William Woods Told the Truth About His Identity. They Jailed Him and Put Him in a Psych Ward.

[0:04] He's 51 years old his clothes are worn he hasn't had a permanent address in. [0:10] Years but today he's here doing something simple clothes accounts that someone has opened in his name, according to court documents william woods handed the bank employee his social security card His California ID, both authentic, both clearly his. The information matched what the bank had on file. So far, so good, but... Then the employee asked him a series of security questions. William Woods couldn't answer them because someone else, someone 1,600 miles away in Wisconsin, had set those security questions. Someone who'd been living as William Woods for 31 years. The bank employee picked up the phone and he called the number on the account, as you would expect him to. And the man who answered? According to the Department of Justice, he answered those security questions correctly. And then he told the bank employee that no one in California should have access to his accounts. And then he faxed the Los Angeles Police Department a series of documents proving he was William Woods. [1:36] The LAPD arrested William Woods on the spot and they charged him with identity theft for trying to prove he was himself. [1:54] What happens when telling the truth becomes evidence of insanity when the more you insist on who you really are the more the system punishes you for it. I'm Steve Rode. I've spent decades investigating fraud, and I've never seen a system turn reality upside down. This is the story of a man who had his identity stolen, not just once, not just for a few months, for 35 years. And when he finally tried to reclaim it, he was jailed. He was committed to a mental hospital, and he was forcibly medicated. All for telling the truth. I know, it sounds crazy, but it's true. [2:54] If you're already hooked, please take a second to follow or subscribe to the show. It helps more than you know. And if this case makes you think about how we verify identity in our own lives, you're not alone. Let's get into it. Before we go any further, this story comes directly from federal court documents, a guilty plea agreement, Department of Justice press releases, FBI records, and verified reporting from the Associated Press, the Washington Post, the Cedar Rapids Gazette, and the University of Iowa. The defendant has pleaded guilty and has been sentenced, though an appeal is currently pending in the Eighth Circuit. Look, I don't deal in rumors. I don't deal in speculation. And when I tell you something happened in this episode, it's because it's in the federal record. Now, let me tell you what that record actually revealed. 1988, Albuquerque, New Mexico. The high desert sun beats down on Central Avenue. It's the kind of heat that shimmers off the asphalt that makes you squint even in the shade. [4:20] Tom Woods is working the grill. According to later court documents, he was born in Kentucky in 1968. By 1988, he'd made his way west, drifting through the kind of jobs that don't require a resume. Day labor, kitchen work, and now this, a hot dog cart in the desert. [4:46] Hey it wasn't much but it was his his wallet sat in his back pocket and inside his social security card his birth certificate the paper documentation of a life, william donald woods born may 1968 son of a man back in kentucky who'd given him his name, Woods would work at that hot dog cart for years, and his boss, the owner of the cart, would become one of the few constants in his life. And remember that because it becomes important later. One day, a new guy showed up to work at the cart. His name was Matthew David Cairns. And according to court documents, Cairns had a troubled past. He'd been adopted as a child, and sometime around age 16 or 17, he ran away from his adoptive parents in California. He never graduated high school. He never looked back. [6:04] By 1988, he was 22 years old, and authorities have no record of him using his real name, his real social security number, or even his real date of birth after that year. He was, in every meaningful sense, erasing himself. And he needed a new identity to step into. According to court documents, Woods and Cairns rarely interacted at the hot dog cart. Sure, they worked together, but they weren't friends. They were just two guys trying to make a living in the desert heat. And then one day, William Woods' wallet went missing. According to court filings, Woods suspected Cairns immediately. He confronted him. He accused him of taking it. He even threatened to punch him. Cairns gave it back. He had it. Woods checked inside. Everything was there. His social security card, his birth certificate, all seemingly untouched. [7:19] But what William Woods didn't know, what he couldn't have known, was that Matthew Cairns had already copied every piece of information in that wallet. And according to prosecutors, Cairns had memorized the numbers, the dates, and the names. Everything he would need to become someone else. William Woods thought he'd gotten his wallet back. He had no idea he had just lost his entire life. [7:56] What Matthew Kearns did next was extraordinary in its thoroughness. According to the federal indictment, by 1990, just two years later, Kearns had obtained a driver's license in Colorado under William Woods' name. And by 1994, according to court documents, he'd gotten married to a woman named Nancy Zimmer, using the name William Woods. Then they would have a son together, and that son would carry the name Woods, would grow up believing his father was William