannah]

Okay. But I have no choice. I'm being held here against My will. During this five week stint, Rossi manipulated and controlled every aspect of Michelle's life in a familiar pattern. He convinced her to give him more and more money to help him settle down in England. Why? It's fucking shit here. He told her what she was allowed to wear and who she could see. And if she ever questioned him, Rossi would make a huge deal of having uprooted his entire life in the US to come and be with her. Calling Michelle ungrateful, that's the narcissist classic. If you ever go against the grain after all I've done for you. And inevitably, once again, it escalated to sexual assault. But Michelle was just biding her time. And one day, when Rossi took a trip to London, she moved fast. She packed up Rossi's belongings, threw them out on the front step, changed the locks, and called the police.

[Saruti]

Good work, Michelle.

[Hannah]

The problem was that the British police couldn't find Rossi anywhere.

[Saruti]

But by this point, back in the us, Utah County Attorney David Levitt had dedicated himself to this case. Here was a serial rapist and fraudster with accusations of assault, harassment and possible kidnapping between 2007 and 2019, stretching all the way from Utah, Ohio, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and now Essex in the UK to boot.

[Hannah]

Does. I mean, obviously, I guess he's not actually on the register because he never registered, but he does have convictions. Like, how is he just allowed to leave the country?

[Saruti]

I don't know,

[Hannah]

send help? Like, I just.

[Saruti]

I don't know. He just like, slips through the net again and again and again, and it is staggering. It's staggering. Honestly, he is the kind of guy that, like, if he had applied himself, if he wasn't a rapist and if he had applied himself to.

[Hannah]

So they're slim pickings these days.

[Saruti]

Applied himself to something worthwhile, he could have done anything. He is so singularly determined to achieve anything he wants, but everything he wants to do is be a horrible piece of shit. So, yes, somehow he had gotten to the UK and done this. And David Levitt was like, this is a guy I am going to bring down. And after months and months of painstaking investigation, the state of Utah finally moved to formally charge Rossi with rape. But just before the charge was made, Nicholas Rossi died.

[Hannah]

In the months leading up to his death in February 2020, Rossi had been calling old acquaintances back in the U.S. he rang old colleagues at the Rhode Island State House, including Brian Coogan, the representative who had almost adopted him, and also various local reporters. Each time, he seemed to be in a new country. France, Belgium, Russia. His voice over the phone was increasingly raspy, and he hinted at being very ill. And then one day he revealed that he had just two weeks to live after being diagnosed with non Hodgkin's lymphoma.

[Saruti]

Let's throw a cancer con in there too. Why not?

[Hannah]

I'm amazed it's taken him this long, to be honest.

[Saruti]

Everybody got their bingo sheets out because he really, really is just like, I'm gonna do everything.

[Hannah]

Well, he's come this far. Why not throw in another one?

[Saruti]

Yeah, quite.

[Hannah]

In the weeks that followed this announcement, he made more calls, sounding weaker and weaker every time, telling people that he loved them.

[Saruti]

The Horcruxes are being destroyed.

[Hannah]

Imagine if he actually has not been vanquished and he just reappears on the back of someone else's head under a turban.

[Saruti]

Honestly, not to give this man too much credit, but if anyone would try, it's him. I can totally imagine Nicholas Rossi putting together his little, like, disguises, doing all his grubby, like, credit card fraud, doing his rapes, creating these websites, editing his Wikipedia, doing these blog posts, and also sometimes in the evening, also trying to summon the devil just to try and make that happen as well. He'll just cover all his bases.

[Hannah]

And then an obituary appeared on a memorial website.

[Saruti]

It said that Nicholas Oliverdian had died after a long battle with cancer on 29th February, 2020. He was just 32 and his ashes had been scattered at sea. So don't anybody try go looking for them. They're gone. The obituary also included glowing quotes from senior Rhode island politicians praising all of Nicholas's many achievements. And it ended with the following quote. At the bedside was Mrs. Oliverdian, their two children and extended family. His last words were, fear not and run towards the bliss of the sun. And it also said at the time of his passing, the room was filled with the sounds of the end credits for the 1997 film Contact by composer Alan Silvestri.

