Buzz
In fiction, it's a common trope for characters to lose their memory due to amnesia, leading them on a journey to uncover their past. While this is a frequent narrative in soap operas, real-life cases of amnesia are far less frequent and take on many different forms. However, when these cases do happen, they often lead to captivating stories—sometimes even hoaxes. We've previously covered the case of Benjaman Kyle, a man who was assaulted, lost his memory, and has yet to discover his true identity. But his case is not the only strange amnesia story out there.
10. Ansel Bourne
One of the most famous amnesia cases in pop culture is Jason Bourne, the character who must unravel his identity as a government assassin after losing his memory. It’s no surprise, then, that Jason Bourne was named after one of the earliest known cases of amnesia. Ansel Bourne, a preacher from Greene, Rhode Island, mysteriously withdrew his savings on January 17, 1887, and left for Norristown, Pennsylvania, where he assumed a new identity as Albert J. Brown, opening a variety store and beginning a completely different life.
On the morning of March 15, Bourne awoke with no memory of where he was. He was bewildered when the locals addressed him as Albert J. Brown. In his mind, it was still January 17, and he had no recollection of the two months that had passed in Norristown. After returning home, Bourne became the subject of study by the Society for Physical Research. During hypnosis, he adopted the identity of Albert J. Brown and shared a backstory that was eerily similar to his own, though he denied any knowledge of Ansel Bourne. This case is likely the first documented instance of a psychiatric disorder known as 'fugue state,' a dissociative form of amnesia where a person loses their sense of identity temporarily, only to have their memory suddenly return. After the hypnosis, Ansel Bourne lived the remainder of his life without incident and never reverted to the persona of Albert J. Brown.
Clive Wearing
In the film Memento, the protagonist suffers from anterograde amnesia following a severe brain injury. Although he still retains memories of his past, he is unable to form new ones. This condition is rare compared to retrograde amnesia, which involves forgetting past memories. Clive Wearing, a British musicologist, suffers from both types of amnesia simultaneously. On March 27, 1985, Wearing contracted herpesviral encephalitis, a rare form of the herpes simplex virus that damages the central nervous system. As a result, Wearing is unable to remember past events or store new memories.
The virus caused significant damage to Wearing's hippocampus, the region of the brain responsible for transferring memories from short-term to long-term storage. Consequently, his brain can only retain new memories for a few seconds before they fade away. Wearing is also unable to remember most aspects of his life prior to 1985. While he can recall that he had children from a previous marriage, he is unable to remember their names. Although Wearing still knows he loves his current wife, he often forgets that they are married. His procedural memory, however, remains intact, meaning that even though he has no recollection of his musical past, he is still able to play the piano. Despite the nightmare-like nature of his condition, Wearing has managed to navigate daily life under these challenging circumstances for the past 28 years.
Sywald Skeid
On November 28, 1999, a man in his mid-twenties walked into a hospital emergency room in Toronto, Canada. He was injured, with a broken nose, and seemed to have been the victim of an assault. He spoke with an unfamiliar accent and carried no identification, claiming to have no memory of his identity. Doctors diagnosed him with post-concussive global amnesia. His story gained media attention, and the press gave him the nickname 'Mr. Nobody.' After his release from the hospital, he spent a few weeks at a shelter before being taken in by a couple from Ontario. Over the years, he adopted various names but ultimately chose Sywald Skeid.
Skeid's photographs and fingerprints were circulated in an effort to uncover his true identity, but he refused any treatment for his amnesia. He relocated to Vancouver, where he consulted a lawyer to apply for Canadian citizenship and eventually married the lawyer's daughter. A tip suggested that Skeid might be a French model named Georges Lecuit, but it was later discovered that Lecuit's passport had been stolen in 1998. Skeid and his wife fled Canada and were later found in Portugal, where he was attempting to acquire Portuguese citizenship. In June 2007, Skeid shared his full story in an exclusive interview with GQ magazine. He revealed that he came from a poor Romanian peasant family, and his real name was Ciprian Skeid. Ultimately, Skeid admitted that he had faked his amnesia to escape his past and seek a new identity in another country.
