I had written about this guy before here: Piano Man From my May 16, 2005 entry:
A campaign to identify a mysterious mute piano virtuoso who turned up in Kent more than a month ago is drawing a huge response.
Officials say the U.K.'s National Missing Persons Helpline has been inundated with calls about the mysterious man, after his photo was published in the British press.
Police discovered the man, soaking wet and dressed in an expensive black suit, walking aimlessly in southeastern Kent in early April. The slim, six-foot-tall man has short brown hair and is believed to be in his 20s or 30s. He was admitted to Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham.
Because he was unable to speak, staff gave him a pen and paper hoping that he would write his name or otherwise communicate with them.
Instead, he produced detailed drawings of a grand piano, including the interior. Staff then brought him to the hospital�s chapel, where a piano is located, and he proceeded to play for two hours. He also drew a Swedish flag; however, hospital staff believe him to be a British citizen.
In the weeks since, the man has remained mute and generally anxious, except when he is brought to the chapel piano, where he plays for hours on end.
Well, it turns out that he wasn't 'playing' he was hitting the same note over and over and over again. Every morning, the nurses would ask him if he was going to speak with them today and on the 19th, he replied: 'Yes, I think I will'. The Mirror has the story:
PIANO MAN SHAM
It was thought he was a musical genius who'd lost his mind, tried to kill himself and retreated into a world of silence.. but he's really a gay German who fooled docs and can barely play a note.
mysterious Piano Man has finally broken his silence after more than four months - and has been exposed as a fake.
What is more, the man thought to be a musical genius can hardly play a note on the piano, according to latest reports.
The stranger refused to utter a single word after being found in a soaking wet suit on a beach near Sheerness, Kent.
Now, it is claimed he has confessed to medical staff that he was a gay German.
He said he had been working in Paris but had lost his job. He added that his father owned a farm in Germany and he had two sisters.
He made his way to Britain on a Eurostar train and claimed he was trying to commit suicide when police picked him up on the beach in April.
He flew home to Germany on Saturday. Health chiefs, who have wasted tens of thousands of pounds on treatment, are considering suing him.
The man used to work with mentally ill patients and is thought to have copied some of their characteristics to fool psychiatric doctors about his own imagined illness.
An insider at The Little Brook Hospital in Dartford, Kent, claimed: "A nurse went into his room last Friday and said 'Are you going to speak to us today?' He simply answered, 'Yes, I think I will'.
"We were stunned. He has been with us for months and we have got nowhere with him. We thought he was going to be with us for ever."
The patient was nicknamed Piano Man after reports that he entertained hospital staff with his remarkable talent for classical recitals. When medics gave him a pen and paper, he drew detailed pictures of a grand piano.
Now it is claimed he could only tap one key continuously on the piano in the hospital chapel.
And he said he only drew a picture of a piano for therapists because that was the first thing that came into his head.
Not bad -- out of work? Fake a mental episode and get a couple months R&R without having to do anything. Three hots and a cot. And why weren't the father and two sisters putting out missing persons reports? It is one thing to distance yourself from your family but to be so removed that they don't wonder where you are after several months of not hearing from you? Especially since his picture was broadcast throughout Europe. Talk about putting the 'fun' into dysfunctional. Hat tip to robot wisdom weblog for the link.