Woods. [8:38] Cairns had built everything on this stolen foundation. He paid taxes as William Woods. He obtained credit as William Woods. He built a career as William Woods. And in 2012, according to the plea agreement, he did something particularly clever and particularly cold. He went on to Ancestry.com and he researched the real William Woods' family tree. He found the names of Woods' parents, his grandparents, his relatives in Kentucky. And he used that information to fraudulently obtain a birth certificate from the state of Kentucky. The very state where the real William Woods had been born. Now Karen's had documentation, real documentation, issued by a real government office in a name that wasn't his name. [9:48] In 2013, Matthew Cairns, living as William Woods, applied for a job at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. He got the job. He was the IT systems architect. And according to the Department of Justice, Cairns provided the hospital with false identification documents during the hiring process. A fictitious I-9 form, a stolen social security number, a fake date of birth. And because he lived in Wisconsin, he worked remotely, managing systems from 1,600 miles away. His access privileges to the hospital's computer infrastructure was, according to prosecutors, quote, the highest it could be. He was, quote, the key administrator of critical systems. Now think about that for a moment. A man living under a completely fabricated identity had root-level access to the computer systems of a major university hospital, systems containing patient records, sensitive medical data, the digital infrastructure that millions of people depend on. [11:12] He worked there for a decade, earned more than $700,000, according to prosecutors. His salary by 2023 was $140,000 a year. Along the way, he took out nine loans from Iowa credit unions, totally more than $250,000, all under the name of William Woods. And the real William Woods? Well, he was still out there somewhere in the American Southwest, drifting, working odd jobs, sometimes homeless, sometimes not. According to court documents, there were years when William Woods earned around $3,000. Total, that's it. It was just not enough to even file taxes. $3,000 a year. While the man who stole his identity was making about $140,000. [12:19] Woods was still carrying his own social security number in his head, still knowing exactly who he really was, and still having no idea that someone else was living his life better than he ever had. [12:36] By 2015, William Woods was living on the streets of Los Angeles. He was homeless. He was unhoused. I mean, whatever word you want to use, He had nowhere to go. And then something unexpected happened. According to multiple news reports confirmed by court exhibits, a YouTuber named Yosef Erekat, known online as FouseyTube, found Woods on the street. Erekat made videos documenting his efforts to help buying Woods food, paying for a motel room, trying to figure out how to get this man back on his feet. Those videos got millions of views each. And with some of the money AirCat gave them, William Woods did something that would change everything. [13:33] He paid for credit monitoring service. And that's when he saw it. According to court records, Woods discovered that someone had accumulated approximately $130,000 in debt under his name. Someone was opening accounts, taking out loans, living a life he knew nothing about. And for the first time, William Woods had proof that something was very, very, very wrong. [14:08] But when he tried to do something about it, when he walked into that bank in 2019 to close those fraudulent accounts. The system that was supposed to protect him became the weapon used against him. Because Matthew Kearns wasn't just going to let 31 years of stolen life slip away. Oh no. He was going to fight back. [14:36] And William Woods was about to learn what it feels like when the criminal justice system decides, you're the criminal. And you're innocent. Let me walk you through exactly what happened on August 20th, 2019. Because the details, they matter. The details are what make this case so perplexing, so disturbing. You gotta know. [15:11] According to the federal plea agreement, William Woods presented his real Social Security card and his authentic California identification to a bank employee. The information matched what the bank had on file. But because there was a substantial amount of money in those accounts, money that Karens had deposited from his hospital salary, his credit union loans, His decade of living large on a stolen identity? The bank employee asked Woods a series of security questions. Some of us have been there at one time or another. We know exactly what that situation's like. But Woods couldn't answer them. I mean, of course he couldn't. Matthew Cairns had set those questions. Cairns knew his own mother's maiden name, his adoptive mother's name. Not William Woods' real mother. He knew his own first pet, his own childhood address. Not William Woods' real answers, but the fictional answers that matched the fictional life Cairns had built. [16:23] So the bank employee did their job, did exactly what protocol demanded. He called the phone number associated with the account. Cairns answered. And according to the Department of Justice, Cairns correctly answered all the security questions. And then he told the bank employee that no one in California should have access to his account. So the bank called the Los Angeles Police Department. An LAPD officer arrived again and called Kearns again. And according to the