5 | Confrontation

This episode contains accusations of domestic violence.

“You're listening to, "I am not Nicholas," an audible original.”

Episode 5, Confrontation. "What are you hiding from me?" "Give me your phone." Stop ignoring me! This is the voice of Nicholas Rossi,

and this is how he spoke to his then-wife, a woman he claimed to love. "No, stop it! No! No!"

"But it's deeply disturbing."

"What are you doing?" "This horrendous, violent verbal abuse." "I'm not going to help." "I'm trying to find evidence that will help me prove that Arthur Knight, a supposedly innocent Irish man living in Scotland,

is really an American fugitive and sex offender called Nicholas Rossi." "To do that, I'm digging into Nicholas Rossi's past again for more clues." "And I've tracked on his former wife, Katherine Hackendorn." "I met Nick back in the spring of 2015, and she gives me a vital bit of evidence.

She reveals why Arthur Knight doesn't have the same distinctive tattoos on his forearms as a fugitive, Nicholas Rossi." "When I met him in 2015, he did have tattoos. However, they were not complete tattoos. It was just kind of blotchiness.

He did tell me at the time he was in the process of getting them removed."

“"Now, you might remember that the U.S. authorities believe someone posing as Nicholas Rossi's”

so-called widow Louise, helped him fake his own death." "Widdle Louise, Fung journalist, urging them to write obituries, and she even tried to get a priest to organize a memorial service. So I just want to make clear, Katherine is not that person. As for widow Louise, I don't think Rossi was ever married to someone called Louise."

Katherine, however, she really was my Tinnitus Rossi. She divorced him years ago. "I had a local detective tell me that he does daily rounds on the house. But he's afraid the next time he doesn't round. I'll either be chained up in the basement or dead."

"And having spoken to her, I can totally understand why." "There was one time I remember I got a tear in my panty hose and he hit me for it." "And I'd say sometimes his words and his anger was worse than the physical." "There would be times where I would try and stand my ground and either try and get away or call for help."

“And even though he wasn't much bigger than me, I think it's just that male stature that he always overtook me.”

So I was never able to hold onto my phone to call for help, or I was never able to get proof of what he was doing to me,

to keep me in the house instead of running away, to safety he would lock me up. There were a few times where he would lock me in the bathroom. There's one time it was it seemed like days on end. I didn't have my phone. All I had was the running water.

And how long were you in there for a couple days? That was the longest. We'll on earth with going through your mind then. I think disbelief I was really in awe of what was going on. There were times I wasn't sure if I thought maybe he would just kill me with how angry and physical he got.

For a while I was afraid I would just be another statistic of murder. I was definitely afraid and he said it you know if you leave me I will kill myself. I cannot survive without you. But everything he did was for manipulation. I met Nick through church.

Latter Day Saints are also known at the Mormons.

“I met him at a singles ward which is just for those 30 and under who are single.”

Yes, our friendship started there. And after a couple months we were engaged and got married and from then on it got a little crazy.

Nick did seem at first like a little odd.

I couldn't quite put my finger on it. But he was very well spoken. He has a large vocabulary. He was very well put together then very much about his image and no looking nice. The bow tie, the suit, the nice collar.

How did he treat you? He was very sweet and courteous. I was very polite. He would just say the nicest, sweetest things. He would come home bearing flowers or gifts all the time. I was at a very vulnerable place in my life at the time.

And I was just looking for stability comfort. He seemed to be very eager to get married. And I was uneasy about it. It did seem odd to me. But again, I didn't think too much into it.

Because I didn't want to second guess these nice things that were coming my way.

We just got married at the courthouse, you know, just him and I. And we would more alone, you know, he didn't tell my parents we didn't tell anyone. I think that's exactly what he wanted. And you know, at that time, I bit my tongue, but yeah, I'm your typical girl. I wanted the nice white dress, the ceremony, my family to be there.

“And then what, you know, did you too, if you go off and have a lovely romantic time celebrating?”

So we just, we went back home and we continued with our lives. I started trying to be like a homemaker. And then on his end, he at the time was running a non-profit organization.

So he always seemed to keep himself busy with that.

And in between, you know, being at home after we were married, I noticed his temper was very short. He was no longer patient. And, you know, it did not take long for him to start getting physical and aggressive. And with that also verbal, I didn't talk to anyone. He had full control of who I talked to.

I wasn't allowed to associate or talk to people at church. He forbid it that I'd talk or have any communication with my sister. The only ally, Catherine felt she had, was a police officer who used to call Ryan regularly and talk to her through the window. The police officer had seen Nicholas's criminal record. He was one of the few people Catherine knew who wasn't fooled by Nicholas's devoted husband act.

