DRESSED in a bow tie and speaking with an upper-class English accent through an oxygen mask, Arthur Knight did not look like a likely candidate for a US fugitive.
But according to the FBI, he was actually suspected of serial rapist and con artist Nicholas Rossi, who faked his own death after fleeing the United States.
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He was taken to a Glasgow hospital in December 2021 while being treated on a ventilator for Covid – but Rossi insisted he was actually Arthur, an Irish academic who grew up an orphan.
And he went on several TV shows to protest his innocence after The Scottish Sun tracked him down and revealed his true identity.
This week he appeared in a US court to face the first of two rape trials, after being extradited from the UK in January.
Now, a four-part documentary reveals the extreme measures Rossi, 36, took to escape justice.
They include the removal of a large number of distinctive tattoos from his arms after they helped identify him at the hospital.
He also planned an elaborate memorial service for himself at his home in Providence, Rhode Island, after pretending to have died of cancer in 2020.
Rossi is believed to have lived under at least 16 different names, often posing as a Harvard University graduate or campaign whistleblower.
His first wife, Kathryn Heckendornclaims he repeatedly raped her, online encounter Michelle Minnar claims he forced her to have sex with him at his Essex home, and a university student tells how he forced himself on her in a quiet hallway.
Having met him on a dating site, Michelle He invited Rossi to his home in 2017, shortly after he fled the US, where the FBI wanted to talk to him about fraud and rape crimes.
Michellewho waived his right to anonymity, told Channel 4’s Imposter: The Man Who Came Back From The Dead: “He wanted money and lots of it – he threw my money away like water.
“I found him blocking the exit from the room. He just wouldn’t let me go. After ten minutes of saying no, I gave up.
“I thought if I just stood there and took it, maybe he would let me go.
“I’m lying there like a piece of meat. Repeatedly I told him no.
“I already felt mentally raped, so the physical part was just icing on the cake.”
Police were only able to track down Rossi around five years later, when he almost died from Covid.
The patient’s fingerprints matched Rossi’s.
Still claiming to be Arthur Knight, he then courted the media, hoping to convince the world that he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.
Investigative journalist Jane MacSorley was invited to a meal at his Glasgow home, spending four hours with him and his second wife Miranda, whom he married in February 2020.
Jane told The Sun: “He was charming. They prepared a chicken casserole for me and gave me champagne. What did they have to celebrate?
Before the meeting RossiJane was convinced he was not the Irishman Arthur claimed he was.
His mission was to study his arms which, according to American police files, were covered in distinctive tattoos.
Jane changed her mind when he rolled up his sleeve to reveal unpainted skin.
It became unpleasant
She says: “I was as close to him as my own arm and he had no makeup or scars.
“I thought it must be a case of mistaken identity.”
But after she continued to dig deeper into the case, Rossi became nasty.
Jane reveals: “I think he’s dangerous. I was scared of him. He tormented me with calls and texts. It was quite threatening.
This appears to be a pattern of behavior for the Jekyll and Hyde character, first attracting people with his behavior before becoming aggressive.
First wife Kathryn married Rossi in October 2015 after a whirlwind romance where she was impressed by his loving gestures and go-getter attitude.
He would rape me constantly. I always felt so dirty. I hated my life. I hated Nick
Kathryn Heckendorn
But everything changed after they walked down the hall.
She tells the documentary: “Now that we are married, he thinks he has me and can treat me however he wants.
“He took my phone and locked me in the bathroom. The longest time was two days, I didn’t eat anything.
“I had a black eye and a knife to my throat. He would rape me constantly.
“I always felt so dirty. I hated my life. I hated Nick.
After just 19 days of marriage, Rossi was arrested for domestic violence.
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Canadian entrepreneur Nafsika Antypas experienced this dramatic shift when she hired Rossi to build a digital presence for her vegan food company.
Claiming to be Harvard-educated, he “mentioned Gordon Ramsay a few times” as her previous employer, so she hired him.
But after paying Rossi £25,000, no work materialized and she stopped giving him money.
Rossi responded with threats to ruin Nafsika and her business.
In the US, alleged crimes were on the rise.
There were two charges of rape, one charge of fraudulently receiving £160,000 from his former foster parents, as well as allegations that he had broken into a woman’s home to demand sex and attacked other children while in care.
He has a previous conviction, for sexual assault Maria Grebinski when she was a 19-year-old student in Ohio in 2008.