[Hannah]

I spend a lot of time in a cemetery, as I've made quite clear. And a lot of the graves are Victorian and they have amazing inscriptions. And my favorite one, I will take a picture of it. It's something along the lines of, I don't know, Gladys. Actually, no, it's not. Glad Stephen. Stephen died in excruciating pain after a long and miserable illness. You tell him, Steve.

[Saruti]

So Victorian.

[Hannah]

Tell him how it was so I'll find it. My favorite one.

[Saruti]

And look, if you are actually dying and you want to do that, that's your business. Fucking get it do what you fucking want. It's your day, kind of. But he's not dead. This is just what he's fan fictioning for his own death. Because he is the most ridiculous person I have ever come across whilst doing this show. So anyway, the obituary goes out and it was soon after this that the Rhode island priest from the start of today's episode, Father Bernard Healey, got a call from a woman who introduced herself as Louise. She said she was Nicholas Oliverdian's widow.

[Hannah]

Louise also rang a number of other acquaintances of Nicholas's, telling them how much he'd loved them and making sure they'd heard the news of his very sad passing. None of these acquaintances had heard of Nicholas's wife, but she seemed to know a surprising amount about their lives and relationships with her late husband. So much so that some people at the time assumed that it was Nicholas himself making these calls, doing a Mrs. Doubtfire falsetto and pretending to be his own grieving widow. But bizarrely, it wasn't.

[Saruti]

I fully thought, obviously it's just him, because she's like calling everybody, being like, he was so amazing. He loved you so much. Here's all the things he told me, like, I hope you're really sad he's dead. It's not him.

[Hannah]

We are going to have to come back to this later on because you simply are not going to believe who Louise really is.

[Saruti]

Yeah. Anyway, like we said at the top, in the midst of all this planning for this fake memorial mass, Father Healy got a call from a Rhode island police detective saying that Rossi wasn't really dead. The question was, how could they be so sure? Well, firstly, there was the obituary. Anyone who had investigated any of his previous crimes, they read it and they were like, that's got Rossi written all over it. Now, of course, maybe he's written the obituary before he died. It's not like he got hit by a bus. Maybe he could have done that.

[Hannah]

That kid has been writing his own obituary since he was 14.

[Saruti]

Quite the bigger problem was there was no death certificate that had ever surfaced. And also, this was another thing that really tipped them off. Someone was editing and re editing very furiously in very quick time. Nicholas Olivertian's Wikipedia to bat away any inclusion of his sexual assault convictions. And it wasn't just that Nicholas Rossi was still alive. It was very clear to investigators that he was still very much up to his old tricks.

[Hannah]

In 2020, a Montreal based vegan web series called Plant, based by Nafisca, was looking for a marketing expert to boost its followers. And soon, its host, Nafiska Antipas, came across the perfect candidate. On Hellhole LinkedIn. Nicholas Brown was listed as a Harvard educated PR officer, executive strategist, management consultant, and international lawyer. In his interview, Brown mentioned working for Gordon Ramsay. Thank you very much. And promised that within six months, Nafisca would be a household name and millionaire. Unsurprisingly, after the initial payments were made, Brown's excuses came in thick and fast as to why she wasn't a millionaire in a household name yet. His wife had appendicitis. His dog needed surgery, even signed himself off work with gout.

[Saruti]

If I was gonna make it up, I'd make it a better illness. Maybe he thinks it's, like, indulgent. Like, I'm so rich, I've got gout.

[Hannah]

Maybe that wouldn't surprise me.

[Saruti]

If you were gonna lie and say you were ill to sign yourself off work, what would be, like, the best condition to lie about?

[Hannah]

How long do I need off?

[Saruti]

It's not even time off. It's. You're just not doing your job. Like, you're not making someone a millionaire and a household name.

[Hannah]

And I have to give a reason as to why that hasn't.

[Saruti]

I've gone mad.

[Hannah]

Yeah. I literally. Yeah.

[Saruti]

Syphilitic madness.

[Hannah]

And in three months of syphilitic madness, he had still not delivered a single jot of work. And when Nafisca pointed this out, Harvard professor completely lost it. He screamed down the phone at her, you have no clue who you're dealing with. And then he threatened the hellish wrath of litigation. He bombarded her parents house with phone calls and threatened to destroy her father's company.