So when Catherine accused Nicholas of domestic abuse, the police took it seriously and arrested him. Then the day after Nick was released, he called the police officer who befriended Catherine.

“To take the real con, all this is Nicholas, how are you?”

We can hear the call because Nick borrowed Catherine's phone to record it. I just wanted to talk to you a bit of man-to-man for a couple of minutes. The police officer doesn't know that Nick's recording him. The officer knows about the recording, and has given us his permission to play it. First Nick tries to make it that Catherine has told him she doesn't know anything about the allegations she has made up by him to the police.

You said that Catherine indicated that I called her the see-work. And she still telling me she did not say that. Okay. I'm just trying to figure out who to believe at this point. What else should I know about Catherine?

Like, you know, is this a consistent problem where she lies? It signs as if Nick's trying to convince the officer that maybe Catherine is a fantasist. Do you know anything about that sort of thing? I have no idea, I don't know. Okay.

That doesn't work, so then Nicholas tries to imply the police have fabricated evidence of his domestic violence.

There was no violence in my head, and I did not put my hands on her.

Okay. Do you think the agreement there now? No. Not at all.

“The officer has seen images of bruises on Catherine's wrists, but Nick protests his innocence.”

I'm just trying to figure out who to believe at this point. Okay. I'm not lying here. So. Okay.

According to the reports of domestic abuse, Nicholas is the aggressor.

But he tries to play the victim. Like, you're up in foster care, and I filed lawsuits because of that because I was seriously abused in the places that I went to where shut down by their own states. I've listened to the whole thing, and it signs to me as if Nicholas is trying to manipulate the officer into saying something he can use against Catherine or the police. I'm not saying you're imagining things. I'm just saying you quite possibly may have misheard what she said. He knows how to talk, and now looking back at it, you know, manipulate.

With my parents, Nick had them wrapped around his finger. However, there was a situation and I would get upset or stand up for myself. He would call my parents, and then I would seem like the crazy one. The very, you know, narcissistic type of behavior to make me look like the bad person. He'd put out such this great image that nobody could believe that he was the horrible abusive person that he is.

And I needed to change that.

And this is what prompted Catherine to secretly record the angry confrontation you heard earlier. I snuck into the bathroom around dinner time, got on my phone, and turned on the recording. Put it back in my pocket, and mock back out to the dinner table. And I tell you, Nick, just knew he knew what I did. I see your phone. I need to update something.

Because as soon as I came out of the bathroom, he asked for my phone. You know, what do you mean? No. Let me see your phone. No. Let me see your phone. Please.

“Why are you treating me this way? What are you hiding from me?”

If I handed that phone over, it would be bad news. Give me your phone. So I refuse to give it to him. Give me your phone. And one thing leads to another.

Also, when he yells, you feel like your soul is being sucked out of you with how much passion he puts into his anger. Stop! Ignore me! Stop! No! No! Stop!

It's sorry. It's okay, George. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!

So, at what point? And how long was it into the marriage? Did you think I have to leave this? So we were married in October of 2015.

“By Christmas, I felt I was going insane.”

I actually spent Christmas day in the hospital. I was admitted for just the psychotic break. I was very alone. And so I spent about a week in the hospital. And when I got out, I was kind of more in just survival mode and trying to figure out how do I get out.

I wasn't allowed to work. I didn't have a job that I had money that I could just leave. I no longer had, you know, my account that I could fall on. It took a little bit longer, a total of about seven months until that following May that I definitely put my foot down. I had enough, and I needed to act.

Those few months of marriage to him just had sucked the life out of me. I felt like I had no soul. I felt empty.

And one night, Nick was off, and I was home. And I was like, I need to pray. I need to find strength somewhere.

“So I said, God, if you have anything I need to know anything I need to do, let me know in a clear distinct manner that I may act upon it.”

And the first thing that just, it almost hit me like a brick, it said, get out, get out.

So I grabbed just my purse, my keys, I left my dogs who mean the world to me, I left everything. And left. He found out I was trying to leave him, so it kind of turned into like a car chase. And as I was driving to get away, I got in a car accident. I had run a red light trying to flee.

So yeah, I was a head-on collision in the middle of a busy intersection. Fortunately, no one did have to go to the hospital. It was very minor physical-wise, but there was some great damage to the cars. And it turned out even worse because come to find out the day before Nick had canceled my car insurance. After that, that's when my parents started fully realizing the situation I was.

