| The first person Frank Ahearn ever disappeared was | | | | again. |
| Ken. He spotted him at a Borders in north Jersey | | | | According to the FBI, nearly 60,000 to 80,000 |
| about three years ago - a pale, geeky-looking guy in a | | | | Americans disappear every month. Only a fraction of |
| golf shirt and khakis, thumbing through a pile of books | | | | these are involuntary disappearances, like children who |
| about Central America andoffshore banking. It took | | | | are abducted. Many people disappear because they |
| Frank about a half second to figure him out: Ken was | | | | want to. A lot of times these disappearances go |
| skipping town. | | | | unreported, because the individual doesn't have strong |
| "I betcha you're going to buy a condo in Costa Rica," | | | | ties tohis or her community, like a family, or a prominent |
| Frank said to the man, hisvoice low, so no one else | | | | job, and doesn't have someonelooking out for them. |
| could hear. "And bank in Belize." | | | | To be harsh: nobody cares. |
| Ken's slackened mouth curled into a big dumb O that | | | | But one needn't be on the run or anonymous to harbor |
| almost made Frank laugh. He looked at Frank - a tall, | | | | a fantasy of disappearing. |
| longhaired guy dressed in black with a cartoonish | | | | Who hasn't once dreamed of fleeing his life - no |
| goatee, thick tattooed arms and a twisted and | | | | matter how contented it is - just forthe chance to start |
| discolored front tooth - and fumbled for a response. | | | | anew? Several years ago, Money magazine published |
| But now Frank was talking again, running his mouth in | | | | a studythat found that one in five Americans had |
| his thick New York accent. | | | | considered leaving the United States. The same |
| "The problem is, if you're running from someone," he | | | | survey stated that three million Americans would leave |
| rattled on, "they're going to find you." | | | | immediately if theyknew how. |
| Ken looked like he might faint right there in the | | | | "Lots of people have the feeling," Frank tells me. "You |
| café part of Borders. So Frankdecided to explain | | | | want to shoot yourself or run. It's called freedom. I'm |
| himself. He was a "skip tracer," he told Ken - a slippery | | | | teaching people how to be free." That word freedom |
| sort of business that specialized in finding people. | | | | gets |
| Mobsters, drug lords, wife beaters, rock stars - Frank | | | | Frank jumping. In fact, he has the word tattooed in |
| found guys for a living. He'd hunted as far as Bali to | | | | script across his back. |
| bring them back. | | | | Of course, it's harder than ever to disappear. People |
| He knew all the tricks, and he couldn't help but notice | | | | have never been more closely monitored. It may not |
| that Ken was already fuckingup. | | | | yet have reached Orwellian proportions, but chances |
| "You bought your books with a credit card and | | | | are someone is almost always watching you - from |
| discount card," Frank told Ken. Itwas a rookie mistake - | | | | subway stations to airports to football games to |
| both were easily traceable. A couple of well-placed | | | | Internet spyware checking in on the whereabouts of |
| phone calls, and any respectable private eye could find | | | | your computerized mouse. Credit cards, bank |
| Ken in the time it took to microwave popcorn. | | | | accounts and utility bills all leave a trail. Cell phones are |
| Ken shifted uncomfortably in his sandals, still not | | | | even worse. If the average American tried to leave |
| believing this guy, wondering if he was for real - or if | | | | town tomorrow, they'd likely be found in 24 hours. |
| Frank, in fact, had been sent to hunt him down. But | | | | "When you're looking for someone, the world is like a |
| then Frank offered him a business card - depicting a | | | | gigantic database," says Frank. "Data is like a bad |
| De Chirico-esque mannequin standingalone on a white | | | | disease, it will never go away." |
| beach, staring out at a big blue ocean and a headline | | | | After he disappeared Ken, Frank thought about how |
| that asked simply "Are you looking for someone?" - | | | | he could make it part of his business. It seemed so |
| and walked away, just like that. | | | | outlandish, so improbable - working the other side of |
| Two weeks later, Ken emailed. Frank was right: Ken | | | | the grid. He'd think about it on his ride to Starbucks in |
| was trying to run away. He was in trouble. Not long | | | | the morning, all through the afternoonas he tracked |
