The Pretender

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[Music]

“There was nothing that was important to her as much as those kids.”

Those kids were her world. But the last time we got together, I noticed she wasn't the sister I knew. Me thought she was in danger. [Music] I knew she was.

It started on December 19, 2001. We got a report of a child in the bay. [Music] My name is Trish Miller and I'm the lead investigator. We did an overhead canvas of that area. We knocked on every door. [Music]

“Every child in the 2000 person town of Blahd Park was checked upon.”

No one was found missing. It was a complete mystery. We thought that maybe there was a car accident and that a vehicle had gone in the water. And we would find the rest of the family. A sheriff's office dive team was sent to investigate the waters where the body was found.

And they discovered a second child. This is a little girl and she was

way to down in the water with the rock. The feeling in town was of confusion, grief, and a fear. Nobody knew if a killer was living amongst them. Identifications were made. [Music] The boy was named Zachary Michael Longo. He was a few months shy of his fifth birthday.

The young girl was named Sadie Anne Longo. She was three and a half years old. About a week after the first body was found, the bodies of Mary Jane Longo and Madison Longo were found at the bottom of the bay. Once we found Mary Jane and Madison, we knew that our focal suspect was going to be Chris Longo, that whole family's dead.

And he's not going to be found. It was discovered that Christian Longo had caught a plane to Cancun, Mexico. My name is Michael Finkel. I was a writer for the New York Times magazine. I had a personal connection because I learned that while Christian Longo was in Mexico, he was pretending to be a writer for the New York Times. In fact, he was pretending to be me.

Thank you for seeing me miss so long. Come and Chris. So I mean, I followed your whole career. I guess I felt like I knew you. I wanted to tell you my side of this only you.

I knew you had to support it doesn't matter. Two always matters. It always seems to matter to you.

I just looked them straight in the eye and I said, you know, Chris, did you do what you're accused of doing? And he was as always completely unruffled. Never betrayed a moment of micro panic, nothing. And looked at me and said,

“I think you know, and just like give me a little wink.”

What was the first thought that went through your mind when you hear, there's a man who's about to stand trial from murder, who was impersonating you? I think it was complete confusion into sort of this disbelief, a wrinkle of like sort of creepiness, and also extraordinary curiosity. Like I would like to know more. Michael Finkel's curiosity had already taken him to the far corners of the globe.

His myself and a Korean climber and show you the fifth highest mountain in the world. Now it was about to take him into the heart of darkness.

Four years ago, Finkel was a prize-winning feature writer for The New York Times.

“This is from Afghanistan, because of strength. This is from my story on Haitian refugees.”

This was pretty heavy stuff. Absolutely. I was every story was extremely thrilling to me. He had a gorgeous home in Boseman, Montana, and a beautiful intelligent girlfriend, Jill Barker. We had this magnetic chemistry between us, though. It seemed like we should give this a chance. But Finkel's ambition had a darker saw. He had built his self-esteem around being Mike Finkel at the New York Times, and he was starting to get really intoxicated with all this attention.

It was hard to date him and pretty soon I realized that I had to walk away from this relationship. And in his drive to outdo his competition and himself, I wanted to write a really good story. Finkel fabricated a portion of a story on child slavery in West Africa.

“You lied? Yes. His bosses found out. I was caught for the deception and”

promptly fired. It was something I wish I could take back really badly. In an instant he lost the career he'd been building his entire adult life. He killed it all. He lied. That was the worst of your life. By far. Scorn by his colleagues, the shattered shell of Michael Finkel, retreated to Montana, awaiting the merciless media inquiries which were sure to come.

The first call came sooner than expected. I asked him, you know, you're calling about

the editor's note, right? But the reporter wasn't interested in Finkel's fall from grace. He's like, no, I'm calling about the murders. Astonished, Finkel learned about Christian Longo. A man now under arrest in Oregon for the murders of his wife and three children. This says to me, you don't know about Christian Longo? And that's the first time I've ever heard that name in my life. When he also learned that Longo had been posing as Michael Finkel

of the New York Times, his journalistic instincts went into overdrive. I was like, I'm gonna write him a brief letter. He had to find out exactly who had been playing him.

