How UK cops caught US fugitive Nicholas Rossi after he dodged capture by erasing tattoos, faking death & using false IDs
DRESSED in a bow tie and speaking in an upper-class English accent through an oxygen mask, Arthur Knight did not seem a likely candidate for a US fugitive.
But according to the FBI, he was actually suspected serial rapist and conman Nicholas Rossi, who had faked his own death after fleeing the States.
He was rumbled in a Glasgow hospital in December 2021 while being treated on a ventilator for Covid — but Rossi insisted he was really Arthur, an Irish academic who had grown up an orphan.
And he went on numerous 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 trials for rape after being extradited from the UK in January.
Now a four-part documentary reveals the extreme measures Rossi, 36, took to evade justice.
They include having a huge number of distinctive tattoos removed from his arms after they helped to identify him in hospital.
He also planned an elaborate memorial service for himself back 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 campaigning whistleblower.
His first wife, Kathryn Heckendorn, claims he raped her repeatedly, online date Michelle Minnaar alleges he made her have sex with him at her Essex home, and a college student tells how he forced himself on her in a quiet corridor.
Having met him on a dating site, Michelle invited Rossi to her home in 2017, shortly after he fled the US, where the FBI wanted to speak to him about fraud and rape offences.
Michelle, who has waived her right to anonymity, tells Channel 4’s Imposter: The Man Who Came Back From The Dead: “He wanted cash and lots of it — he splashed my cash like water.
“I found him blocking the way to the exit to the bedroom. He just wouldn’t let me go. After ten minutes saying no, I gave up.
“I thought if I just lay there and take it, maybe he will let me go.
“I am just laying there like a piece of meat. Repeatedly I told him no.
“I felt mentally raped already so the physical part was just the icing on the cake.”
Police only managed to track Rossi down some five years later when he nearly died from Covid.
The patient’s fingerprints matched wanted Rossi’s.
Still claiming to be Arthur Knight, he then went on to court the media, hoping to convince the world he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.
Investigative journalist Jane MacSorley was invited to his Glasgow home for a meal, spending four hours with him and second wife Miranda, who he married in February 2020.
Jane tells The Sun: “He was charming. They cooked me chicken casserole and gave me champagne. What did they have to celebrate?”
Prior to meeting Rossi, Jane was convinced that he was not the Irish man Arthur was claiming to be.
Her 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 ink-free skin.
Turned nasty
She says: “I was as close to him as I was to my own arm and he had no make-up and no scarring.
“I thought it must be a case of mistaken identity.”
But after she continued to delve further into the case, Rossi turned nasty.
Jane reveals: “I think he is dangerous. I was fearful of him. He plagued me with calls and text messages. It was quite menacing.”
This appears to be a pattern of behaviour for the Jekyll and Hyde character, first luring people in with his patter before later 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 that all changed after they had walked down the aisle.
She tells the documentary: “Now 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 have any food.
“I had a black eye, 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.
Canadian businesswoman Nafsika Antypas experienced that dramatic change when she hired Rossi to build a digital presence for her vegan food firm.
Claiming to be Harvard educated, he “mentioned Gordon Ramsay a couple of times” as a previous employer, so she took him on.
But after paying Rossi £25,000, no work materialised and she stopped giving him money.
Rossi responded with threats to ruin Nafsika and her business.
In the US, the alleged crimes were building up.
There were two charges of rape, a charge of fraudulently taking £160,000 from his former foster parents, plus accusations that he had broken into a woman’s home to demand sex and attacked other children when he had been in care.
He has one prior conviction, for sexually assaulting Mary 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 lay there and take it, maybe he will let me go
Michelle Minnaar
Mary, who also waived her right to anonymity in order 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 evil”.
Rossi’s biological father Jack Alahverdian, a drug addict who died in 2021, was a violent man who beat his wife and “even sliced the family dog’s throat in front of the children”, according to David.
Jack and Rossi’s mother Diana divorced in 1990. Rossi was raised by his mum and stepdad, but showed early signs of violence and spent time in care.
After coming to the UK, Rossi, who often used the alias Nicholas Alahverdian, seemed to think the authorities would stop pursuing him if he convinced them he was dead.
‘Born evil’
So he told former associates he was in Russia and had terminal cancer.
Then, in February 2020, a woman with an English accent claiming to be his widow called 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 grandiose you would think he was a cross between Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela.”
Louise said that the dead man’s ashes were to be scattered at sea.
The police did not fall for his ruse, however, and told the priest to cancel the funeral mass because Rossi was not dead.
They tracked him to Bristol, where he had met and married second wife Miranda.
But the couple left before he could be captured.
The breakthrough came when he was hospitalised in Scotland in 2021.
And in January 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 in an English accent and used a wheelchair, even though medics in the UK found he is able to walk.
Rossi said he would defend himself because he had “studied law at Bristol university”.
Fake his death
One mystery that journalist Jane was keen to unravel was the identity of the woman claiming to be his wife Louise.
She tracked down a tape recording of Louise and believes it is the same voice as Miranda’s.
Jane, who created a podcast called I Am Not Nicholas, reveals: “I got hold of a tape recording of his former wife ‘Louise’ and played 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 be living in Scotland, does deny helping her husband to fake his death and she has not been charged with any offence.
In many TV interviews, Miranda maintained that Rossi was her kindly husband Arthur.
Jane concludes: “I believe she is another victim of his serious coercive and controlling behaviour.”
- Imposter: The Man Who Came Back From The Dead begins tonight on Channel 4 at 9pm.
Man behind 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 unpick his lies.
But what is most amazing about the “man behind the mask” mystery is there was actually no mystery at all.
I tracked down Rossi to a flat in Glasgow’s Woodlands area and we captured a first glimpse of the man – that has since been aired worldwide – cowering under a blanket while being arrested.
Days later, I received a call from a wheezing man with a bizarre English/Irish accent.
It was “Arthur”. He said he wanted to work with me to show he was an innocent victim of a terrible wrong.
He lavished me with compliments, but within minutes of our conversation, his story began to fall apart – he could not 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 mind, I only had one name.
There was no way I was dancing to his tune, or allowing a suspected multiple rapist a sympathetic ear, so I started calling him Nick instead of Arthur.
He wasn’t happy and his pleas for me to visit him were rebuffed. I then received a torrent of abusive emails and threats, which got personal.
I met Rossi face to face for the first time at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in April 2022.
He drove up to me in his wheelchair, extended his hand and tried to introduce himself. I declined and told him: “I don’t shake hands with sex offenders, Nick.”
That prompted a slew of rage and insults. I’ve heard a lot worse, but the explosion of anger – something he has been accused of since he was 18 – showed what he was all about.
In early November 2022, after numerous delaying tactics, his identity was finally established with fine collaboration between US and Scottish police.
He was extradited late last year and now faces trial in the US – but the fascination with him continues.