On this day in 1962, an imposter named Daniel West was elected to Michigan's House of Representatives, claiming a background in local offices. He was reelected in 1964, but a fingerprint match revealed him as a three-time convicted felon. The real Daniel West, a New York attorney, had died in 1961. A warrant was issued in 1965, but the fraudster vanished, with his true identity remaining a mystery to this day.
TRANSCRIPT
On this day in 1962, an imposter was elected to Michigan’s house of representatives. The man called himself Daniel West. A biography of Mr. West published in the Michigan Manual claimed he held various local offices and at the time of his election was working as a retail hardware dealer. He was even reelected in 1964. But it all fell apart when a complaint against State Representative West resulted in a fingerprint match to three-time convicted felon for burglary, larceny and forgery, and each of those with yet another different name. The real ‘Daniel West’ was a New York attorney who died the year before in 1961. A warrant was finally issued for the fraudster in 1965, but he fled authorities and didn’t show up to court appearances. There have been a few sightings of the man, most recently in 1975, but to this day nobody knows who he really was.