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Books and information about pathological liars / con-artists?

SmileyChewtrain — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 11:50:29 -0800

I'm looking for books, articles, movies or documentaries about con-artists / pathological liars. I'm doing research for a project on pathological liars / con artists like the young woman "Hope" who is profiled in the Deception episode of Radiolab, or the woman discussed in this thread.

I am looking for profiles or articles on con-artists (and the psychology thereof) who are more of a pathological liar type than professional short term scammer (card tricks, though I think that there is some overlap). These are the types of folks who tend to live their lives from false identity to false identity. It seems that they are in a different league than the "short con" folks, but I don't know if they are typically called something different.

I am looking for anything on the subject, either fiction or non-fiction.

As I type this, I'm noticing some new headlines on the "Rockefeller" kidnap case which seems to indicate he's one of these con-artist impostors as well.

Who's real, who's the copycat?

papakwanz — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 14:04:25 -0800

"No, I'm your husband." "No, shoot him! He's the imposter!" Where'd this come from? There's a guy and some sort of doppelganger fighting. Someone, the guy's wife, daughter, friend, partner, whatever, has to figure out which is which and take out the evil copycat.

I've seen this scene parodied a few times in cartoons, namely Family Guy and South Park.

The terrible Michael Bay film The Island played it straight and had a scene where [spoiler] Ewan McGregor the clone & his "sponsor" did this exact schtick, ending with the "real" one getting shot instead of the (good guy) clone. [/spoiler] I was surprised the film played this scene seriously, considering that its been parodied more than a few times.

My question is: where did this first appear? I'm assuming it was some sort of sci-fi movie or TV show that featured clones, or other-dimensional doppelgangers, or evil robots that look just like people, whatever. Anyone know what film/show was the first to do a clone vs. original climax scene?