Jody Roberts
In 1985, 26-year-old Jody Roberts was living in Tacoma, Washington, working as a reporter for the Tacoma News Tribune. That year, her friends and family began noticing troubling changes in her behavior—she stopped looking after herself and began drinking excessively. On May 20, Roberts disappeared, and her loved ones wouldn't hear from her again for 12 years. However, just five days later, Roberts was discovered wandering disoriented in a mall in Aurora, Colorado, more than 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) away. She had no identification but possessed a key to a Toyota, which was never found. She was taken to a hospital in Denver, where doctors diagnosed her with amnesia caused by a fugue state.
Unable to remember her true identity, Roberts started over after leaving the hospital. She chose the name Jane Dee, worked at a fast food restaurant, and attended the University of Denver. Later, she moved to Sitka, Alaska, where she married a commercial fisherman and had two sets of twin daughters while beginning a career as a web designer. In 1997, a colleague of Jane Dee from Alaska saw Roberts’ photograph on a Seattle newscast and recognized her. Roberts eventually reconnected with her family and friends in Tacoma, though she had no recollection of them. While it's believed that extreme stress might have triggered her fugue state, the mystery of how Roberts ended up in Colorado remains unsolved.
Raymond Robins
Raymond Robins was a prominent economist and labor advocate who worked closely with the White House on various issues, including prohibition and establishing diplomatic ties with Russia. On September 3, 1932, he had a scheduled meeting with President Herbert Hoover but never showed up. He was last seen leaving the City Club in Manhattan. His disappearance made national headlines, with speculation surrounding organized crime involvement. However, there were also reports of him behaving erratically while wandering the streets of Chicago. On November 18, he was found living under the alias Reynolds H. Rogers in Whittier, a small town in the North Carolina mountains.
Robins had apparently arrived in Whittier one week after his disappearance, claiming to be a miner from Kentucky. He lived in a boarding house, spent his time prospecting, and became well-known in the local community. Despite growing a beard, a 12-year-old boy recognized him from a photograph in the newspaper and alerted the authorities. Robins’ nephew came to Whittier to confirm his identity, but Robins did not recognize him and had no recollection of his former life. After being reunited with his wife and undergoing psychiatric treatment, Robins began to regain his memory. It was speculated that stress and emotional strain might have triggered his fugue state, causing him to adopt a new identity.
Barre Cox
In 1984, 31-year-old Wesley Barrett 'Barre' Cox had a wife and a six-month-old daughter and worked as a minister in San Antonio. On July 11, Cox, after a trip to Lubbock, called his wife to inform her that he would be driving to Abilene to visit friends. The next day, his car was found abandoned and ransacked on a rural road in Jones County, with his wallet’s contents scattered on the ground. Earlier that morning, Cox had been seen at a nearby convenience store buying two jugs of fuel, claiming his car had run out of gas. A policeman gave him a ride back to his vehicle. Cox was not seen again until 2000, when he was recognized as 'James Simmons,' a minister at a gay church in Dallas.
Cox asserted that he had been assaulted and discovered unconscious inside a car trunk at a Memphis junkyard. He was rushed to a hospital and remained in a coma for two weeks. Upon awakening, Cox had no recollection of his identity and was diagnosed with amnesia. After being discharged from the hospital, Cox rebuilt his life and eventually became a minister at a gay church. However, no police or hospital records could confirm Cox's account. A policeman who had given Cox a ride noticed a motorcycle in the trunk of the car, but this bike was missing when the car was found, and witnesses reported seeing a man matching Cox's description riding it later that day. This has led to suspicion that Barre Cox may have orchestrated his own disappearance to start over after realizing his sexual identity.
Michelle Philpots
In the movie 50 First Dates, Drew Barrymore portrays a woman who suffers a traumatic head injury in a car accident. This results in a rare type of anterograde amnesia, where her memory resets each time she sleeps. When she awakens, she forgets everything that happened the previous day and believes that it's still the day of her accident. Surprisingly, this scenario is based on a real-life case. In 1985, Michelle Philpots from England experienced a head injury in a motorcycle accident. Five years later, she suffered another serious head injury in a car crash. These injuries caused extensive damage to her brain, leading to seizures and a diagnosis of epilepsy. By 1994, Philpots had developed anterograde amnesia, losing the ability to form new memories.
