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The Man Who Disappears (GQ Magazine unedited version)

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



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