My basically said, I know that you're facing a trial and there's things you don't want to talk

about, but I'm really curious about why you chose to become me. Several weeks later, in the phone rang, I've ever collected a call from the Lincoln County jail. To admit, that's called, dial a five now. It seemed Longo was also curious. He agreed to meet Finkel in person. I didn't know what he was a murderer. He was accused of it. He wasn't convicted. After that meeting, the first letter, Longo wrote to me, "Wongo began sending a series of meticulously

handwritten letters." It's written in his jail cell and it goes on and on this letter. The two also scheduled weekly phone calls. Calls that Finkel recorded. Have you seen, like, some obvious paths that you could have taken that you missed. Oh, yeah, they have seen all the rafters. There's no

“why it happens, but he's only better way if we could have gone. I've had to put a key to everything.”

And so began a journey into the mind of an accused murderer, which would eventually become a book. It seemed obvious that this was a great story. Rather or not, it actually saw the light of Prince, it was a great story. For Mike Finkel and the Oregon investigators, the story centered around one baffling question. How could a seemingly devoted family man turn into a cold, blooded killer? That mystery began under this bridge. Here in the quiet coastal community,

where Chris Longo's wife and three children were last seen alive. It was a little boy. We weren't quite sure how old he was. He was, we assumed between three and six years old.

Detective Trish Miller called the call. When the first victim was found floating near the bridge,

he was perfectly groomed. He had a really good haircut. The Lincoln County Sheriff released this picture to the local news, helping to identify the dead boy. I thought, oh God, that can't be, you know, that can't be that great. Denise Thompson had baby sat Zachary Longo and his two little sisters, Sadie and Madison. She knew their father, Chris Longo, and the local Starbucks where they both worked. I thought, well, you know, this can't be happening. By the time Denise got to the

identified them both. Zachary and Sadie. You never want to be in a position to see a little

“child. Investigators have determined that these deaths are not accidental.”

As police hunted for Chris, his wife Mary Jane and their baby, we're actually trying to locate them. They may well be victims. Denise remembered a strange conversation she'd had with Longo. The very day Zach's body had been found. He made it a point to come up to me while I was working. And Sadie won't be seeing the rest of the family, my wife and I are getting into worse. Are you shocked? Oh yeah, that just surprised the heck out of me. I did not expect that.

Did they seem like a pretty happy couple? Oh yeah, you just, you know, look at us. We're perfect, you know. It's just like that. A surveillance tape taken just days before shows the Longo's shopping like any normal family. They had just recently moved into an upscale housing complex.

“He was real polite to everyone and seemed real smart and we were willing to just talk to you,”

you know, just he just, he was real normal. Eight days into the investigation, divers dredged up two suitcases from the harbor just outside the Longo's apartment.

Once a case contained the body of Mary Jane Longo, the second suitcase contained the body of

Madison Longo. It meant that somebody killed those two human beings and stuffed them in suitcases like garbage and put them in the water to hide their bodies. With all signs pointing in one direction, either he was dead in a victim or he was a suspect and chances were he was a suspect. The biggest manhunt in Lincoln County history was underway. The big question, where is Christian Longo? But Longo had a healthy head start.

One month before the murders, he'd casually written down the credit card number of a Starbucks customer. Now Longo was on the run. He was last seen in the San Francisco area and before police could catch up with him, he would leave the country and his old identity far behind to start a new life as Michael Finkel. [Music]

Wanted for killing his wife Mary Jane and their three children in December 2001. Christian Longo made the FBI's 10 most wanted list. Right alongside Osama bin Laden. We're looking for somebody who does not want to be found. It was an unlikely place for someone so apparently devoted to his family. The Longo's came from Ipsilani, Michigan, where Chris was raised in a stable middle-class home.

He and Mary Jane Baker were part of the same congregation. They married when Chris was only 19 and Mary Jane was 25. Her dress was beautiful and you could tell she was just happy. Mary Jane's sister, Penny Dubie, says Chris was a real-life prince charming. He made other wives jealous because Chris did all of those things that a husband is supposed to do.