[Saruti]

More narcissistic behavior, though. It's the. Can't even just disappear. It's the attack. An attack on everyone around you as well. And of course, it didn't end there. Nicholas Brown set out on a relentless smear campaign, which, by the way, likely took significantly more effort and time than if he had just done the actual job he had been hired to do. He used his access to the nafiscaglobal.com domain name, which is home of the website he was supposed to be building, to become an anti Nafiska hate site. And he contacted media outlets, colleagues and friends to do as much damage as he could to her career. Naifiska lost tens of thousands of dollars, and her reputation took years to recover. Over the next few months, this case came to the attention of the FBI and shock, horror. Nicholas Brown was none other than our friend Nicholas Rossi. Soon after that, The Salt Lake County Attorney's Office announced that it was seeking to arrest him on those 2008 rape charges, and the warrant stated clearly Rossi had faked his own death and fled to Scotland. The charges were racking up, but the man they found in Scotland argued otherwise.

[Hannah]

On 13 December 2021, Arthur Knight woke from a Covid induced coma in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow. Whatever details came later, the man in the bed had in fact been seriously ill with COVID 19, and had genuinely come close to death. Not close enough. But when he came to, three police officers were standing over him. They said he was an international fugitive and they arrested him next to him. Arthur's wife, Miranda, was dumbfounded. Her husband was categorically not a serial rapist from New England. She told police that there had to be some kind of mistake, that she and Arthur had been together for years and he'd never even been to the us. She said that he was a true romantic, a kind, thoughtful husband and a great listener, and that they had spent most of their relationship living in Bristol before getting married in 2021 and moving up to Glasgow. They were just a normal couple, she said, who loved making cocktails together and visiting historic properties around the uk.

[Saruti]

And Arthur's own backstory went like this. He said he had been born in Ireland and grew up in Cairns. He was born Nicholas Brown. Ring any bells? But he said he later changed that name to put his bad childhood experiences behind him. He said that during that time he was in Ireland, he had been put in a series of orphanages and residential homes. The two names he could remember were St. Mary's and Sacred Heart. And one day, life in the orphanage just got too much, too brutal. So young Arthur and a few other boys made a break for him. They managed to escape the institution and get on a boat to come over to Britain. They made their way to London and arrived at the age of 14. Arthur claimed that he made a living buying and selling books in the heart of the capital. He said that he was sort of a bookish Del Boy character, which again is just to be like, I know

[Hannah]

British things, take Dellboy's name out your mouth.

[Saruti]

And when he was asked whether he had any contacts from those days, Arthur said that unfortunately, they were all ensnared by the allure of the street. So there was no one to corroborate his story.

[Hannah]

That's handy. His neighbours in Glasgow described Arthur Knight as polite, dapper and well spoken. They joked that he must have been part of the Royal family No doubt because he presented himself as a mental silk robe wearing posho. And he told them that he was working as a lecturer at the University of Glasgow and writing a book on religious education. Arthur even said that he was planning on starting a podcast about politics. Fucking kill me. It's full. And he asked around the people he knew, trying to find an assistant that could help him. Arthur Knight, when questioned in that Glasgow hospital, said that he had never set foot in the us. So why were the US authorities so sure that this clipped English gent was in fact the international fugitive rapist and fraudster, Nicholas Rossi?

[Saruti]

Well, like we said, they had their suspicions when the state of Utah charged him. It was, in fact after they saw his obituary. So not like, charging him. And then they see the obituary. They see his obituary and they're like, this is bullshit. We're going to charge him with the 2008 rape. They didn't buy his death for a second. In fact, they kept the charges a secret, knowing that if he was indeed still out there, which they knew he definitely was, that seeing the charges might risk driving him underground. They want to let him think that his fake death has, like, worked. So they continue to, like, gather more evidence against him. And after a few months, they had a breakthrough. They found an Irish driver's license under the name Nicholas Brown. But the photo, it was unmistakably Nicholas Rossi. Now, this didn't prove he was still alive in 2020. All it proved is that he was hanging out somewhere at some point in Ireland under the alias Nicholas Brown. And it also helped them pick up the trail from 2017, when he'd left the house of Michelle Minnaar in Essex. Especially since this driver's licence that they found had a different address on was the home address of Arthur Knight's wife, Miranda, in Bristol, where she said she had lived with her Covid coma husband before they got married and moved to Glasgow. And that's how US officials wound up surrounding Arthur Knight in his hospital bed. It's good police work, totally.