And so I was able to move back in with my parents and just start all over, start fresh. I am so thankful that after time they came to realize and see the true ugly nature of Nick. Did he try and come after you still? He did try, so I did get a civil protection order. And that did absolutely nothing.

He would still contact me, show up randomly, wearing different disguises.

Cut, harassing me through emails, texts, calling, and during the divorce, he never showed up to any of the court proceedings.

And one of the last interactions I had with him was he was ordered to vacate our marital house so I could try and salvage whatever I could of mine. And as soon as I walk in, there's the gun laying on the sofa. He's not there, but just a gun. So he's letting me know, he's still around, he's still present. So that definitely added to paranoia and just constant fear.

And then you find out that Nick has died. I never believed it.

“As soon as I heard that, I not for a second did I believe it.”

I knew his ammo, I knew his scheme. And I knew this was a way for him to try and start fresh. With his, his death, it all was just very fishy. I'm not his last, this is all he knows of life. This is his way of life.

He will continue to just move on to the next person until he rings them dry and then just keep moving on. Catherine's accusations about Nicholas Rossi really shook me. They make me all the more determined to prove that Nicholas Rossi and Arthur Knight are really the same person. So the evidence we have is that Arthur and Nicholas both share this very distinctive tooth gap. And then we have evidence from his ex-wife Catherine Hackendorn.

That when she knew him, he was getting his tattoos removed from his forearms. So if Arthur is Nicholas, I convicted sex offender.

“How did he manage to leave Rhode Island and end up in Britain?”

So it looks as if Nick first claims the UK in June 2017.

My producer Helen and I have been doing our homework. We've put together a timeline of Nicholas Rossi's movements. We've spoken to a witness who met him in the UK in 2017. Rossi told that person that he'd flown to London that year.

There was an overnight stop-off in Dublin and then he came over to the UK.

But the person who he met in the UK is also told us that he was still using his real names. Nicholas Rossi and Nicholas on the video at that time when he arrived in the UK. It does actually completely tally with what detective Honour Donnell, you know from the Rhode Island say a police told us. Doing the timeline in our head, Nick left the United States in 2017. The obvious question really is, given that he was a registered sex offender.

“How did he fly into Ireland and then the UK so easily?”

No, absolutely, but he wasn't banned from international travel.

Which it's just like, how can that be?

But anyway, he got on that flight to London via Dublin using his real passport. Even though he was on the sex offender's registry. I mean, you would think that there'd be some international law that would be to stop him from being able to travel freely. No absolutely, so he arrived in Ireland due in 2017, he arrived in the UK due 5th. And then the following year, in 2018, New evidence made in the suspect in an historic, great allegation in Utah.

And then in January 2020, Nicholas Rossi announced this to the Rhode Island media. He's been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Unfortunately, I've been diagnosed with non-Hodgets of informa.

Unfortunately, this has come much too soon in my life. So Miranda and he married in February 2020. And then, that's exactly one week after him and Miranda married, the death of Nicholas Rossi, his an iced. Well, that is quite the timeline, isn't it really? When Arthur and Miranda married, it was in Bristol and that's where we strongly believe they remained living until May 2021.

That's when they moved to the Woodlands area of Glasgow to their flat. We don't know exactly how the police and the US trace in Scotland, but we've heard a rumor that he carried on using one of his old Nicholas Rossi internet storage accounts.

“And we think that's what led the police to find them.”

I think back over the four months I've been following this story, I can't believe how naive I was, abide Arthur. This man is not Nicholas Rossi. Arthur Knight is Arthur Knight. I think he's telling the truth and, you know, and he's a very nice man. Oh God, as I came across, I think as an ally at the outset. And I am embarrassed about that, because I was completely taken in by him.

I've completely hurtblind and sinker of fell for this whole charade of him being seriously, seriously ill. And I'm a man that looks very incapacitated in a wheelchair with a mask. You know, I've been a journalist the best part of three decades. And I was taken in by him at the very beginning.

“And I am deeply embarrassed when I think about that now. How I was.”

Anyway, I've come to my senses about Arthur. I no longer think he's Arthur Knight. I think he's Nicholas Rossi. And I no longer think he's a very nice man. I want to put all this to Arthur, so I've asked him to do another interview. And he's agreed. So we're on our way now in a taxi to Arthur Miranda's flat.

Are you feeling I actually feel really nervous? And I know his anger, I know how he'll react, because it's one difficult question after another, after another, after another. I can't wait to get his reactions to these. He's a dangerous sex offender, and I'm a bite to come from him. My producer Helen and I walk into Arthur and Miranda's apartment.

