ok, so this from the washington post..... In January last year, a prosperous man with a posh English accent boarded a ferry in Calais, France, for the quick run across the channel to Dover. Immigration officials did a computer check on his passport and discovered something startling: The man's particulars matched those of an infant who had died in August 1963.

He was arrested in Dover on suspicion of false identity. From there his tale grew ever more intriguing: He had passed himself off as Lord Buckingham in British society for close to 20 years, marrying, fathering two children, writing notes on stationery bearing a family coat of arms.


The mystery man's passport bears the name of a baby who died in 1963. The man pleaded guilty to passport fraud.
The mystery man's passport bears the name of a baby who died in 1963. The man pleaded guilty to passport fraud. (Kent Police Via Associated Press)

Last October, he pleaded guilty to lying to obtain a passport under a false name. But if he is not Lord Buckingham, who is he? Held in British jail cells for close to a year, he has refused to say.

Now British authorities think they probably have the answer: He is Charlie Stopford, an American from Orlando. Stopford family members in Florida have come forward to say that Charlie disappeared 23 years ago, remembered for his large collection of Beatles records and ability to perfectly mimic British speech.

"I am 100 percent sure" of the identification, based on photographs of the man in prison, said a Stopford family member, who was interviewed by telephone from Florida on condition that he not be identified. There is so far no independent confirmation, but police in Kent, a county south of London where the man is being held, are in touch with the family in an effort to confirm the identity through DNA, fingerprints and military records.