[Hannah]

Knight was arrested and released on bail and the theatrics started immediately. Like we said, he hit the media hard going on any chat show and news programme that would have him.

[Saruti]

He's absolutely obsessed with press attention. Again, had he laid low, some of the things that are going to happen that, like, are the final nail in his actual prison coffin wouldn't have happened.

[Hannah]

He went everywhere in a motorised wheelchair with an oxygen tank and breathing apparatus covering his face.

[Saruti]

I wonder why,

[Hannah]

if his health was ever brought into question, he would make a big show of attempting to stand, getting half up and then going limp and then forcing Miranda to hold his full weight for the cameras.

[Arthur Knight / Nicholas Rossi (impersonator)]

And I would like to go back to being a normal husband, but I can't because I can't breathe. I can't walk. People say that's an act. Let me try to stand up. Let me try to stand up. Exactly, Please.

[Hannah]

Exactly what do you say to someone who believes that.

[Grainger/Amex/OnDeck Advertiser]

That you are Nicholas Oliverian?

[Arthur Knight / Nicholas Rossi (impersonator)]

I am not Andrea. I am not Nicholas Al. I do not know how to make this clearer.

[Hannah]

Some reporters even called up contacts from Rossi's past on FaceTime and pointed the phone camera at Knight. One of those calls was with David Rossi, the stepfather that had beat the shit out of him, who said immediately, that's my Nicky. Which, to be fair to tv, for once, it was great, Ellie.

[Saruti]

Yeah, they were milking it and he was letting them. He was going on all of the channels. Now, occasionally, reporters would point out that the oxygen mask. This is amazing. Seemed to have come loose from the tank. Like the cable that's bringing the oxygen to the mask had, like, fallen out of the tank. But that night, didn't seem to have noticed. But the mask, by this point, was also starting to slip in more than one way. His voice in these interviews, as we have played you, was breathy and stuttered, and the mask obscured his accent. But the British lilt that you could hear definitely had a transatlantic twang to it.

[Hannah]

If he was to say the name Nicholas Rossi, he'd always pronounce it Rosie, which could be a little overcorrection, like the way an American might think a British person would pronounce it.

[Saruti]

Like, if I saw R O S S, I, I would say, Rossi.

[Hannah]

Yeah.

[Saruti]

Who's saying Rosie? He's doing too much. He's trying way too hard.

[Hannah]

And despite his passing knowledge of British sitcoms and literature, he would occasionally miss the mark. I love stuff like this. And a pub landlord remembers immediately smelling a rat when Knight said he'd never heard of Coronation Chicken.

[Saruti]

Yeah, it's so good.

[Hannah]

I think that was our first ever viral TikTok, the recipe for Coronation chicken.

[Saruti]

Yeah, Rossi. If you'd have been watching our tiktoks, you'd know what it fucking was. But, yeah, it's. It's so funny. He's in the documentary and he's like, I was eating a Coronation Chicken sandwich. He was like, oh, you know, sort of smelling it. And he was like, do you want some? And he was like, what is it? And he's like coronation chicken and he doesn't know what it is. And the pub landlord was like, what the fuck? But he brushed it off and just. I was like, maybe it's just like a posh person thing that they don't know what it is. But he is. Yes, he should. But yeah, their leader. But he's like, it was very weird. And yeah, it's these sort of like little things that he doesn't know. So, yes, Nicholas Rossi's appearances on daytime TV were definitely theatrical. But what about his court appearances? They were something else altogether. He'd stop every time with a quip or Sherlock Holmes quote for the cameras. And for all the pinstripe suits and stuffy academic demeanour, it's worth remembering in all the pictures you see of him, he's in his early 30s at the time. He's younger than us.

[Hannah]

I knew that's what you were going to say.