plea agreement, Kearns denied giving anyone permission to access the accounts. And then he faxed the officer a social security card, a Wisconsin driver's license, and that Kentucky birth certificate. All in the name of William Woods. all fraudulently obtained, and all looking completely legitimate. The officer investigated, spoke with Kearns, reviewed the documents. And then the officer arrested the real William Woods on two felony charges, identity theft and false impersonation. [17:43] I mean, think about that, right? The victim of identity theft was arrested for identity theft and charged with, stay with me here, charged with impersonating himself. And here's one more cruel irony. When Woods was arrested, he kept telling police that a man named Matthew Cairns had stolen his identity. So, get this. The system used his own words against him. If he wasn't William Woods, they reasoned, then this must be Matthew Cairns. They charged him under that name, even misspelling it. The victim had been given authorities the truth, and they twisted it into another weapon against him. [18:43] What happened next is where this case enters nightmare logic. According to court documents, William Woods was held without bail at the Los Angeles County Jail. And throughout the proceedings, every hearing, every appearance, every conversation with his own public defender, he kept saying the same damn thing. I am William Woods. I am not Matthew Carons. He said it at his arraignment. He said it at his preliminary hearing on October 17, 2019. And according to court transcripts, he told the judge directly, false identity against me. I'm Mr. Woods. He said it at the next hearing and the next. His own public defender, according to court records, informed the court that she doubted his mental competency to stand trial. Not because he was incoherent. Not because he couldn't understand the proceedings. But because he kept insisting he was William Woods. [19:57] In February 2020, a California state court judge found William Woods mentally incompetent to stand trial. The reasoning, according to court documents, he couldn't accept his true identity as Matthew Cairns. So wait for it. The judge ordered him committed to a California state mental hospital. [20:25] According to the Department of Justice, William Woods spent 147 days in a California state mental hospital. And during that time, the man who was telling the truth was ordered to receive psychotropic medication. Let me say that again. a man who was forcibly medicated with psychiatric drugs, not because he had a mental illness, but because he wouldn't stop telling the truth about who he was. Court records describe the finding as identity-based. He was deemed incompetent because he wouldn't accept the true identity the system had assigned him. His refusal to say, I am Matthew Cairns, was treated as a symptom requiring treatment. [21:28] One of the sadder aspects of this case, as the Washington Post would later report, is that William Woods was in court telling people the absolute truth, and people thought he was mentally unwell. And the more he insisted on reality, the more the system punished him for it. I need to pause here for a moment because I've spent 30 years investigating fraudsters and criminals, and I've seen how the systems fail. I've seen how institutions protect the wrong people. [22:07] But this? This is something entirely different. The law is supposed to be a shield A mechanism for finding truth But instead it became a weapon And the person wielding it Was Matthew Cairns Because here's what makes this case Cross the line from tragedy To something darker, Cairns didn't just steal an identity He actively worked to keep his victim in chains. [22:46] According to the federal plea agreement, Matthew Karens didn't just set the trap. He maintained it. After Woods was arrested, Karens contacted the LAPD and the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office numerous times. According to prosecutors, he requested updates on Woods' prosecution, and he demanded to know when the case would move forward. When asked about Woods, Cairns told authorities that Woods was crazy and needed help and should be locked up. Think about that, right? The man who stole another person's identity was calling his victim crazy and demanding that authorities keep him behind bars. And they did. [23:38] At the sentencing hearing, years later, Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Vavrasek would describe Karen's behavior as, quote, nearly compulsive persistence to ensure that his victim remained in chains, unquote. The judge would say Karen's, quote, continuously and doggedly worked to make sure the victim was prosecuted. And the federal prosecutor put it more starkly in court. It must be remembered that it was the defendant who held the keys to Woods' chains the entire time. All the defendant had to do was come clean. He never did that. He doubled down over and over again. [24:29] In March 2021, William Woods finally got out. But not because anyone believed him. According to court documents, facing no less than 32 months in prison and up to six years if convicted, Woods took a deal. He pleaded no contest to the charges, not admitting guilt, but accepting the conviction. He was sentenced to time served 428 days in county jail, 147 days in a mental hospital. And a $400 fine. And then the California court issued one final order. According to the court records, the court ordered William Woods to use only his true name, and the system insisted he had Matthew Cairns as his true name. The victim was ordered to become