| ago the government had paid him big money to testify | | | | down crazies and deadbeats, and late at night in bed, |
| in a fraud case against his former employer, a | | | | as he watched the 11 PM news. He developed plans, |
| mid-sized supplies company with government | | | | obsessed - and obsessed some more. |
| contracts. Ken had been one of the company's | | | | Talking about it today, he can sound like the blind |
| accountants. Somehow his namehad leaked, and he | | | | oracle from the Matrix movies, speaking rhapsodically |
| was targeted as a rat. He got mysterious phone calls. | | | | with his thick arms cutting the air and his goatee |
| Threats were made. A man approached him on the | | | | dancing off his face about giving people new lives, with |
| street and announced, cryptically, your | | | | new names, in new dimensions. "Disappearing," says |
| "life will be made uncomfortable." An ex-colleague | | | | Frank, "is like peeling off all of those old layers that |
| warned "I'm gonna get you." | | | | define you and putting up new ones." |
| Ken told Frank he feared for his life. He'd thought | | | | In time Frank developed a disappearance strategy that |
| about calling the police - butworried the police would | | | | he broke into three stages. The first stage was |
| never be able to fully protect him. He didn't have any | | | | misinformation - the total obliteration of personal |
| big attachments - no wife, no children. He felt there | | | | information files, from phone bills to apartment leases |
| was only one option. But Ken had no idea how to do it. | | | | to health club memberships. The second stage was |
| Finally Ken summoned the nerve to ask Frank a | | | | disinformation - the creation of a Byzantine web of |
| question that changed both of their lives. | | | | false data to lead someone's pursuers astray while |
| "Can you help me disappear?" | | | | exhausting their personnel and financial resources. The |
| Frank Ahearn never thought he'd wind up helping | | | | final stage was reformation - the creation of dummy |
| people disappear. From the beginning, he'd always | | | | corporations to hold and spendmoney and then getting |
| worked the other side. It was thrilling, sometimes | | | | to where you want to go and making sure you don't |
| dangerous work, finding people. Challenging, too. Usually, | | | | gettraced there. |
| all Frank got was an old phonenumber or an | | | | Finally, Frank felt ready to go public with his |
| abandoned address. Sometimes it was just a name | | | | disappearing plan. He penned an article about his idea |
| and a city, an exceptionally tough request, but one that | | | | on the web site - a site for living, banking and buying |
| he could almost do with his eyes closed. | | | | property offshore - spoke at some mystery writer's |
| To find someone, you had to fool people. Frank had an | | | | conferences, and launched a website offering his |
| instinctive talent for | | | | services. The emails came in almost immediately. |
| "gagging" - devising elaborate, phony stories designed | | | | Many were from window-shopping customers that |
| to elicit information out of individuals or companies that | | | | Frank calls "Dear Abbys." "They're fantasizing about |
| weren't supposed to give it to him. "Professional lying," | | | | disappearing," he explains. "They want to feel it out and |
| he dubbed it. For instance, he'd call a utilities company, | | | | see if it's possible. A lot go through all their problems |
| like Con Edison, and, posing as a collection agency, he'd | | | | and how life sucks. Then I won't hear from them ever |
| ask for his victim's forwarding address. Or he'd call a | | | | again." |
| relative, tell them he was FedEx trying to deliver a | | | | Some potential customers, naturally, turned out to be |
| package and extract the victim's address that way. | | | | criminals. One admitted that he was facing a charge of |
| Sometimes the work was mind-numbingly rote - toiling | | | | violating the federal Racketeer Influenced And Corrupt |
| through miles of data, scouring records, flipping through | | | | Organizations Act, or RICO, and needed an exit. |
| the White Pages. If the person who disappeared knew | | | | Dozens requested fake passports, how to change an |
| what he was doing, it made Frank's work even harder. | | | | identity or appropriate a dead cousin's Social Security |
| But Frank was first-rate. "Frank has helped me track | | | | number. Asked if he takes on criminal cases, he says |
| down hundreds of individuals,all of whom did not want | | | | categorically no, adding, "I don't like showering with |