[Saruti]

I'm sorry. It's got to be said he looks like shit. He'd trundle over to the court in his motorized wheelchair, knocking things over once even flipping over entirely as he tried to get into a taxi. He is committed to the bit for sure. And in fact, and I love this so much because again, it's proof of just doing too much, going too far. Because remember, he's turning up to some of these court appearances in his three piece suits, but he's also turning up sometimes in his pyjamas and a dressing gown. And one time he does that, it backfires in a way that I don't think he was expecting, because thanks to all of Arthur Knight's showboating about proclaiming his innocence, saying how this was all a stitch up by like, you know, the shady American elites or whatever, the news had gone worldwide by this point. In, like, the clip of like all the news outlets we were playing you, you can see he's being interviewed by like big news outlets in the U.S. and so the footage of him turning up to court in these silk pyjamas was seen by none other than his Mormon ex wife, Catherine Heckendorn. And she knew immediately that she was looking at her ex husband, Nicholas Rossi, not just from his demeanour or even his brazen attempt to get one over on his enemies, but because they were the exact same pyjamas that he had worn when they were together.

[Hannah]

Inside the courthouse, Rossi hired and fired defence lawyers like it was going out of style, sometimes firing them during courtroom proceedings. Classic and even classicolor. He ended up representing himself.

[Saruti]

It's like that episode of the Simpsons. Lisa's like, why did you let him represent himself? And Marge's like, he hit the fucking queen. Like, it doesn't even matter. It doesn't even matter. Let him represent himself. This is just so bonkers.

[Hannah]

He rambled on in nonsensical monologues about how dreadfully he had been treated, how hard he'd tried to prove his innocence at every opportunity, despite not agreeing to provide DNA samples. And as far as the prosecution goes, some parts of his argument were pretty easy to refute. The university, for example, had no employment record of anyone by the name of Arthur Knight. Then there were the orphanages and institutions he claimed to have moved between as a boy. And you might think that the names Saint Mary and Sacred Heart were a pretty good punt for Ireland based orphanages. But unfortunately for him, there were no facilities with those names. Arthur Knight also said that once he got to London, he had sold books at Borough Market, which has quite famously been a food market since the 12th century. It's more roast chickens than Charles Dickens.

[Saruti]

And all those strawberries covered in chocolate.

[Hannah]

Do you know how hard it is to not say Dahl's chickens?

[Saruti]

Delicious.

[Hannah]

Mm. And then there are more permanent, irrefutable bits of evidence in the form of tattoos.

[Saruti]

In one of Nicholas Rossi's mugshots from his arrests in the States, he has multiple large tattoos on his arms. On his right arm there's a single angel's wing, and above it, you've got the crest for Brown University, which, once again, as we told you, he never went to. On his left arm, he has an anchor up top, then an incredibly jacked picture of Jesus on the cross. Like, absolutely fucking rich.

[Hannah]

Oh, is that what it's supposed to be? I thought it was Poseidon.

[Saruti]

Yeah. Jesus Poseidon on the cross. So, yes, you can say very distinctive, very large tattoos because there's like, more religious imagery running all the way down his forearm. So with investigators and the courts being faced with a clear liar who just wouldn't back down as to his true identity, it was obviously critical to get a good look at those tats.

[Hannah]

Arthur was not exactly forthcoming at first.

[Saruti]

This is the thing I don't understand. Like, why can't they just make him show them his arms? There's such a fucking pantomime about this. It goes on for so long, it's bizarre to me because they go and arrest him, so why can't they just look at his arms? I don't know.

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[Hannah]

For the most part, in early press interviews, he would just flatly refuse to get his arms out, saying he was too tired. That's what I say as well. Taking off his blazer, waistcoat, and shirt would simply be too much exertion in his frail state.

[Saruti]

You got him on, though. All of it. Why are you putting so many clothes on?

[Hannah]

But slowly, he started to play ball, showing more and more of his arms when asked, and eventually went all second Amendment and fully exercised his right to bear arms. I went to a Halloween party once, many moons ago, and there was someone with two Beanie Babies, like, tied to his arms with string. It's the right to bear arms. Nice. I'll never forget you, man. I can't remember your name. Anyway, for this, we're taking the words of Jane McSorley, host and writer of the excellent Audible podcast, I am not Nicholas. She really got to know Arthur in those days. And after a while, out of nowhere, he suddenly agreed to show her his arms in person. With no hesitation, he pulled back his sleeves entirely, and she was bamboozled. There was no sign of any tattoos or any scarring to indicate that they had been removed. Even stranger, Miranda, his wife, said definitively that he had never had tattoos in the 10 years they'd known each other.