his tormentor. [25:42] He walked out of custody in March 2021, still homeless, still broke, still carrying convictions on his records for crimes he had never committed. And he was still forbidden by that court order to use his own name. [26:04] But he didn't obey. According to the Washington Post, Woods was ordered to stop using the name William Woods. And he didn't stop. He kept filing disputes with financial institutions. Kept fighting to clear his credit report. Kept insisting to anyone who would listen that he was who he said he was. And the court told him to stop being William Woods. He refused, but almost as a miracle, he found someone who believed him, a campus police detective in Iowa City. Hey, we're at the moment where everything changes. If you're as invested in this story as I was when I first found it, please consider leaving a review. Those reviews help other people find the show. And I'll be right back with the detective who finally believed the truth. [27:17] In January 2023, William Woods discovered where Matthew Cairns really worked. According to court documents, Woods had been digging through credit reports, filing disputes, trying to trace the source of the fraud that had destroyed his life. And somewhere in that paperwork, he found an address in Heartland, Wisconsin. And from that address, he found a workplace, the University of Iowa Health Care. I don't know how he did it, but he picked up the phone. And according to court records, Woods called the University of Iowa Hospital's Security Department. And he reported that their employee, William David Woods, was not who he claimed to be. This was not the first time Woods had contacted officials claiming Karens had stolen his identity. He'd been making these calls for years to police, to credit bureaus, to anyone who would listen. And no one listened. So the hospital referred the complaint to the University of Iowa Police Department. And here's where the case takes a crazy, wild, different turn. Because it landed on the desk of Detective Ian Mallory. [28:41] According to the profile in the University of Iowa's own publication, Detective Mallory has noted that even some people in law enforcement didn't realize that a university campus can have a real police department. When he started investigating this case and reached out to agencies across the country for help, his first hurdle was something that you wouldn't expect he had to just convince them he was a real cop, and now he had a case that seemed impossible on one side you got matthew david kierens, a well-paid i.t administrator at a major hospital living in suburban wisconsin with his wife and son, decades of documentation a life built on paper that all looked legitimate respected credentialed and credible. Then on the other side, you got this William David Woods guy, a homeless man from California, felony convictions on his record, for identity theft, no less. A court had literally found him mentally incompetent because he kept insisting he was William Woods. [30:08] Both men were claiming to be victim of identity theft. And both men were saying, I'm the real guy. The other guy's the imposter. According to later reporting, Detective Mallory was initially skeptical of Woods' claims. I mean, wouldn't you be? I mean, of course he was. Everything on paper pointed to Karen's being legitimate. Who would you believe? The hospital administrator with a salary and the family? Or the homeless man with the criminal record? But something changed. Everything. [30:55] According to court documents and news reports, Matthew Cairns made a critical mistake. He insulted Detective Mallory's abilities as a police officer. Oh, you don't do that. Cairns kept following up with Mallory during the investigation, kept claiming he was the victim, kept insisting the detective needed to help him. And somewhere in those interactions, Cairns got arrogant. He made it clear he thought Mallory was just a flashlight-carrying, keychain-jingling campus security guard. Not a real cop. Not someone who could possibly unravel a 35-year deception. [31:49] According to the profile published by the University of Iowa, that insult motivated Mallory to dig deeper. He started combing through documents, hundreds of them, thousands of pages, from Wisconsin, California, Idaho, Colorado, Oregon, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Iowa. And slowly, painstakingly, over months of work, he started to see something. [32:26] According to the University of Iowa's own reporting on the investigation, Detective Mallory found a 1995 forgery case in North Carolina. And it didn't fit. I mean, the timeline didn't match. The locations didn't make sense. Events that were supposedly happening to one person named William Woods were actually happening in two different places at the same time. So for the very first time, Mallory could see that events attributed to William Woods were actually happening to two separate people. And then he requested identifying documents from Karen's, including a birth certificate. And he noticed something wrong. According to court records, the birth certificate Karens submitted had a different middle name than what Karens had been using. It was a slight discrepancy, but it was a crack in the foundation. [33:32] It was obviously a gigantic red flag, Mallory would later say. [33:43] Here's where that smart detective got creative both men were claiming the same father a man in Kentucky whose name appeared on the birth certificate because of course they were both using the same birth certificate the one Karen's had fraudulently obtained in 