After ten minutes of saying no, I gave up. I thought if I just stood there and took it, maybe he’d let me go
Michelle Minnar
Mary, who also waived her right to anonymity to highlight the danger Rossi poses, says: “He pinned me to the wall.
“He put his hand down my pants. He started touching himself.”
Rossi’s stepfather, David Rossi, an Engelbert Humperdinck impersonator, thinks he was “born bad.”
Rossi’s biological father Jack Alahverdiana drug addict who died in 2021, was a violent man who beat his wife and “even slit the throat of the family dog in front of his children,” according to David.
Jack and Rossi’s mother, Diana, divorced in 1990. Rossi was raised by his mother and stepfather, but showed early signs of violence and spent some time in care.
After arriving in the UK, Rossi, who often used the pseudonym Nicholas Alahverdian, seemed to think authorities would stop pursuing him if he convinced them he was dead.
‘Born bad’
Then he told former associates that he was in Russia and had terminal cancer.
Then, in February 2020, a woman with an English accent claiming to be his widow named Louise contacted a priest in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, to arrange a memorial service for Nicholas Alahverdian.
Father Bernard Healey says: “The arrangements were so grand you would think he was a cross between Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela.”
Louise said the dead man’s ashes would be scattered at sea.
The police, however, did not fall for his ploy and told the priest to cancel the funeral mass because Rossi was not dead.
They tracked him to Bristol, where he met and married his second wife, Miranda.
But the couple left before he could be captured.
The discovery came when he was hospitalized in Scotland in 2021.
And in January of this year, Sheriff Norman McFadyen agreed to extradite Rossi back to the US.
He described the fugitive as being “as dishonest and deceitful as he is evasive and manipulative.”
When Rossi appeared in court in Utah on Tuesday, he spoke with an English accent and used a wheelchair, although doctors in the United Kingdom found he can walk.
Rossi said he would defend himself because he “studied law at the University of Bristol”.
Fake your death
One mystery that journalist Jane was keen to unravel was the identity of the woman who claims to be his wife, Louise.
She located a recording of Louise and believes it to be the same voice as Miranda.
Jane, who created a podcast called I Am Not Nicholas, reveals: “I got a recording of his ex-wife, ‘Louise’, and showed it to Miranda. I asked if it was her, she didn’t say anything, she didn’t deny it.”
But in the Channel 4 documentary, Miranda, who is believed to still live in Scotland, denies helping her husband fake his death and has not been charged with any crime.
In many TV interviews, Miranda claimed that Rossi was her kind husband, Arthur.
Jane concludes: “I believe she is yet another victim of his serious coercive and controlling behavior.”
- Impostor: The Man Back from the Dead starts tonight on Channel 4 at 9pm.
Man behind the mask
By Gordon Tait
MY story about fugitive Rossi in January 2022 sparked a worldwide media circus – with tonight’s Channel 4 documentary the latest to uncover his lies.
But what’s most surprising about the mystery of the “man behind the mask” is that there actually was no mystery at all.
I tracked Rossi to a flat in the Woodlands area of Glasgow, and we captured a first glimpse of the man – which has since been broadcast around the world – huddled under a blanket as he was arrested.
Days later, I received a call from a breathless man with a bizarre English/Irish accent.
It was “Arthur”. He said he wanted to work with me to show that he was an innocent victim of a terrible mistake.
He showered me with compliments, but within minutes of our conversation, his story began to fall apart – he couldn’t explain how his tattoos and fingerprints matched Rossi’s.
He asked me, “Do you want to be called Gordon or Mr. Tait?” I told him I didn’t care, I only had one name.
There was no way I was going to dance to his tune or allow a suspected multiple rapist to listen sympathetically, so I started calling him Nick instead of Arthur.
He was not happy and his pleas for me to visit him were rejected. I then received a torrent of abusive emails and threats, which turned personal.
I met Rossi face to face for the first time at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in April 2022.
He came up to me in his wheelchair, held out his hand and tried to introduce himself. I refused and told him, “I don’t shake hands with sex offenders, Nick.”
This sparked a series of anger and insults. I’ve heard much worse, but the angry outburst – something he’s been accused of since he was 18 – showed what he was.
In early November 2022, after numerous delaying tactics, his identity was finally established with excellent collaboration between the US and Scottish police.
He was extradited at the end of last year and now faces trial in the US – but the fascination with him continues.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