[Saruti]

So what happened here? A lot of people make a lot about this online. I just don't see what the big fucking mystery is here. Tattoo removal has come a very long way, and lasers carry a very low risk of scarring. So people being like, well, there's no scars or marks on his arms. Why would there be? He's, like, super pale, like, lighter skin. It's gonna work better anyway. And also, it's even easier to remove tattoos that are already a bit faded. And if you look at those mug shots from 2008, you can see that they're already faded then. So by 2020, I just don't think it would have been that big a deal. Also, if you look at all of his tattoos, they're all black. The only colour that's there is red. And they are two of the easiest colours to have lasered off. I think he just starts getting them lasered off once he's released on bail. Though I don't understand why as soon as they arrested him, they don't just look at his arms, don't get that. But he's out on bail, he starts getting them lasered off and I think that's where all the cagey ness comes in, like, because he doesn't show them and then he shows them a bit and then he shows them more and more and then finally he shows them all to this podcast host. I think he was just waiting for. For the redness to heal from the lasers. I agree. And as for fucking Miranda, his wife being like, well, he never had tattoos at all. Well, she's not exactly the most reliable witness.

[Hannah]

And for this particular twist, we return once more to the work of Jane McSorley and Louise, Nicholas Rossi's widow, who rang around everyone telling everyone that he was dead and organising his funeral from Switzerland. Somehow, Jane obtained a recording of one of these calls from a confidential source. And when she heard the voice, she was stunned. It was Miranda.

[Saruti]

Yes, Miranda, the mysterious doting wife who stood by Arthur Knight through all of this unpleasantness, swearing to reporters that he had been nothing but kind to her. She was not just Nicholas Rossi's clueless next victim, she was his accomplice. Just nine days after Miranda and Arthur Knight's wedding, Rossi's obituary appeared online. Miranda had helped Rossi fake his death and reinvent himself with a new life. And that's probably also why they moved to Glasgow. They're just like, let's move around, let's keep. Let's keep on the run. And look, if you go watch the documentary about this, I think it's fair to say Miranda is a very odd and intriguing character in this whole mess. And I do not buy for one singular second that she was some poor manipulated victim. She lies and lies and lies constantly. She was going to stand by her man, come what may. And look, this comes back to what I was saying about Rossi earlier. When he needs to charm somebody, psychopath would do when he needs something from her or somebody, he treats her very well. So I don't think he did hurt Miranda. I think he kept her sweet because she was his ticket to this new life, to this, like, oh, well, cover story to say we've been married for 10 years. Like, he's got no tattoos, like, everything's hunky, Tory. And so I think she's in on it fully. And I want to play a clip here just to show that she even literally steps into lie for him on international tv.

[Liberty Mutual Advertiser]

Arthur. Arthur, I'm sorry. I'm sorry to interrupt.

[Saruti]

It's just really hard to hear you. Is there any way, just while you're

[Liberty Mutual Advertiser]

answering the question, you could take off

[Saruti]

the oxygen mask, or is that not because we really can't even understand you? Good evening.

[Hannah]

Good evening, Dan. What Arthur is saying is that this

[Saruti]

is all a storm in a teacup when Arthur is a hurricane. Yeah, it's just embarrassing when you know the truth. It's all so embarrassing.

[Hannah]

So finally, 11 months after Arthur Knight's initial arrest, a court in Edinburgh was to decide on the identity of Arthur Knight once and for all. And this time, there were no jaunty theatrics outside. He arrived in chains instead.

[Saruti]

Yeah, this is pretty wild. Look, I'm not here to be like, they shouldn't have, but I've never seen anything like that. He's literally in a motorized wheelchair, and there's like, a police officer next to him and he's handcuffed, but also there's like, a chain attached to the police officer. It's a very, like. It's a very, like, poignant image for sure, because I feel like it's the symbol of, like, they've stripped him of all of his, like, distraction tactics at this point.

[Hannah]

Among those giving evidence were hospital staff who treated him while he was down with COVID And they confirmed that they had been shown the Interpol red notice and that the man pictured in it was the same man that they had seen in the hospital bed. They also saw the mugshots taken by Rhode island police, the ones that included Rossi's distinctive tattoo sleeves. A nurse testified that the man who she had treated in Glasgow had arrived with the same tattoos. His fingerprints had also been taken from his hospital bed when police came to arrest him. And they matched those from the Mary Grabinski case back in 2008 in Ohio. Any trace of doubt had been obliterated. Arthur Knight was none other than Nicholas Rossi.