| to be located," says Robert Jerlow, a private | | | | men." He got adulterers, too: a woman who wanted to |
| investigatorfrom Orange, California, who specializes in | | | | know how to rent an apartment without her husband |
| fraud and organized crime. "He finds my guys and gals | | | | knowing. Once a sixteen-year-old boy wrote: "I hate |
| hiding under rocks all over the world." | | | | my life, I have 27 bucks, can you help me get away?" |
| He was so damned good that clients occasionally | | | | Frank politely declined. "Your life will get better, I |
| wondered if he'd been a New York City detective - or | | | | promise," he wrote back. "It's only the beginning." |
| an FBI agent. Which made him chuckle a bit. Years | | | | Roughly one in 100 of the initial inquirers were truly |
| ago, he was accepted to the NYC police academy, | | | | serious. Frank called the serious ones "The |
| but, at the last minute, he decided not to go. | | | | Disappearers." He had three of them in his first year, |
| "I guess I didn't like the uniformity of that sort of thing," | | | | and six the second, and charged them as much as |
| he says. "And the money wasn't very good." | | | | $30,000 apiece, plus expenses, depending upon their |
| In the early 1990s, Frank was hired by a private | | | | situation. |
| investigator (who was working foran insurance | | | | Jennifer came along not long after Ken. She was a |
| company) to hunt down Robert Scarletta and his wife | | | | 40-something criminal defense attorney from New |
| who owned the national armored truck company | | | | England ("the lesbian," Frank calls her). For twenty |
| Revere Armored. As Frank remembers it, Scarletta | | | | years, she'd been arguing and winning cases. But then |
| and his wife went on the run after authorities started | | | | she lost a major one with her client getting hit with a |
| asking questions about missing millions. Before leaving, | | | | hefty sentence. The client, whom she called "the |
| they'd stuffed their private plane with cash, according | | | | asshole who couldn't take what was coming his way," |
| to Frank. By gagging small airports, Frank tracked that | | | | blamed her for losing, and threatened her. When |
| plane all over the country. He then lied to casinos to | | | | Jennifer contacted Frank, she was distraught. "I should |
| get win loss statements, which showed that Scarletta | | | | have stuck to [real estate] closings," she said to him. |
| was a heavy gambler, spending millions of dollars he | | | | Frank took her on. First he gave Jennifer the tools to |
| didn't have. And after four months orso of hunting, | | | | wage informational warfare, deviating and canceling |
| after compiling miles of incriminating data, the | | | | her accounts. Then, using an old friend's name and a |
| Scarlettas must havefelt the pressure of the situation | | | | ghost address on the West Coast (a Mail Box Etc |
| because, as Frank says, they finally negotiated their | | | | account), Jennifer set up a shelf corporation in a |
| surrender to authorities. | | | | midwestern state to spend her money and hold |
| Sometimes Frank's assignments were glitzy. When the | | | | assets. Known as corporate cloaking, she would use |
| Oscars statues were stolenin 2000, Frank hunted | | | | the corporation to pay for everything - from renting an |
| down one of the key players. He says he found | | | | apartment to opening a bank account, signing up for |
| Monica Lewinsky before anyone else. ("I got her phone | | | | cable and buying new shoes. As a consumer, Jennifer |
| record framed on my wall," he boasts.) Earlier this | | | | would be just as good as dead. |
| year, he was hired to locate the hotel clerk whom | | | | But unlike Ken, Jennifer did not want to flee the |
| Russell Crowe cracked over the head with a phone. | | | | country. She wanted to stay on the East Coast. Frank |
| That one was child's play says Frank. Heturned the | | | | recommended she move to a medium-sized city, one |
| guy up in fifteen minutes flat. | | | | that wouldbe big enough to get lost in. Jennifer did, and |
| Were all of Frank's techniques lawful? "A gray area," | | | | stopped working as an attorney. But there was a |
| he tells me, which is his coyway of confessing to the | | | | wrinkle. She didn't have Ken's financial resources, and |
| slipperiness of the job. He then cites the "Gram Leach | | | | needed to work again, which presented Frank with a |
| Biley Act," a federal law, which forbids people from | | | | new hurdle. When Jennifer got a job, she would be |
| lying about anything regarding afinancial institution. In | | | | required to pay taxes in the new state. That would |