The living room is very small, so there was Arthur, Nicholas, who was in his wheelchair. There was Miranda, who was busy in a bite-to-place. There were two dogs running about going to wee bit mad. There was Helen, my producer, and then there was Craig Johnson, the attorney from Utah.

There was a massive sort of recording stroke mixing desk.

“It was right next to Arthur in front of his wheelchair.”

I check one, two, one, two, and so forth. Hello. Hello, here we go. I've been in this room two times before, and they were sort of very cordial drinking champagne, and having a cup of tea, but this was very different. I was very nervous. I get my laptop out. There's a list of questions for Arthur.

Helen and I have fact checked them and run them by our lawyer. So I take a deep breath and try and stick to the script.

I'm authorities in the US believe that online obituries and notices published around the time of the supposed death of Nicolas Alavarian,

also known as Nicolas Rossi in February 2020, where fake, and that you allegedly fake to your own death. What do you have to say to that? I'm not Nicolas. I was on my honeymoon at the time. We were on honeymoon. That doesn't prevent anything, of course. The online obituries and phone calls made by the mysterious Louise, to organize a memorial and newspaper tributes, could have been made while he was on honeymoon.

Arthur and I go right and circles for a few minutes, until even his lawyer Craig Johnson seems to lose patience with him. Arthur, yes or no, did you do this? No, absolutely not. Okay, well, my vote. It feels as if Arthur has no lost the part to manipulate the situation. The US authorities have told the BBC that your behavior as Arthur Knight is entirely consistent with Mr. Rossi's interactions with law enforcement in the United States, and that the consistency of your behavior reinforces the belief that you are, in fact, Mr. Rossi.

“What is your response to that? If I was the man, why would I be out on bail?”

If you were the man, why would you be out on bail? If I was a serial fraudster, and a user of women, why would you come to my end on your end? Okay, let's move on. You're talking to the wrong man? Well, there's one thing I think that I'm not talking to the wrong man, but we will get to that point. Did you or did you not as Nicholas Rossi have a restrain?

I'm not Nicholas Rossi. I dress me as Arthur Knight, or not at all, please. Okay. He just won't engage with most of the questions we've so carefully prepared. It's time to confront him with one simple piece of evidence. Do you have a gap between your upper two front teeth?

A gap, a diastema. Do you have a gap? A diastema. Okay, no, let me ask. A diastema.

Okay, I've never heard this word diastema before, but it's obviously just a fancy way of saying a tooth gap.

It felt like an attempt to distract me. Hang on a second. I want to ask the question. Do you know it's not over? This is my last question.

“Do you have a gap between your two upper front teeth?”

Take your mask off. I saw a gap between your two upper front teeth. I see a line reporter with a program. I get up a picture on my laptop of Nicholas Rossi with the telltale gap between his teeth. Can I just show a picture?

Can I just show you a picture? What do you see there? This is a picture of Nicholas Rossi with a very distinctive gap between his two upper front teeth. I saw a very distinctive gap between your two upper front teeth earlier on in the hotel. All this leads me to believe that I am looking into the eyes of a violent, manipulative man.

I also suspect that he doesn't need his oxygen mask. I spotted him on his press conference taking it off to make a phone call. And I'd say court one day, I'd seen it become detached from his oxygen tank, without any apparent impact on him. The mask, I suspect, is just a convenient way of hiding his distinctive tooth gap.

Take your mask off. Take your mask off so I can see it.

Take your mask off.

“So you deny you don't have a space between your two upper front teeth.”

My dad's the map is not as large as his eyes.

You have a gap between your two upper front teeth, but yet you won't take your mask off to show him to show your lawyer and to show the picture. You're seeing my face. Take your mask off. You see my face. Take your mask off.

You're seeing my face. Yes, I know. Yes, I know. In my own multiple times, you promised us respect dignity. You've set it.

You've lied to me, artists. You have lied to me. You have your dad. How can you deny you're not a man? I am not a man.

You are a man. You are a man. You sell my podcast. This is just like you. And he's got a very distinctive gap between your three.

I'm not a man. Take your mask off. I'm not a man.

“Well, why don't you take your mask off then?”

Because I need oxygen to be. No, why so you took your mask off when you're on the phone. Take your mask off, please. I did not take my mask off. I would like Craig to see the gap between your two upper front teeth.

So he can see himself. Please leave my hand. No. You're Nicholas Rossi. No, no.

You are Nicholas Alibarid and you're Nicholas Rossi. I have to admit that I did lose control a little.

And I have never, ever done that.

