"John Doe" identified as Boston man

The man who adopted so many identities that federal agents couldn't figure out his real name for months and dubbed him "John Doe" has been positively identified as a former Air Force airman from Boston.

The man's parents recognized his photographs after they were contacted by the FBI. The FBI had posted his photos on the bureau's Web site.

Special Agent Joseph Velling, with the Social Service Administration's Office of Inspector General, today confirmed the identity of the man as Scott Andrew Shain, 52.

Agents had been awaiting information under that name from the national military personnel archives in St. Louis when the man's parents identified the photographs.

The man has been charged under the name "John Doe." 50s. He was arrested two weeks ago in Seattle following a five-month investigation. He is being held at the SeaTac Federal Detention Center on multiple charges of Social Security fraud, mail fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Velling said the man's parents said that Shain "fell off the face of the Earth" after he washed out of the Air Force flight school in the early 1980s.

"He is a very intelligent guy," Velling said. "He was in officer-candidate school. He was going to fly jets."

His parents told investigators they only heard about their son after he would get in trouble with the law.

Shain apparently has adopted the identities of at least five dead people and was in the process of gathering at least two other identities from dead men in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, Canada.

Agents say the case has proved unusual because there has been little evidence that he was trying to use the identities for the sort of profit common with most identity thieves: obtaining credit and buying items in the name of the assumed identity. He has been adopting a variety of assumed identities for nearly 20 years, the FBI has said.

Shain apparently had been living in a filthy, windowless office on Lower Queen Anne that he rented for $75 a month.

He has lived in Massachusetts, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Wyoming and Idaho and has criminal convictions — in a variety of names — in several of those states, Velling said.

One name he used is "Blake Matthew Desmond," who has an active warrant in King County for forgery issued in 1998.

And to complicate matters further, Velling said, it appears that Shain would sometimes adopt an identity and obtain Social Security cards and driver's licenses in that name, only to go to court and have that name legally changed. He's done that in Washington and Oregon, Velling said.

"Blake Desmond," for example, used to be "Bernard O'Daly" in Boston — Shain's hometown, Velling said. Shain apparently changed that name after moving West.

It's under the Desmond identity that he was caught in 1998 trying to alter his fingerprints while applying for a concealed-handgun permit in Seattle.

According to Velling and evidence presented in court, Shain first attempted to obliterate the prints by painting a substance over his fingertips. When that failed, he used some sort of acid to try to burn them off.

He was caught and charged in King County Superior Court with perjury and giving a false statement, according to Velling and court records.

In 1993, Shain — using another identity — was interviewed by the Secret Service after making threats against then-President Clinton, Velling said. Agents found and confiscated a homemade flamethrower, according to federal prosecutors.

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