| other words, Frank can't call up someone and pretend | | | | send her name and address to the IRS and make her |
| he's a bank. "I follow this strictly," he declares. | | | | vulnerable to dirty investigators. To keep off the radar, |
| Over the years Frank has worked for everyone - | | | | she could - illegally - pay taxes in the state where her |
| insurance companies, government agencies, private | | | | ghost address is located. Frank says he simply |
| eyes, attorneys, tabloids. He did thousands of cases. | | | | explained this to Jennifer, and doesn't know what she |
| Which, when he thought of it, meant that he also had | | | | decided to do. |
| thousands of enemies. He began to losesleep, worried | | | | Ada was next. A pretty grey-blond in her late twenties, |
| about hang-up phone calls he got and jumped when | | | | she had a psychopath ex-husband with an epic history |
| he heard noisesin the night. "Did the crazy biker who | | | | of drug and assault charges. Even though they were |
| got his MC repo'd figure out it was me?" he'dask | | | | divorced, the man still came around - and beat her. |
| himself. "Did the husband that got caught cheating | | | | She feared that one night her husband would kill her |
| know I was the one thatpulled his phone records? Did | | | | and her 5-year old son. She wanted to go, but she |
| we leave a trail?" | | | | also trembled at the thought of completely leaving her |
| He became fanatical about his privacy - still is today. | | | | life behind. |
| Phone directories have nolisting for him. He has a P.O. | | | | "She found the idea [of disappearing] extremely scary," |
| box, but no official home address. Almost everything is | | | | remembers Frank. "The idea of going someplace and |
| paid for in cash. His sleek black Cadillac? Registered to | | | | not knowing people and also the isolation from her |
| an old address. When he travels, he switches hotels | | | | family and missing holidays. She talked about scenarios |
| nightly - which is also a symptom of his interminable | | | | like missing weddings, and what if there is a death." |
| restlessness. Call one of the five world numbers listed | | | | Between Ada and her mother, she had $3,000. But |
| on his website and you go straight to a voice mail. | | | | after showing Frank police records, hospital pictures, |
| When I talked to him the first time, he said he had an | | | | and divorce and custody papers, he took on the case |
| office in Manhattan. Later, I learned he didn't. Some | | | | pro bono. Ada's bills were altered. But because of the |
| private dick's joke that Frank might not even exist. "I | | | | small budget, she couldn't fly anywhere to fake an |
| talk to guys a lot of guys on the phone, other PIs, and | | | | apartment search. Instead, for the misinformation |
| they're like | | | | stage, Frank had her mother make a phone call every |
| 'you've met this guy Frank, you know him?'" says Jerry | | | | Thursday night at around 6 to a random home in a |
| Palace, a former NYPD detective and now running his | | | | northern Plains state. For 10 minutes, the mother talked |
| own investigative outfit in Westchester. "Frankie Boy is | | | | with the same stranger about how weird it was that |
| a legend. And it's funny, I'm probably one of the only | | | | she got the wrong number again and how sorry she |
| freakin' guys who've met him." | | | | was about it. Later she joked with the stranger about |
| One sweaty morning in late June I meet him on a | | | | the repeat misdial, maybe mentioned the weather. This |
| grimy highway overpass innowhere, New Jersey, not | | | | act would help distract anyone looking for Ada. Finally, |
| far from the George Washington Bridge. We meet | | | | Frank set up a shelf corporation for the girl and linked it |
| there because it's an anonymous place, and Frank | | | | to a fake Mail Box Etc address. Frank told Ada to |
| appreciates anonymous places. Frank, 41, with his | | | | move and take a job that mostly paid cash. He told |
| brown heavy metal hair and sizeable frame, is | | | | herthat when her son enrolled in school to use a |
| sometimes mistaken forthe professional wrestler | | | | different last name. |
| Kevin Nash, who also played "The Russian" in the | | | | Like many of Frank's clients, Ada was conflicted, even |
| movie "The Punisher." Today, he sports faded jean | | | | melancholy when the process was finally over. She |
| shorts, leather boat shoes and an oversized white | | | | was free, but "she would never see her family again," |