[Saruti]

So surely Rossi then held his hands up and admitted that the game was up and dropped the act. What do you think? By this point, Knight's story of mistaken identity had warped and evolved to become a full scale conspiracy against him. He said that he had repeatedly tried to prove his identity, but time and time again, authorities and media outlets had been poisoned against him. He said that Utah County Attorney David Levitt had invented this fanciful story to score political points. And then it was Hail Mary time. Rossi testified that While he'd been in hospital, someone posing as an NHS worker named Patrick had come in when no one else was around and taken his fingerprints. And that Patrick had then passed these fingerprints to the prosecutor in Utah, who must have swapped the fingerprints on the file in the Mary Grabinski case to frame him. Innocent old Arthur Knight.

[Hannah]

Rossi also said under oath that he'd woken up from his Covid coma to discover that tattoos had suddenly appeared on his body.

[Saruti]

But again, like, what does he mean? Does he mean they were painted on just so they could say they'd seen it? Or does he say there was actual tattoos? Because then the tattoos aren't there later, so where have they gone? It just doesn't make any sense. He's saying this in court.

[Hannah]

The whole thing was a global conspiracy to bring down poor beleaguered Arthur Knight and his little arms.

[Saruti]

On the final day of the trial, Knight turned up in his wheelchair in a three piece pinstripe suit, a paper face mask and a wide brimmed black felt hat. Sheriff Norman McFadden said that the stories he'd heard were implausible, which is putting it incredibly unseasoned. Chicken mildly.

[Hannah]

That's the real crime.

[Saruti]

Yeah. Truly. He ruled. I've been watching A lot of Love is Blind. He ruled once and for all. Mr. Knight and Nicholas Rossi were the same person.

[Hannah]

Nicholas Rossi was uncharacteristically speechless. He said nothing to the press as he left. He was imprisoned in Glasgow while he awaited extradition to the U.S. rossi had been defeated thoroughly in the courts. Any trace of credibility he ever had had vanished. But even then, Nicholas Rossi refused to give up. He gave it one last roll of the dice and accused David Levitt of being the leader of a cannibalistic satanic sex cult. And if you're in that deep, what's one more go?

[Saruti]

Chuck it. Chuck it in. So, yes, just before the trial had begun, Rossi had fired out messages to every reporter he knew, saying that he could offer them a world exclusive. That there was a ring of Satan worshipping paedophiles in the highest levels of Utahian politics, and that it was all led by by the Utah County Attorney, David Levitt. The press release said that this cult would regularly meet to abuse children before scalping them and sacrificing them on an altar. And of course, they would finish off proceedings by murdering these children, drinking their blood and eating their remains. Now look, obviously that all sounds pretty fucking mental, really does come across like the desperate last hope of a cornered narcissist, but incredibly, it didn't come from nowhere.

[Hannah]

Oh, God. Many years before, Leavitt had in fact testified in a court case against his neighbour, hypnotherapist David Hamlin. Levitt said in court that he knew that Hamlin had been poaching deer to use in Native American rituals, which included the ritualistic removal of the heart and drinking of the blood of the deer as revenge. Hamlin then brainwashed a mentally fragile client of his and convinced her to go to the police with accusations of all of the stuff we just said. Paedophilia, cannibalism and satanic child sacrifice. She signed a lengthy and incredibly graphic 151 page statement featuring all kinds of grisly details. A ring of 20 people, torture chambers, eating children alive, human trafficking and much, much more. It was dismissed outright by the police, but kept on file in Utah. The question is, how did Rossi get his rotten little hands on?

[Saruti]

Well, around the time of Rossi's trial, Levitt was up for re election. Like we said, he had really shaken things up when he came into power, and that had left quite a few people not very happy. In fact, the Sheriff's department had loudly endorsed Levitt's rival, the same sheriff's department that had access to the sex cult files. So when a call came in from a British investigative reporter named Arthur Knight digging for dirt on the incumbent county attorney, the Sheriff's department eagerly sent it all over. Even though it had all been dismissed and sadly, somehow it stuck. Levitt suddenly found himself holding very real press conferences in front of armies of reporters, strenuously denying his involvement with satanic child scalping paedophile rings. The story totally derailed his campaign and anything he actually had to say about policy was reduced to a mere footnote. He lost by a landslide. David Levitt's political career was finished and once he was gone, the death penalty was brought back to Utah.

