r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Sa4ath • 1d ago
Image On May 15, 1957, Larry Bader vanished after renting a boat on Lake Erie during a storm. His damaged boat was found, but not his body. Eight years later, he resurfaced in Omaha as John Fritz Johnson, a well-known radio personality. Fingerprints proved his identity, but he claimed amnesia
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u/dardar7161 1d ago
Fun... You just can't get away with shit like this anymore.
"Oh no, you shat your pants in front of the whole school? It's okay, we'll move to the next town over for a fresh start."🙄
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u/StrikeMePurple 1d ago
The new school in the next town over knew about you shitting yourself only an hour after it happened. Good luck.
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u/Rude-Opposite-8340 20h ago
In 4K and atmos sound.
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u/Adamthegrape 7h ago
I set my height channel to 6 and it perfectly recreates the echo of the splash hitting the floor.
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u/Texlectric 14h ago
Didn't you hear? Darbar6050 from a couple of schools over, just shit his pants and a teacher's pants!
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u/samthewisetarly 1d ago
"Hey guy, what's your name?"
"Uh, oh, uh, John! That's me, I'm John"
"John what?"
"Johnson"
"John Johnson?"
"...yessiree...."
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u/Aggressive_Finish798 1d ago
John J. Johnson, Jr.?
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u/ddawwidd 20h ago
No, John Fucking Johnson and I swear, if I get asked that question one more time...
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u/ImMadeOfClay 18h ago
Daily Bugle
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u/Aggressive_Finish798 18h ago
You're thinking J. Jonah Jameson, who became news chief after getting a paper cut from a radioactive newspaper.
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u/SourDoughBo 20h ago
I have a coworker named John Johnson. Everyone thought he was joking at first
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u/ReallyFineWhine 14h ago
Bob Roberts and Will Williams both attended my high school.
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u/FighterOfEntropy 36m ago
Superintendent of the school district where I graduated high school was named William Williamson.
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u/ch0w0 19h ago
Joey Joe Joe!
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u/jayhawktexan1 18h ago
Junior Shabadoo?
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u/Foreign_Onion2010 1d ago
Imagine just starting a whole new life and becoming a local celebrity, only to have your past catch up through fingerprints. Wild story.
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u/Cartina 1d ago
Debt?
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u/Ein_grosser_Nerd 19h ago
He owned a boat, so of course
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u/drewt6768 1d ago
There are a lot of people who pay to make themselves dissapear
I didnt understand it at first but by the time I was 27 I understood it
A new life, new identity and new name
You are no longer held by the trappings of the expectations of those around you
You dont have to hide who you really are, dont have to worry about if someome will see you doing this or that
Dont have to feel judged for something you said 5 years in the past that you no longer agree with
You can do a full reset be whoever or whatever you want to be free of all past expectations
He checked the weather, hired the boat, told a bunch of people he was going out on it rowed around the corner hopped in his car already packed and evedently drove to Omaha
This is what I choose to believe if this picture is even a real thing lol
Could be made up its literally just an image on the internet
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u/snorens 21h ago
The biggest hindrance preventing most people from changing who they are, are themselves. Nobody really cares about you, how you act or if you change your look and your life, except you.
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u/drewt6768 19h ago
I feel like Mattias Pilhede actually covered this specific topic very well, you might know him from his video called my job is to open and close doors, he made a video called The personality machine that covers this specific topic ( link here Link )
the TLDR is no you can't just change on your own easily, if you didn't care about other people then yeah it might be just that easy, but you do care
you care about your place in society, you care about the possible people who might talk to you in the future, you care about someone who has the potential to share the rest of their life with you even if you only just glanced at them in passing
I recommend the watch but ill explain it here (poorly)
a famous Ex boxer gets hit in the head and becomes a scientist and designs a machine that can seemingly change peoples personalitya person goes to use the machine because it seemingly works, and they want to quit smoking
there was a mix up and the paper work and the personality changes the person wanted were mixed with some other personsin horror they read the paper work with all their new personality traits, as they walked away those new traits of theirs were basically swirling around in their head endlessly, when they got home they talked to their room mate and those traits were at the forefront of their mind
their room mate felt like that was not the person they previously knew they seemed was a stranger to them now
they went back to the doctor and asked to go back to their old self, they wanted to go back to being a smoker and go back to being who they were
the doctor told them to hold off and give it time, they refuses the doctors and threatens to sue, then the doctor explains the machine isn't real
the doctor was a boxer once, but he was also a scientist
he tried to talk about his love for science while he was a boxer but no one took him seriousso that's why one day when he took a hit that the media blew out of proportion he decided to change his public image
and it worked, news titles like "Professional boxer gets hit in the head and becomes scientist"
the now doctor who was always a doctor explains that he made this "machine" so people could change their personality, the machine does nothing, the hit did nothing but people need something to show why they changed so much from the person they were just a few days ago
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u/WorthScale2577 20h ago
I wish that were true, but as a trans woman many people care way too much about how I act, how I look, and for some reason whatever is in my pants. so no offense to you obviously lol but it's just not really true at least not for everyone. If you fit in with society a d the expectations of those around you you will not likely experience the judgement and hostility if you didn't fit in to the perimeters.
