James Hogue

Template:Short description Template:For Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person James Arthur Hogue (born October 22, 1959) is an American impostor who most famously entered Princeton University by posing as a self-taught orphan.

Early life

Hogue was raised in a working-class family in Kansas City, Kansas, and graduated from Washington High School in 1977.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite news</ref>

Hogue attended the University of Texas at Austin in the 1980s, but left without a degree.<ref name=":2" /> He also attended community college.<ref name="runnersworld">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In the late 1970s, he was a student at the University of Wyoming before dropping out when he did not perform well on the cross country team.<ref name="runnersworld"/><ref name=":3">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=":4">Template:Cite news</ref>

Criminal career

In September 1985, Hogue, now 25 years old, stole the identity of a deceased infant and enrolled as a student at Palo Alto High School as Jay Mitchell Huntsman, a 16-year-old orphan from Nevada.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite magazine</ref> On October 7, 1985, Hogue entered the Stanford Invitational Cross Country Meet.<ref name=":0" /> Hogue ran far ahead of the field and won the race, but did not report to the officials' table, arousing suspicion.<ref name=":0" /> Due to his mysterious background and physical prowess, local sports reporters dubbed him the "Mystery Boy".<ref name=":3"/> Jason Cole, a reporter covering the event for the now-defunct Peninsula Times Tribune, uncovered Hogue's identity theft, and Hogue left town.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1987, Hogue applied to Princeton University, using the alias Alexi Indris-Santana, a self-taught orphan from Utah, where he was then living. Hogue's application materials claimed that he had lived outdoors in the Grand Canyon, raising sheep and reading philosophy books.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Princeton invited Hogue to attend in the fall of 1988, but he deferred admission for one year, telling Princeton his mother was dying.<ref name=":3" /> In reality, Hogue had pled guilty to possessing stolen bicycle equipment, and had been sentenced to five years in prison.<ref name=":4" />

Hogue served nine months before being paroled from Utah State Prison in March 1989.<ref name=":4" /> Having also received a financial aid award from Princeton, he immediately left for the college, in violation of the terms of his parole.<ref name=":2" /> For the next two years, he lived as Santana, was a member of the track team, and was admitted into the Ivy Club, one of Princeton's most exclusive eating clubs.<ref name=":0" />

His real identity was exposed when Renee Pacheco, a former classmate from his days as "Jay Huntsman" at Palo Alto High School, recognized him. She contacted reporter Jason Cole, who exposed Hogue a second time. On February 26, 1991, Hogue was arrested in class and charged with forgery, theft, and falsifying records.<ref name=":6">Template:Cite news</ref> In October 1992, Hogue pled guilty to third-degree theft for taking more than $22,000 in scholarship money and was sentenced to nine months in jail.<ref name=":6" /> Hogue served 134 days in jail.<ref name=":7">Template:Cite news</ref>

At some point in 1992, Hogue was briefly employed by the Harvard Mineralogical Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as a part-time cataloguer.<ref name=":7" /> At the time, Hogue was taking a course in mineralogy at the Harvard Extension School.<ref name=":7" /> In April 1993, the museum discovered that gems, mineral specimens, microscopes, and other items worth $50,000 had disappeared, and suspected Hogue as the result of a tip.<ref name=":7" />

On May 10, 1993, police arrested Hogue in Somerville, Massachusetts, and charged him with grand larceny.<ref name=":7" /> On May 26, 1993, Harvard police returned to Hogue's Somerville apartment and recovered $600 in electronic equipment reported stolen from a New Jersey electronics firm where Hogue worked in the summer of 1992.<ref name=":8">Template:Cite news</ref> In June 1993, Hogue was charged with two counts of larceny and one count of receiving stolen property by the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office.<ref name=":8" /> Hogue's theft was one of the largest in the history of the Harvard University Police Department.<ref name=":8" />

Hogue violated the conditions of his parole by returning to Princeton and hanging around the campus using the name Jim MacAuthor; he had not officially enrolled, but had attended social functions and eaten in the cafeteria. After a graduate student recognized him, he was arrested on February 19, 1996, and taken into custody by the Princeton Borough Police – who later released him on his own recognizance.<ref name="nytimes">Template:Cite news</ref> He was later incarcerated in the Mercer County Correctional Center on a conviction for defiant trespass.Template:Citation needed

Hogue was released from prison in 1997 and vanished from the public eye.Template:Citation needed Between 1997 and 2003, Hogue was arrested at least twice for theft.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite news</ref>

In January, 2005, police with a warrant searched Hogue's home in San Miguel County, Colorado, finding 7,000 items, worth over $100,000, stolen from nearby homes where Hogue had worked as a remodeller and repairman. The stolen goods "packed his house and a small secret compartment he'd built."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was apprehended in Tucson, Arizona, on February 4, 2006, by Deputy United States Marshal Richard J. Tracy Jr.<ref>Fugitive "Con Man" from Colorado Nabbed in Tucson, United States Marshals Service, February 4, 2006 Template:Webarchive</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and deputies from the Pima County, Arizona, Sheriff's department while Hogue was sitting in a Barnes & Noble cafe, surfing the internet.Template:Citation needed

On March 12, 2007, Hogue pled guilty to theft, in return for limiting his sentence and dropping additional charges.<ref>Template:Cite news This is the relevant quotation: “Hogue pleaded guilty to one count of felony theft of more than $15,000 by receiving. In exchange for the plea, other theft charges and a habitual criminal charge were dropped.”</ref> He was released on probation in 2012.Template:Citation needed

On November 3, 2016, Hogue was arrested in Aspen on a misdemeanor theft warrant from Boulder County, Colorado.<ref name=":5">Template:Cite news</ref> Aspen police discovered Hogue living in an illegally constructed, camouflaged shack on Aspen Mountain,<ref name=":1" /> and possibly in the midst of building a second illegal structure on the mountain.<ref name=":5" /> Hogue gave a false name when apprehended and may be charged with criminal impersonation.<ref name=":5" />

In popular media

In 1999, filmmaker Jesse Moss tracked Hogue down in Aspen, Colorado, to interview him for a documentary. Moss was a student at Palo Alto High School when Hogue enrolled as a student using a false name. The completed film, entitled Con Man, was released in 2003.<ref name=":3"/><ref name=":1"/>

Literature

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