Storme Aerison
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Storme Aerison is a con artist who gained notoriety in the 1990s for repeatedly impersonating a female high school student and later representing himself to be a supermodel. Aerison was born Charles Daughterty and grew up in Colorado Springs, Colorado (where he committed the majority of his fraudulent activities), and later had his named legally changed to Storme Aerison, the name of one of his female supermodel personas.
Aerison, a black man, was arrested in 1990 for enrolling at Coronado High School in Colorado Springs and representing himself to be a 17-year-old white female high school student. In his female persona, Aerison joined the school's all-female cheerleading squad, where he was made head of the squad; however, once arrested and his true identity exposed, Aerison was kicked out of the school and the cheerleading squad.
In 1994 Aerison once again adopted a fraudulent female persona, that of his current name, and posed as a supermodel in order to elicit credit card numbers and other financial income. Aerison claimed to be the sister of supermodel Kathy Ireland, and through extensive use of make-up and colored contact lenses, presented the appearance of a blonde woman with blue eyes. Aerison gained an entourage of photographers and other supporters who extended their professional services on a percentage basis in expectation of income from a calendar Aerison claimed to be producing, while foregoing any remuneration up front—evidence that Aerison's deception and manipulative skills, the stock in trade of con artists, were exceptional.
During that period however, Aerison obtained the credit card number and identifying information of a Colorado Springs hotel, and used that information to fraudulently charge hundreds of thousands of dollars of expenses used to perpetuate his deceptive persona. Even after being arrested for writing bad checks, Aerison managed to post $100,000 bail pending trial; however, even after his arrest and exposure, he violated the terms of the bail and flew to Tahiti and posed for a photo shoot on Bora Bora he had previously arranged.
[edit] External links
- An article in the (Colorado Springs) Gazette about Aerison
- TVGuide announcement of show about Aerison
- Denver Post archive of articles about Storme Aerison