For the past 20 years, Philpots has had her memory wiped clean every time she sleeps. Upon waking up, she believes that it is still 1994. Although Philpots had been in a long-term relationship with her husband before her amnesia, they only married in 1997. Consequently, her husband has to show her their wedding pictures each morning to remind her that they are married. During an appearance on The Today Show with Matt Lauer, Philpots even forgot his name during the interview. Despite undergoing an operation to remove some of the damaged brain cells and stop her seizures, it appears unlikely that her condition will improve or that her lost memories will return.
Agatha Christie
Arguably the most renowned mystery author in history, Agatha Christie found herself at the center of an enigmatic real-life mystery in 1926. On the evening of December 3, the 36-year-old writer mysteriously disappeared from her residence in Sunningdale, England. The following morning, her deserted car was discovered an hour's drive away in Newlands Corner, but Christie was nowhere to be found. The incident quickly became a media sensation, and rumors swirled that her husband, Archibald, had recently asked for a divorce, leading to speculation that he had killed her. However, on December 14, Christie was discovered alive and well at the Swan Hydropathic Hotel in Harrogate, where she had checked in under the alias Teresa Neele. She claimed to have no recollection of how she ended up there.
The mystery of what happened during the 11 days of Christie’s disappearance has remained a subject of much debate. At the time, some speculated that Christie may have orchestrated her own disappearance for attention or revenge, especially considering that Teresa Neele was the name of her husband's mistress. However, there is evidence suggesting that Christie may have entered a fugue state and truly lost her memory. A witness reported seeing her walking along the road on the morning of her disappearance. Despite the cold, she was only dressed in a thin gown, and appeared disoriented and upset. It’s believed that the emotional turmoil from her impending divorce and the recent death of her mother might have pushed Christie into a deep depression, with the crash of her car being the final trigger that led to her amnesia. Agatha Christie passed away in 1976, taking the full truth of her disappearance to her grave.
Anthelme Mangin
In an attempt to identify the man, his image was widely shared in the media. Over 300 families came forward, each claiming him as their missing relative. Yet, despite their efforts, Mangin failed to recognize any of them, and none could substantiate their claims. It wasn't until 1930 that a breakthrough occurred. A family from Saint-Maur, Indre, recognized him as Octave Monjoin, a waiter who had gone missing during World War I. Monjoin had been captured, wounded, and sent to a prisoner of war camp, where he spent over three years. When he was finally returned to France in early 1918, his records were lost, leading to his family never knowing he was back. It is speculated that his harrowing wartime experiences were the cause of his memory loss.
On February 4, 1918, a French soldier was found wandering at the Brotteaux train station in Lyon, France. He couldn't remember his name or how he arrived there, but he identified himself as Anthelme Mangin. His memory was a blank, and he was sent to an asylum, where he was shuffled between various institutions as attempts to uncover his identity continued.
1. Doug Bruce
On the morning of July 3, 2003, a man from Britain arrived at a police station in New York, claiming that he had no memory of who he was. Having just woken up on a subway train, he was confused and unable to recall how he ended up there. With no identification on him, he couldn’t even remember his own name. He was placed in a hospital for observation, and after some time, a phone number was found in his knapsack. The number led to a woman who confirmed the man's identity as Doug Bruce. Bruce, a British national, had once made millions as a banker in Paris before relocating to New York to study photography. Despite returning to his luxurious Manhattan loft, Bruce couldn’t recognize his home or recall any details about his life.
It is believed that Bruce was suffering from a rare form of retrograde amnesia, which prompted the making of a documentary titled Unknown White Male about his experience. The film, however, stirred controversy due to accusations that Bruce’s story might be an elaborate fabrication. Experts could not identify any specific trauma that could have caused his memory loss, and some speculated that his amnesia was a result of a hoax. This theory was fueled by the fact that a close friend of Bruce had recently suffered a similar episode of short-term amnesia after a head injury. Despite the questions surrounding his condition, Doug Bruce has yet to recover his memories, if indeed they were ever lost.