By you roses, take you on trips. Most of all, Mary Jane wanted children so she was thrilled to become a full-time mom when Zachary, Sadie, and Madison came along. Hi, Mary. Hi. Each arrived little more than a year after the baby before.

“Look at the cute little family. What was Chris like as a father?”

I always thought he was a great father.

At age 22, Chris Longo took a job with a company that distributes the New York Times. He ran up Solani. Driven to succeed, he worked his way up to manager and eventually developed the fondness for reading the Times, especially articles written by a reporter named Mike Finkle. He was somewhat of a fan. Longo would later tell Finkle that he envied the writer's worldwide adventures. He told me that if he was a writer, he'd like to write the same sort of

up final touch, a cleaning company for contractors. I thought everything he was doing he was doing for his family, and he wanted good things for them. And Penny says the Longo's had a lot of good

things. I was wondering about the vacations that they took. They were always driving brand new cars.

Either somebody's helping them thinking Chris is parents or they are majorly in debt. Penny's suspicions were right. Chris Longo was in debt, although he bragged to Mary Jane

“and everyone else, that his business was booming. I think honestly and truly the most important”

thing to Chris was his image and money. But neither Mary Jane nor anyone else knew that to keep up appearances, Chris had turned to crime. He took a minivan for a test drive and never brought it back. Then he wrote himself nearly $30,000 worth of counterfeit checks from a client and got caught. There was no attempts to cover up anything in this particular investigation. Detective Fred Farkis of the Michigan State Police had the goods. We had seven counterfeit checks

which were each 14-year felonies. Longo confessed, presenting himself as a financially strapped family man. He just believed in his own mind that he'd talk or walk his way out

“of the charges. And in fact, he did get off easy with only probation and restitution. Mary Jane”

believed Chris's promises that his life of crime was over. But then she discovered a crime of the heart.

I've never heard my sister ever sound that, just her broken and awful. And she confided it to her

younger sister, Sally Clark. She had found an email between Chris and this other woman. He told her he didn't love her anymore and that he had stopped loving her when she started having children and that she wasn't any fun anymore and she's spending too much time and attention towards the kids instead of him. So she tries to make her self-look better, spoils him, draws him bubble baths. She didn't want her kids to grow up without their father.

She loved Chris so deeply that she wanted it to work out. Chris told Mary Jane he needed a fresh start. So in June 2001, just seven weeks after his fraud conviction, he packed up the family and skipped town. Their new home was a warehouse in Toledo, Ohio. Of course, this whole-time Chris is telling her that he's going to make things right, he's going to pay everyone. Two months later, with an arrest warrant out for Chris and

Michigan for violating his probation and new reports of stolen property at the Ohio warehouse,

“the Longos disappeared. Do you think he was keeping her away from her family?”

I do. Mary Jane's sisters went looking for her at the warehouse. It was awful and I just knew that something was wrong. It looked like someone was trying to get out of there in a hurry. Mary Jane's wedding dress was there. Things that I knew she wouldn't just leave behind. And when Mary Jane's cell phone was cut off, there was a feeling in the pit of my stomach

that never went away. I don't know what it was, just a feeling that we had defined her.

Desperate, they filed missing persons reports. They don't think people took us seriously. Then, in early November, high Saria waited so long to write, as I'm sure you guessed we moved. Sally got a card from Mary Jane. I still don't have an address or number. It was mailed from South Dakota. Love you guys, we'll keep in touch. Love Mary Jane. The police closed the missing persons case.

One month later, Mary Jane and her children would turn up dead in Oregon, where their cross country journey had ended. And Chris Longo was now long gone. Chris Longo's life on the run finally brought him here to Cancun, Mexico. While Mary Jane's family was still reeling from the shock of the murders, Chris Longo was partying in paradise.

Everyone seemed to like him or her. He had quite a few friends. He was out on a ball.