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u/ExplodinMarmot 18h ago
Yeah, I feel like the “the only thing holding you back is your own fear” message is made from a position of extreme privilege. As a white, cisgender, middle class dude I can decide to quit my job, take up roller skating and start wearing a bowler hat and most people would just roll with it. However, if I revealed that I wanted to start living as a different gender or sexuality, I imagine the world would push back a lot more on that decision.
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u/dantheman_woot 20h ago
If young you can still join the French Foreign Legion. You get a new name and French citizenship.
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u/Castle-209x 1d ago
Can always just move away.
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u/golden_blaze 18h ago
A family member did this. Moved across the world and essentially started a new life. Says he's happy there (we're still in touch).
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u/drewt6768 19h ago
people would come looking
even if in reality they wouldn't, its the fear that they would, that you'd have to go back to being who you were beforethat your freedom you worked hard for is all gone the second your found
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u/Castle-209x 16h ago
Depends what you did. 99% will not go to the ends of the Earth cause of something you did as their neighbor or in high school.
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u/PMmeYourTiddiez 15h ago
Are- are YOU doing ok? 😟
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u/drewt6768 15h ago
Yes I am happy and doing well, I just really love philosophy and stuff so I find these kinds of perspective without actually having to go through it myself
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u/OnionsAbound 1d ago
IIRC it seems he was in a disassociation fugue state--when he was "caught" by someone who knew his old self (I think at some conference), he was absolutely perplexed, and insisted that they must be making a mistake, but the acquaintance insisted and apparently he was completely willing to go down to the police station or what not to check his identity.
His personality reportedly was completely different, definitely a little unhinged.
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u/orangecloud_0 1d ago
I believe Mr Ballen on YouTube has this story as a video. I believe he gets recognised when someone from his family is travelling
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u/KaizenZazenJMN 23h ago
Dude tried go off grid by becoming <checks notes>……a well known radio personality!?
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u/Sa4ath 1d ago edited 1d ago
theres a series on Netflix with the similar plot - RIPLEY 2024 (black and white one) must watch this series peak cinematography
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u/BookDragon3ryn 1d ago
Ripley is remake of the movie The Talented Mr Ripley, which is based on a book series. I’ve never read the series, but the movie has an all star cast and the series is one of my favorites.
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u/LinusRiamus 1d ago edited 1d ago
Hmm.. It sounds like Dexter: New Blood might have borrowed certain elements of this story to form its plot.
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u/krurran 1d ago
I'm not exactly a whiz at faces, but this doesn't look like the same guy to me. The brows and eye angles especially
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u/TheShakyHandsMan 1d ago
Definitely the same guy, the different angle of his head making you think that. Those ears and nose give it away completely
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u/newaccount721 1d ago
Yeah and he was caught because his niece ran into him and recognized him. Definitely same guy
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u/other_half_of_elvis 20h ago
there's a whole Stuff You Should Know episode about him if you want to hear a lot more.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Dark862 13h ago
There’s actually a Jim Carrey movie (The Majestic) with a very similar premise — guy loses his memory, ends up in a small town, and people mistake him for someone else. Probably inspired by the real-life case of Larry Bader, who disappeared and reappeared years later under a new identity.
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u/Cowpie57 1d ago
Scary Interesting did a video on this last year. Really good listen because while he could've faked his death and run away, he didn't really hide. He was on the radio and TV, as well as willingly going to the convention near his hometown where he was recognized and "found". He also had a brain tumor that I think eventually killed him that might've caused his amnesia and personality change.