2012, But only one of them could be the man's biological son. According to the Cedar Rapids Gazette, Mallory worked with the Covington, Kentucky Police Department. An officer there visited the elderly man, William Wood's actual biological father, who went by the nickname Billy. The officer showed him a photograph of both men. According to court documents, the father picked out William Woods, the homeless man from California, as his son. Then the Kentucky officer took a DNA swab. [34:49] And then the dogged Detective Mallory waited. Weeks passed. The lab processed the sample. On June 19, 2023, Detective Mallory got the results. William Woods in California was the biological son of that man in Kentucky. Matthew Cairns was not. And for the first time in 35 years, there was proof, scientific, irrefutable proof, that William Woods was William Woods. [35:30] On July 17, 2023, Detective Ian Mallory sat down with Matthew Cairns for an interview. According to the FBI investigation summary, during that interview, Mallory asked Karens a simple question. What was his father's name? Karens answered, he gave a name. But it was a wrong name. It was the name of his own adoptive father. Not the Kentucky man whose name appeared on his birth certificate that he had been using for 35 years the man whose son he'd been claiming to be for more than three decades, he couldn't even remember to lie correctly, and then Mallory slid across the table that DNA evidence, According to court documents, Cairns' response was immediate. [36:35] My life is over. Everything is gone. [36:42] And then Matthew David Cairns, the man who'd lived as William Woods for 35 years, who had built a career, a marriage, a son, a six-figure salary on a stolen identity, who had sent an innocent man to jail and a mental hospital, who had called that man crazy and demanded that he stayed locked up? He confessed. [37:08] Detective Mallory later described the moment. When Matthew Karens realized, I had the DNA, he crumbled and succumbed. He also called Karens a professional manipulator. He was trying to play me in that interview, Mallory said And for years, he was playing everyone, With Cairns' confession, the full scope of the fraud became clear According to federal prosecutors, Cairns had used Wood's identity In every aspect of his life for more than three decades, He obtained employment, insurance, social security benefits driver's licenses, vehicle titles, loans, and credit, all under the name William Woods. [38:03] He had married under that name, raised a son under that name, paid taxes under that name. At the University of Iowa Hospitals, he had earned more than $700,000 over 10 years. His final salary was $140,000 a year. He had taken out nine loans from Iowa credit unions, totaling more than $250,000. And when his victim tried to reclaim his own identity, Cairns had actively worked to destroy him. [38:45] Faxing fake documents to LAPD, calling prosecutors to demand updates, telling authorities his victim was crazy and should be locked up. All while sitting in his suburban Wisconsin home collecting his hospital administrator's salary, living the life he'd stolen from a man he met once at a hot dog cart in 1988. On July 20th, 2023, the University of Iowa terminated Matthew Cairns and the FBI took over the investigation. [39:27] And finally, after 35 years, the system turned in the right direction. [39:41] On April 1st, 2024, in federal court in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Matthew David Cairns pleaded guilty to two charges, making a false statement to a National Credit Union Administration-insured institution. Oh, and aggravated identity theft. According to the Department of Justice, he admitted to everything. [40:09] Ten days later, something else happened, something that had taken five years to achieve. On April 11, 2024, in Los Angeles Superior Court, Judge William Ryan held a hearing to consider vacating William Woods' convictions. According to news reports, the hearing lasted all of about 15 minutes. Judge Ryan called the case astounding. And then the judge used a word, the same word another judge would use months later, to describe what happened to William Woods. [40:53] Quote, the word that comes to mind, Judge Ryan said, is Kafkaesque, out of the novels of Franz Kafka. He said he was more than happy to sign the order vacating the conviction. And with that finding of innocence, the then district attorney of Los Angeles County, George Gascon, offered a public apology. He expressed his sincerest apologies to Woods for the unfathomable hardship he has endured. William Woods wasn't in the courtroom. He called in by phone. His reaction, according to the Associated Press, quote, I'm happy because I knew I was innocent anyway. I knew I was innocent. And then with characteristic bluntness, he said, cool, I told you so. No one believed me, though. [42:00] On January 31st, 2025, Matthew, Dave, and Karens stood before the United States District Court Chief Judge Williams for sentencing. Karens' family and friends had written letters to the court. According to the Associated Press, they described him as a kind and gracious and dependable person. His wife the woman he had married that she thought was William Woods wrote about the life they'd built together the man she thought she knew, his son who had grown up believing his father's name was Woods who had carried that name himself spoke of the only father he'd ever known. [42:50] But the court also heard from the prosecutors, and from Detective Mallory, and from the documents that laid out 35 years of fraud. And then the