“While police were hunting him, Longo was beginning a new life. As the globe”

trotting journalist, he had always wanted to be. He said his name was Michael Finkel,

and that he worked for the New York Times travel section. Little did Longo know that the real Michael Finkel would soon find him. [Music] Suspected of killing his wife and three children in Oregon, Chris and Longo had made it to Mexico where he assumed the identity of a New York Times reporter.

He would soon come in contact with the real Mike Finkel. Longo considered himself a pretty good story teller, but he would tell his most twisted tale to a jury.

As a fugitive in Mexico, Chris Longo did more than just tell people he was reporter, Mike Finkel.

He was so good at it that he could speak about my stories, his stories. eloquently and convincingly. Longo, as Finkel, told tourists Tom Taff that he was actually on assignment. He was working on my ennesticism. So he was going to ruins throughout the area, which there's a lot of them down in that area of Mexico. He came up with actually not a bad topic. Like any professional print journalist, Longo needed a photographer.

Fortunately for him, amateur photographer, you need a fronka, was staying at the same cancun youth hostel.

“This is what you guys were hearing. What was he doing?”

It was reporter like taking notes all the time. That made it totally believable for me that he really was a writer who knew what he was doing. And soon there professional relationship grew into something more. And then it kind of took a little turn on the romantic side. Yeah. Tell me about that. Well, you know, we just got along very well. And you're traveling,

you meet someone, you know, you like and was it charming? Yeah, yeah. He did a better job being Mike Finkel than I do, being Mike Finkel. Following in the surf and sun, Longo was oblivious to the fact that the FBI tracing the purchases on the credit card number he'd stolen back in Oregon was about to crash his Mexican fiesta.

“A tour guide in the Cancun area had recognized Longo's face on this wanted poster.”

The fugitive enjoyed his last moments of freedom, smoking marijuana in this shaft. I saw cars pulling up lights and people storming into this cabania. When police raided this campsite, Christian Longo's new life came to an abrupt end. He was handcuffed, hauled off to be interrogated by the FBI. For Longo, the party was over. For everyone else who thought they knew him,

the task of untangling his web of lies had only just begun. The next day, I really started to hear to me what actually happened. And who I was with for ten nights, and then yeah, I started crying. After two and a half weeks in Mexico, Longo found himself on a plane back to Oregon.

He never spoke to Janina again. I've still a life good.

Instead, Longo would refocus his charm on what would become his next bizarre relationship. With the person he pretended to be. I had successfully bluffed my way through my first round of personal questioning as Michael Finkel. Journalist. The real Michael Finkel freshly fired for his fictitious feature in the New York Times magazine needed some way to crawl back from rock bottom.

At that time, I felt like he had nothing. He had nothing. He had nothing. He just lost everything. Jill Barker was Finkel's ex-girlfriend at the time. Mike was empty. He was a little lost. Mike was not sure who he was. And Chris came along. The timing was perfect. He just came along at the right time. And a real relationship developed.

He was the only friend or person in my life to whom I felt morally superior.

we have elected to seek the death penalty.

Longo decided to talk to only one journalist. The one no one else wanted to touch. During more than 50 conversations with Finkel, Longo promised the real story of the murders. He claimed to me that he had explanations for everything and then he told me, point blank, note, no ambiguity. I am not guilty. In his handwritten letters over the next year, Longo described himself as essentially a good man.

Struggling to live the American dream. He needed to prove that he could not only make it on his own,

but be a blazing success. But he so wanted to be a success so quickly that it blinded him to many things.

Longo claims the check forging was not an act of greed, but rather a noble attempt to keep his business afloat, all for the benefit of his beloved family. If there's one thing that Chris Longo is a master at, it is justification. As circumstances overwhelmed him, Longo says he fell into a vicious cycle of lying, living beyond his means, and then leaving town. It gets a job at a Starbucks. That's the best he can get. Making $7.40 an hour part time to support a family of five. That's hard.

Once again, Longo refused to face financial reality. This time he hustled his way into a witsy apartment. He simply could not afford.

“Moving to the $1200 month condo. Again, it's sort of that, how far in the future are you thinking here?”