[Hannah]

Unfortunately for Rossi, apart from destroying his enemy, these accusations didn't move the needle for him one bit. Once it was ruled that Rossi and Knight were one and the same, he appeared before the Scottish High Court, who approved him for extradition. During the course of this trial, Rossi, defending himself, tried to argue that his physical and mental health were too fragile for a trip across the pond. But a doctor responsible for treating him in prison testified that there was no medical reason for Rossi to be in a wheelchair. He'd felt Rossi's legs and they were surprisingly muscular for someone who's not used them for years. It was brought to the court's attention that while he had been in hospital Rossi had, in fact, once leapt out of bed in a rage to run at a nurse and consultant and even managed to kick down a door.

[Saruti]

It's a miracle.

[Hannah]

So the doctor's medical opinion was that Rossi had no health problems at all, and he was finally approved for extradition.

[Saruti]

It took two years. What a catastrophic waste of time. Not that it finally happened. I just mean that it dragged out for that long. In January 2024, surrounded by U.S. marshals, Nicholas Rossi was flown by private jet to Utah to face charges of kidnapping, fraud, extortion, identity theft, blackmail, harassment, sexual assault, rape, and domestic violence. In his initial appearance in court, he still clung to the Arthur Knight story, furiously protesting in a British accent that they had the wrong guy. But then, at a routine bail hearing In Provo, Utah, nine months after he arrived back in the U.S. he Finally, finally dropped the act. Can you imagine? Any trace of the British accent suddenly just disappears?

[Hannah]

That might be quite hard after doing it for so many years.

[Saruti]

And also, just the fucking. I just. I'd have just played it out to the end. Just let.

[Hannah]

Yeah, like, Hugh Laurie famously just adopted an American accent while he was filming House because he was like, it's such a drag to have to swap between them. Like, I live in America. I'm doing this all the time. Why would I bother?

[Saruti]

Yeah. I don't know. Well, I do know. I do know why he. Because I think he knows if he continues pretending to be Arthur Knight, he is going to get sentenced.

[Hannah]

I see.

[Saruti]

So he is like, right, let's own up to it, and let's come up with another story about why I was pretending to be Arthur Knight. So he slowly concedes that he is, in fact, Nicholas Rossi. But if you think he was about to admit anything else. Have you been paying any attention? Rossi said this is his new story.

[Hannah]

Right.

[Saruti]

Rossi said that after he moved to Europe, he had learned of threats to his life from contacts back in Rhode Island. Politics. They said that while he was fighting against the system for disadvantaged kids, he had made enemies of powerful people. When asked who his sources were or where the death threats came from, he refused to say anything because he did not want to give a mouse cheese. What? I don't know.

[Hannah]

Not that eloquent then, are you? That same month, that is at the end of last year, Nicholas Rossi stood trial for two separate cases of rape from 2008. His lawyer denied the rape claim and asked the court not to be swayed by all of the identity switching and the country fleeing. Both juries returned guilty verdicts, and Nicholas Rossi was sentenced to two consecutive prison terms of five years to life, and he will not be eligible for parole until 2032. His lawyers insist that he's not a flight risk and poses no real danger to society. But I quite simply could not disagree more.

[Saruti]

Have they been paying attention?

[Hannah]

Evidently not.

[Saruti]

It's just one of the most bonkers stories and like, just the audacity and the brazenness with which he is just like, I'm gonna do it. Oh, yeah, let's see what happens. And he did get away with it for a long time. So, yeah, that is it, guys. That is the very, very, very confusing story of Nicholas Rossi and all of the bonkers shit he got up to and all of the very, very many lies he told. So hopefully you've been able to wrap your head around it. If not, just go back to the start and listen again. It helps. Every lesson helps. And we will see you next week.

[Hannah]

Just drive yourself slowly mad at the alter of our downloads. Thank you very much.

[Saruti]

Just put it on while you go to sleep. You know, you might wake up and know everything about the story or with

[Hannah]

a weird British accent.

[Saruti]

And we will see you next week where these two British accented ladies will bring you another case. Goodbye.

[Hannah]

Bye.

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Yeah, the bird looks out of your league anyways.

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