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