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In 2002, former journalist for New York Times Magazine Mike Finkel was fired from his job after creating a fictional character for a story on child laborers in Africa.
Yet he wasn’t the only one who told a lie.
While at his home in Bozemen, Mont., Finkel received a telephone call from a man that had used Finkel’s name as an alias while on the run from murder charges in Mexico.
Finkel, who describes himself as a non-religious person, said he called it a “divine intervention.”
He told his story to a crowd of over 200 people in the University Administration Building Auditorium on Wednesday night.
The man who used Finkel’s name was Christian Longo, who is now an Oregon death row inmate.
Longo, who was in Mexico at the time, claimed to be Finkel and even hired a photographer.
The tale of Finkel’s twists and turns are the subject of his latest book “True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa.”
The book chronicles one man’s demise as another’s redemption.
“He was baby-faced, and not remotely scary looking,” Finkel said, referring to Longo.
When Finkel first met Longo, he was in isolation away from other prisoners and guards.
“I was talking with a man that in the warden’s eyes was not allowed to breath the same air as any other prisoner.”
During his encounter with Longo, Finkel was offered the scoop of the century.
Longo would talk with no other member of the media or even his own mother.
“Longo was a fan, he loved my style of writing,” Finkel said.
When Finkel returned to Oregon, the first of many 70-plus page, handwritten accounts of Longo’s life were in his mailbox.
“There was not a crossed out word in the whole draft, wonderfully mastered prose filled the pages front and back,” Finkel said.
The two kept up correspondence.
Finkel visited Longo 10 times and talked through prison phones for over 50 hours.
The two wrote over a thousand pages of correspondence to each other.
“We would joke that we don’t even talk with our mother this much,” Finkel said.
Finkel said he was intrigued by Longo’s life.
With his newfound need for fact-checking, Finkel called everyone mentioned in the stories.
“There was not a lie in the whole story, this whole situation started to feel very strange,” Finkel said.
The two would play games to try out with their counterpart.
Like quizzing each other on strange facts about Dr. Seuss.
“I knew that we each felt like we were smarter than the other,” Finkel said.
The two men became very close and Finkel said he felt like a lifeline for Longo.
“I looked forward to meeting him,” Finkel said.
When his trial finally came, Finkel became aware of what Longo was after.
He was using Finkel to fact check his own life story, so that in court he might gain sympathy from the jury and possibly gain his freedom.
Finkel said all that he could hope for in the end is that Longo would tell the truth of the murder.
In his letters, Longo had stopped his story right before the time of the murder.
During the trial, Longo said that his crazed wife needed to die.
“I hated him for lying,” Finkel said.
The jury found Longo guilty and sentenced him the death.
With his last letter Longo confessed to his crimes. Then Finkel ended their relationship and begin to write his book.
After the book was finished Finkel said he received interesting reviews.
“The New York Times hated my book,” Finkel said. “Longo did not like the tone.”
Finkel said he has plans on going back to journalism.
Today he is a freelance writer for National Geographic.
When asked if he would consider writing fiction, he joked that it had already been published.
“My fiction has already been published in the New York Times Magazine,” he said.
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