32 aliases. Doctored fingerprints. Who is this guy?

For now, he's known to federal prosecutors as "John Doe," the man with too many names.

Beyond that, not much is known about the identity of the man the government has charged with seven felony counts, including mail fraud and aggravated identity theft, for allegedly using the Social Security numbers of a teenage boy and a man who died in 1977 to obtain fake identification.

The man in custody has used at least 32 identities since the 1980s, making it difficult for the FBI and prosecutors to determine his real name. In the early 1990s, he apparently once tried to burn his fingerprints off, which could make identifying him even harder. During a court appearance Thursday, he gave no clue to his real name.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Alice Theiler has ordered the man held at the SeaTac Detention Center while the FBI and Social Security investigators try to unravel the man's identity.

"We're getting it narrowed down," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Johanna Vanderlee. Canadian officials apparently want an answer to that question, as well.

The FBI learned of the man after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) asked them in October to inquire on a Seattle man named Dwayne Spill who was trying to obtain a copy of a British Columbia birth certificate. Vanderlee said he may have been trying to obtain similar identification documents in Saskatchewan as well.

Agents went to the man's Queen Anne apartment in November and interviewed "John Doe," who is described as balding, white, in his 40s or 50s, 5-feet-7 and about 170 pounds. In a search warrant executed on the apartment earlier this month, the man identified himself as Robert Lowe, wrote FBI Special Agent Steve Rausch.

A tag on his door said the apartment belonged to a "D.A. Spill" — nearly matching the name that the RCMP said was being sought for a birth certificate in British Columbia.

The man told agents he didn't know where the name came from, and then later suggested it might have been a former roommate he identified as William Gregg, according to documents. Rausch said no evidence could be found that a William Gregg ever existed.

Agents did find, however, that Doe — or Lowe — also had used the spelling "Loew." They also tracked down a request filed in the late 1990s for a duplicate Social Security card mailed in that name to the Queen Anne apartment.

Likewise, they found another identity — William Gee — using that address.

The agents obtained copies of Washington driver's licenses in all of those names — and all bore photos of the man they call John Doe, according to the complaint and other court documents.

According to the documents, the FBI learned that a man named William Gee, who had been issued a Social Security number found on the suspect, died of leukemia in 1977 at the age of 17 at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle. A man named Robert Loew died that same year in a traffic accident.

At Thursday's court hearing, Vanderlee presented documents that showed Doe twice submitted for fingerprinting in the early 1990s while applying for a concealed-weapons permit.

In one instance, she said, it appeared he had painted something on his fingers to obscure the ridges and whorls of his fingerprints. In the other, she said, "he showed up and his fingers were in a red, puffy, oozy condition."

Anyone with information about the man pictured can call the FBI at 206-622-0460.

Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or mcarter@seattletimes.com