With an interviewie in my 30 plus years of working as a journalist. You do not want to take your mask off. And you're a game exorly without a program. I have our program. No, you don't.

Absolutely. I'd love to see. I'd love. I'd love to hear it when it comes. You will.

You will. You will. He asked me to leave. I wasn't leaving. Because I thought I know he's lying.

I know he's manipulating me. He wasn't answering the question. And I just thought if I stay on, he will answer it. You will. I sent you.

You know. We'll see. Take your mask off. I'm thinking I've really got to leave now because he's asked me to go. But then Arthur's lawyer comes to his defense.

Listen. Take your mask off. Say what? They were going to ask me a couple of questions. And then if they feel warm to be here, that's fine.

But if I can just at least do my part, please. Jane, I am very, very surprised. Jane, because you do not understand. I do understand. I do understand.

Anyway. You're not manipulating me anymore. You're absolutely not manipulating me any more. You're absolutely not manipulating me any more. And the other one, you want to make money over this story.

It's good money. That's not good money Arthur. You're living a lie. This is you. Yes, you.

So Miranda was right by his side. He was getting more and more agitated. But I felt that she was trying to come him dying and touching his arm and saying it's all right, honey or whatever it was, it was incredible really because there was no shadow of a diet that Arthur was necklace. She knew that he had a gap between his two from teeth.

It was just the weirdest situation looking at her. You know, I was thinking what is going through your head. You know, he's a sex offender. He's been accused of rape. You know, he's got a very violent temper.

What why are you doing this?

“I'm such a life-beating woman-beating woman-hating, she's a rob of a person. Why isn't my wife begging for help?”

Why maybe I should talk to Miranda? Yes, please do. Hey Miranda, what did you have to say? So from my point of view, Arthur is not a wife-beater at all.

He has never hurt me, never touched me. He doesn't abuse me.

I love him 100%. So if he was a wife-beater, if he hit women, deceived women, I don't know. All the things that you think this necklace Rossi has done. I've not seen it.

So I don't know what else to say. Any other questions? There's nothing that has made me feel that he is necklace Rossi at all. That's my answer. Miranda's defence of Arthur is so staunch.

It crosses my mind that maybe she is no jup. If she is knowingly helping necklace to maintain the facade that he is, some innocent Irishman, maybe she's even helped him fix his death. The priest in Rhode Island I'd spoken to said someone pretended to be necklace Rossi's widow,

had called him to arrange a memorial. The police in Rhode Island work convinced it was necklace using a voice changing up. But could it be Miranda? No, let me ask the question to Miranda. And he said that the name of the wife was Louise.

I know you're a middle name as Louise, but it just wouldn't happen to be new that was making those calls. That's laughable. In case you missed it, that was Miranda quite the same. No, that's laughable.

It's Bonnie and Clyde.

No, this is going nowhere.

You came into our lives. And you have alternated between calm and mad. And you've sat here and called me in a piece of woman. You sat here and called me names. But I'm not. You've heard my feelings.

Oh, very much. Several times, I keep giving that trust about you.

“I believe that you're not telling me the truth on multiple occasions.”

You're ashamed of me. Your shame to me.

The signs you can hear is my producer.

Hacking up our equipment. And as I trusted you, I invited you into my air. I need to bother about sabotage. I even bother. Would you just take a mask off and show me the gap between you?

And my producer, my colleague Helen, had been busy saying to me all along,

“Jane, we've got to go. We've got to wrap it up.”

Got to wrap it up.

You're already doing good.

I realized it was time to wrap up. It was time to go. He was in raged. And Miranda was trying to come and down. The lawyer was trying to come and down.

Then we left very quickly. Literally running out of his flat,

“and we couldn't get the main door open quick enough.”

I was shaking like a leaf. I later write to Nicholas Dr. Carthro, putting to him the accusations made by his ex-wife Catherine Hackendorn. Before I get a chance to send it, I receive a series of texts from Arthur,

and then one purporting to be from Miranda, saying that I've made Arthur so ill, he's had to go to hospital. I comfort myself that it is, I suspect, another room is by Arthur,

but I also feel guilty about the few moments where I lost control, and for upsetting Miranda. My feeling about her is that she's a good decent woman. What I am desperate to find out

there was how she got herself into this situation. Nicholas Dr. Carthro doesn't reply to my letter about the accusations his ex-wife made. I'm hoping I'll have more luck with Miranda. If you've been affected by domestic violence or sexual assault,

please visit the "I am not Nicholas Show" page on the audible website where you will find links to organizations offering advice and support.