| wife beater with a picture of Bob Marley. "I'm a huge | | | | Frank says. "And when her mother dies, she is going |
| Bob Marley fan," he hollers over ninety-mile per hour | | | | to have to make a very hard decision of whether or |
| traffic, as we walk towards his just-washedblack | | | | not to go back. If she goes back, it could be very bad." |
| Cadillac. "He was always singing about freedom." | | | | Not all of Frank's clients are as sympathetic as Ada. |
| When Frank talks - and he's always talking - his head | | | | From time to time, he hashelped people who probably |
| and arms move rapidly as ifto punctuate his points. | | | | didn't deserve it. He once disappeared a man who |
| "You can't keep me still," he says as he points the car | | | | was amid a divorce case, and wanted to hide money |
| south on the highway, his thumbs drumming the | | | | that could be taken in a settlement. Frank claims he |
| steering wheel to the radio. "I have to be constantly | | | | checked to see if the man had a criminal record of |
| going." | | | | any kind,including incidents of spousal abuse, but found |
| By the late 90's, Frank was making it big in the skip | | | | nothing. These are not the cases that make Frank the |
| tracing business. He says hewas raking in $40,000, | | | | proudest. But that doesn't mean he sweats the ethics |
| $50,000 a month, employed eight people, and owned a | | | | too much. "Nothing in life is black and white," he says. |
| speedboat, a zippy crotch rocket, and a 924 Porsche. | | | | "Starting over is having the ability to recognize that life |
| He ate at expensive restaurants and drank expensive | | | | is filled with grey." |
| wine. "A gluttonous time," he calls it. | | | | Recently, an evangelical Christian woman contacted |
| But trouble followed. In 2000, the IRS told Frank he | | | | Frank and told him that what he did "was horrible that |
| owed over $100,000 in back taxes, money he didn't | | | | everybody should face their problems and not hide," he |
| have. He claimed bankruptcy. He got divorced. In 2002, | | | | recalls. "She ran her whole Jesus Christ rant on me." |
| he shuttered the office and let his staff go. "There | | | | Frank was nonplussed. "I told her |
| was a lot gained and a lot was lost,"he recalls. At that | | | | Peter himself ran and denied who he was in the |
| time, he started missing life in New York City, after | | | | garden." |
| having moved away to a distant shady suburb of | | | | Frank says he's ready to pull off a disappearing act |
| New Jersey to be with his now ex-wife. He wrote | | | | himself. "We're leaving this place, just as soon as it |
| some poetry about his troubles. One night he ended up | | | | sells," he tells me as we drive to a pale yellow prefab |
| at a poetry slam in | | | | that Frank shares the house with his fiancée and |
| Greenwich Village, where he took the microphone. | | | | skip tracing partner, Eileen. Inside, it is sparkling, the |
| Everything concerning these tumultuous times poured | | | | wall-to-wall carpets just washed, but full of boxes with |
| out in one flowing, if not unusual, poetic song ("I do a lot | | | | very little on any of the white walls. The only room not |
| of weird stuff like that," he says about slamming that | | | | boxed up is the one-window office, where they |
| night. "It occupies me."). | | | | sometimes work. |
| It took him two years to get his life back on track and | | | | "We've been living like this, in boxes, for a little while |
| his business above water. | | | | now," Eileen says to me. She is pretty in a biker chick |
| Not long after, Frank met Ken. | | | | kind of way - tough, thin as a chopstick, white blond, |
| A few days after Ken's phone call, Frank met him | | | | with a bunch of tattoos, including a butterfly on her |
| again at Borders and laid out what needed to be done. | | | | chest, a large wizard on her back and a thorny vine |
| For starters, they would never meet again in person in | | | | that winds up one arm. "I'm not used to it. But it doesn't |
| the States. They'd speak only by telephone, and only | | | | bother Frank. That's the way he is. Always in motion." I |
| using prepaid phone cards bought with cash. Frank | | | | ask Frank where he's headed. Before he answers, he |
| ordered Ken to cancel all his credit cards and get rid | | | | takes a swig of black coffee, his fifth cup of the day. |
| of his cell phone, too. He instructed him to change the | | | | "Let's just say it's gonna be a nice place on the ocean |
| spelling of his name - not a total name change, just | | | | and not a trailer park." |