But Longo was doing more than just spinning a tail for Finkle. He was also cleverly feeding the fallen journalists emotional needs. Longo was not only real letters to me, I wrote letters to him, and they were quite personal at times. One of the many things Finkle revealed was that his relationship with Jill was starting up again. But Jill, by the way, everything is going much better. It was actually giving you advice.

Oh, yes. Relationship advice. So he gave him good advice. I couldn't ask for better advice from a friend. In fact, a friend is exactly what Longo had become against his better judgment.

“Part of Finkle was hoping that Longo would not be found guilty. Why did you want him to be innocent?”

Simply put, he was, on some level, he was such a nice guy. And I know that seems so creepy and weird. But just as Longo's memoirs got to what Longo called the tragedy. Chris writes his letters up to literally the moments before the murders and then stops. Longo had yet to explain how his entire family had ended up dead. And with the trial, now looming, thinkled began to wonder if he'd been kind like everybody else.

If his story of his life could pass, muster with me. And I was grilling him on it all these aspects of it. And then it could pass, muster with a jury. And it dawned on me that I wasn't necessarily his friend or his confidant, but I was his dress rehearsal. History that doesn't suck is a legit, hard-hitting American history podcast told through entertaining stories. As we approach America's 250th anniversary, now might be the time to go back

and learn how we got here. With more than 200 episodes, you can binge your way, get gayed by decade, defining event to defining event from the founding end of the 20th century. Join me, Professor Greg Jackson, for History that doesn't suck, an Odyssey podcast, available on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. One year after his arrest, Christian Longo is about to stand trial for murdering his wife,

Mary Jane, and their three children. Mary Jane's sisters, Penny and Sally,

“vow to be in court every day. Did you have any doubts whatsoever that he was responsible?”

None. Reporter Michael Finkel will be there too, eager to hear Longo's theory of the crime.

Longo had tipped me off that there might be a surprise, the very first day of the trial.

Did you unlawfully, intentionally caused a death of Madison Longo?

Yes, I did. Longo leads guilty. Partly guilty. He admits killing his wife and their youngest child, Madison, but he maintains his innocence in the deaths of his older children, Zack and Sadie, confounding everyone who is following his case. Why would you admit to two murders

“and not four? And then of course, if you didn't kill Zachary and Sadie, then who did?”

For now, the defense leaves that a mystery. The prosecutors say the evidence is clear. Longo alone murdered all four victims and dumped their bodies in the water.

He didn't like being tied down with his wife and three kids. And the solution for him

was to just get rid of these three children and his wife and assume somebody else's identity. Organ District Attorney Josh Marquis followed the case closely. He says Longo is a sociopath who deserves the death penalty. He made a conscious choice to commit a cosmically evil act. A trial truck driver Dicco testifies that he met a man

“he believes was Longo on the Waltport Bridge late one night.”

The back end of his mini van was right in the middle of the bridge. Ho offered help, but was turned away. I pulled up alongside him, asked him if he was all right. And he said he's check engine lighted, came on, but it was off now. Jurors also hear about the diver's grim discoveries, and their shown graphic images. And Sadie said number five, you recognize this? Yes, that's not exactly accurate.

Thank you. The medical examiner says Mary Jane and Madison were strangled, but he can not determine how Zack and Sadie died. It was those photos, especially like the bruises that ...fingle is disgusted, both with Longo and his own bad judgment. There is no way that a person

“can do that without having an enormous amount of evil in them. Did you feel duped by him?”

Yes, Suckered in? Yes. Absolutely. A little bit of a fool. In his defense. Name is Christian Michael Longo. Longo takes the stand and tells the same

life story he will herst on thinkle. My parents never had any biases that were bad influence on my

brother right. It was a good environment to grow up in. His downward spiral is excuses for stealing and lying. If I wanted to be able to go on vacations, have nice cars, have nice decent clothes. Up until the trial, when Longo told his story, he stopped just short of revealing how and why his family was murdered. But now in court, he finally continues. Longo says late one night, feeling defeated over his desperate situation. He came home here. She was pricey apartment on the

Oregon coast. He sat his wife down, confessed all of his lies, and then he says, "The mild-mannered Mary Jane exploded." The next night, Longo claims he came home to find his older children missing. Madison seemingly lifeless, and Mary Jane irrational. She was literally on the floor, drove off into a ball, bouncing back and forth, hitting her back against the wall. Then Longo tells a stunned court, Mary Jane hinted that she had killed the children.

