May 11, 2026 · 1 hr 29 min · 22 segments
In 2009, an old man died in a California nursing home. His obituary included not just his given name, but a long list of the pseudonyms he’d been known to use. In this classic 2019 episode, we trace…
Shankar VedantamHost
Leslie JohnGuestStacya ShepardGuest
Steve WinickGuestSteve EnslenGuestKevin CoffeyGuestMarion KiminekGuest
It's 2018, and we're below the streets of Washington, D.C. I've come here in search of clues.
My guide through the Library of Congress's massive collection is a tall, shaggy man.
He looks a lot like Hagrid from Harry Potter, which seems about right for someone with the title of folklorist.
Steve has already led me through a maze of low-ceiling stacks, across a small bridge, and into a tiny elevator where the floor numbers go up as we move down.
And in here we find row upon row of collection boxes on the shelves, and I'm looking for this collection, which is numbered AFC 1979 008.
Nobody's really used this collection very much, so it's simply, you know, been there waiting for, for you, really.
[music playing] The author of this collection is Richard Riley Shepard, a small-time crook and con man who died in 2009.
My assumption is that there's nothing of significance in the box, but I'm about to discover that the story I thought I was reporting is not, in fact, the full story.
[music playing] The story that's about to unfold before me is a story of obsession, its power, its beauty, and its costs.
This week on Hidden Brain, we bring you a classic episode about the peculiar life of a man named Riley Shepard.
[typewriter tapping] Whether that project was a great quest or a great folly, that is for you to decide.
Dick Scott, Hickey Free, Grim Holly.
...
Dixie Long-
They all hated my guts.
[laughs] So I said, "Well, ma'am."
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It's 2018, and we're below the streets of Washington, D.C. I've come here in search of clues.
My guide through the Library of Congress's massive collection is a tall, shaggy man.
He looks a lot like Hagrid from Harry Potter, which seems about right for someone with the title of folklorist.
Steve has already led me through a maze of low-ceiling stacks, across a small bridge, and into a tiny elevator where the floor numbers go up as we move down.
And in here we find row upon row of collection boxes on the shelves, and I'm looking for this collection, which is numbered AFC 1979 008.
Nobody's really used this collection very much, so it's simply, you know, been there waiting for, for you, really.
[music playing] The author of this collection is Richard Riley Shepard, a small-time crook and con man who died in 2009.
My assumption is that there's nothing of significance in the box, but I'm about to discover that the story I thought I was reporting is not, in fact, the full story.
[music playing] The story that's about to unfold before me is a story of obsession, its power, its beauty, and its costs.
This week on Hidden Brain, we bring you a classic episode about the peculiar life of a man named Riley Shepard.
[typewriter tapping] Whether that project was a great quest or a great folly, that is for you to decide.
Dick Scott, Hickey Free, Grim Holly.
...
Dixie Long-
They all hated my guts.
[laughs] So I said, "Well, ma'am."