| add a few wrong letters here and there - on all his | | | | Frank never sees the people he disappears once their |
| utility bills and have everything forwarded to an | | | | gone. That's his policy. The less he knows the better. |
| address Frank had set up in Salt Lake City. A month | | | | Have any of them ever been caught? He doesn't |
| later, Kenmoved his mail from Salt Lake to Boise. A | | | | know. |
| month after that, he moved it to Los Angeles. He kept | | | | The fact is, he can help erase the things that identified |
| all his balances current and paid in full. | | | | a person, hide their tracks,and get them moved away |
| Next Frank sent Ken to middling town in Colorado, | | | | safely -- once they're gone it's another story. They're |
| where he had him apply for an apartment rental and | | | | on their own. |
| run a credit check. That would be one of the first of | | | | Staying disappeared isn't easy. Loneliness hits hard, |
| what Frank called Ken's "false leads." The credit check | | | | makes you start thinking about what you left behind - |
| would enter Ken's name in a national database, so if | | | | the old friends, the family, a meal at a particular |
| someone started looking for him, they'd see the | | | | restaurant, the friendly wave of a neighbor. As a |
| Colorado inquiry and head there. But they'd find nothing | | | | disappeared person, you are stripped of your history, |
| since Ken hadn't rented an apartment in that state, of | | | | even your personality. "Disappearing is a lifestyle," says |
| course. Frank also told Ken to deposit $300 in an ATM | | | | Frank. "Mr. Miami can't be Mr. Miami anymore. He's |
| account. Then Frank took Ken's ATM card and | | | | gotta be Mr. Des Moines." Sometimes there are |
| moved it around the globe - asking trusted colleagues | | | | failures. Frank cites the case of Sammy "The Bull" |
| to use it and take out money in places like Florida, | | | | Gravano, the Mafia turncoat who moved to Arizona |
| California and England. | | | | under the Federal Witness Relocation program, only to |
| Finally, Frank migrated Ken's money offshore (from | | | | chafe at the quiet life. He wrote an autobiography, |
| Canada) and created three International Business | | | | jetting around the world and signing autographs like a |
| Corporations, which could not be traced - not even by | | | | superstar, and eventually returned to crime. In 2000, he |
| policeor foreign governments. That's because Frank | | | | was arrested for distributing ecstasy pills and |
| smartly placed the money in countries that didn't | | | | sentenced to 15 years. |
| recognize the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty - | | | | "What I tell people in the end is 'this is it,'" Frank says. |
| meaning that the banks in these countries were the | | | | "Don't slack. The guy looking for you can make a |
| equivalent of Fort Knox. From then on, Ken would only | | | | million mistakes. If you make one mistake, it's over.'" |
| use the corporations to buy things. Frank had | | | | Of course, one of the difficulties with Frank's business |
| successfully ended Ken's life as a private individual; he | | | | is that it's impossible to get client testimonials. You don't |
| was now a phantom corporation. | | | | see Ada's face on a brochure saying, "Frank changed |
| A little more than three months after their first | | | | my life," and when I ask Frank if there's any way at all I |
| encounter in the bookstore, Ken was ready to be | | | | could reach out to any of his disappeared clients, he |
| disappeared. As his destination he'd picked a tropical | | | | just laughs. But I persist, and finally he tells me he'll try |
| island country, dreaming of lazy living and frozen | | | | to geta message out to one of them: Ken. |
| margaritas. But at Frank's instruction, he would travel a | | | | A few weeks later, Frank and I receive an email from |
| circuitous route. He took a plane to one country, before | | | | an anonymous overseas e-mail account. |
| buying a ticket there with cash and heading to a | | | | Sirs, |
| second country, where he met Frank and purchased a | | | | Frank has shown me freedom. Life is good at the |
| ticket to his final destination. To this day, Frank | | | | beach. |
| remembers Ken - still geeked out ina golf shirt and | | | | Signedunder the sun |
| khakis - beaming like the Cheshire cat as he entered a | | | | I do not, of course, have any way of knowing if the |
| cab for the airport and to his new home. A few | | | | email is phony or for real. But I like happy endings, so I |
| seconds later, he was gone. And Frank neversaw him | | | | hope it is from Ken. |