Just why he says he lost control. Grab her with all hands and continue to squeeze. And I didn't stop for a long time. I didn't stop until I couldn't hold her up anymore. Chillingly, Longo claims he was stuffing the bodies into suitcases, when he noticed Madison was still breathing. I put my hand under throat and squeezed. In cross-examination, Longo is, for once, briefly, at a loss for words.

And you don't call 911, and you don't call the fire department, and you don't do anything. You know, you're strangler.

her own family, lying in court, just blifely speaking, complete confidence in his voice. Everything was perfectly detailed. Penny says it is just one more betrayal of Mary Jane.

“That is probably the worst thing that Chris Howard could have said about her.”

The worst, because the one thing, that was the most important thing to her as being a good mom.

But Josh Markey believes Longo's performance has backfired. You think it hurt him? I think it hurt him horribly. It takes the jury little more than four hours to reach its decision. Guilty of the charge of aggravated murder, count two, guilty, guilty, guilty of the charge of aggravated murder. Chris Jim Longo is guilty of all four murders. Mary Jane's name is for once cleared as it should be. And the person that's accountable for

these horrible murders is finally being held accountable. Today Longo says the verdict didn't surprise him. What do you think your punishment should be? I think I should spend the rest of my life in prison at the very least. And at the very most? At the very most, Beth.

“But now he may be changing his story. So let me ask you directly. Did you kill Sadie and Zachary?”

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who will decide whether he gets life or death. Should the defendant receive a death sentence? Do those questions? The jury has answered yes. Yet even now, Longo cannot stay off the stage. I'm starting to feel a remorse and an empathy that I don't think I felt before. In a shocking moment, Longo hints that he may be changing his story and admitting to all of the murders.

I condemn my acts from what I did in the past and I no longer disassociate myself from those acts. It's something that I did solely. Then, months later, in conversations with Sally and letters to reporter Mike Finkel, Longo comes close to a full confession. He even gives them chilling details of how he murdered Sadie and Zachary.

He didn't just kill them, but he brutally killed them as kids suffer. But today, talking to 48 hours from Death Row, Longo, who is working on his appeal, reverts back to his old story. Did you kill Sadie and Zachary? That's something that I'm not going to discuss right now. I'm going to essentially stick with what was brought out in court because that is on the record.

“Do you think we'll ever have the truth of what happened?”

I think the jury in their verdict said what happened. Oregon District Attorney Josh Marquis.

Exactly how it happened. Well, we never know. No, we won't.

Because it's coming from the lips of a liar. This is a true story. Now, Hollywood's version of Finkel's book is about to be released. I believe we're dealing with an exceptionally dangerous man. You can't waste. I've so many stories to tell. And you chose his.

Actually, he picked me. Didn't pick you. He used you. The psychological thriller focuses on the reporter and the killer's game of cat in mouse. My whole reputation is on the line. Don't give up on me. Are you really going to be the man who might set him free? Chris, did you do what you're accusing him?

I wish that parts of the story weren't true. But the story of this odd friendship continues. It's much more casual than it ever has been, but he's not completely out of my life. And I doubt he ever will until the day he's put to death. What is left to learn from this man?

The biggest question of all, which is, you know, why would you do this? Why didn't you just leave? Leave your family?

That's the big question we'll never really know.

Oh, it's okay to see you again soon too. Back in Oregon, we brought Mary Jane's sister Penny to see lead detective Trish Miller.

And to see a plaque memorializing the lives that were lost.

“There's something about your sister that he would like people to know and remember about her.”

And the kids, there are four people that are gone.

That would have made the world a better place.

“In 2022, Oregon Governor Kate Brown commuted the sentences of all 17 people on Oregon's death row,”

including Christian Longa. Longa is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of

parole. Michael Finkel took Longa's advice and married his girlfriend, Jill. They now have three children.