court heard from William Woods himself. According to court records, Judge Williams delivered his ruling. He called Kerens' conduct egregious, callous, ruthless. And then the judge used a word, the same word Judge Ryan had used in California nine months ago. [43:34] For listeners who might not know the reference, Franz Kafka was a writer who created nightmarish worlds where ordinary people are trapped by incomprehensible bureaucracies, accused of crimes without explanation, punished for reasons that make no sense. His characters wake up to find reality has turned against them. And the harder they try to prove their innocence, the more guilty they appear. And that's exactly what happened to William Woods. He told the truth, and the system called him insane. He insisted on his identity, and the system took it away. Two different judges in two different states, months apart, independently reached for the same word, Kafkaesque. [44:30] According to the Department of Justice, Judge Williams said that Matthew Cairns weaponized the criminal justice system to achieve his goals. The sentence? 144 months, 12 years in federal prison. A $10,000 fine. $6,200 in restitution to William Woods. $10,000 in court-appointed attorney fees. and five years of supervised release. I wonder what name he'll use when he gets out. And one more provision. If the state of California attempts to collect the more than $100,000 in hospital bills from William Woods' involuntary psychiatric stay, the stay where he was forcibly medicated for telling the truth, Matthew Cairns is responsible for paying them. Judge Williams added, according to the Gazette If California has any sense they will drop the restitution amount There is no parole in the federal system. [45:48] After the sentencing, William Woods and Detective Ian Mallory stood together outside the federal courthouse in Cedar Rapids According to news reports, it was the first time they had ever met in person. All of their communication during the investigation, the phone calls, the emails, the slow building of trust, had all been conducted from a distance. A homeless man in California and a campus detective in Iowa, connected by phone lines, and a shared belief in the truth. Now, finally, they shook hands. And William Woods spoke to reporters. I'm not a criminal. I didn't do anything to him. The truth is known today. He deserved to get every bit of what he got from the judge. And then the line that captured everything. [46:51] I went to jail for nothing, for being myself. [47:01] William Woods now lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the same city where 37 years ago his wallet was stolen at a hot dog cart. According to news reports, he works as a landscaper. And here's the detail that stopped me when I read it, and this will click with you from the beginning of this episode. According to the Cedar Rapids Gazette, The home William Woods is living in now was provided by his former boss, the owner of that hot dog cart from 1988. The same man who employed him when his identity was stolen, the same man who watched him work the grill in the desert heat all those years ago, that boss never forgot him. And when Woods finally got his life back, that boss gave him a place to live. According to the Gazette, it represents a full circle moment. Sure does. [48:09] Woods is seeking compensation from the state of California for his wrongful imprisonment. According to court filings, his claim requests is about $80,000 calculated at $140 per day. For the 576 days he spent locked up. The California Victim Compensation Board has recommended approval. [48:33] Matthew Cairns is in federal custody. He has filed an appeal with the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, and that appeal is pending. If it fails, he will be in his early 70s when he's released. His wife, who learned her entire marriage was built on a lie, must now reckon with what she thought she knew. [48:59] And his son, who has spoken publicly of the father who raised him, must reconcile the man he loved with the crimes that man committed. Oh, and Detective Ian Mallory? He received the Law Enforcement Victim Service Award from the U.S. Attorney's Office. He deserved it. A colleague described him as a natural advocate for the underdog. And another colleague put it more directly. I think it's safe to say that if it hadn't been for Ian's work, well, the real Bill Woods would still be suffering. [49:45] This case haunts me, not because of what Matthew Karens did, though that was just monstrous enough. What haunts me is how easy it was. For 35 years, one man lived another man's life. He obtained documents, built a career, raised a family and when his victim tried to reclaim his identity every institution in the system sided with the thief. The bank, the police, the courts, the mental health system. They all looked at two men, one with documentation and a comfortable life, one homeless and desperate, and they decided who was telling the truth based on who looked more credible. [50:36] $140,000 a year versus $3,000. A suburban home versus a street corner. A hospital badge versus a criminal record. William Woods told the truth every single day for nearly two years. And every day, the system punished him for it. It was a punch in the face every day. It took DNA evidence to prove what he had been saying all along. So here's the question I keep coming back to. I'd love to hear from you. [51:12] If it could happen to William Woods, a man with a real Social Security card, a real California ID, a real birth certificate. Why couldn't it happen to you? Could you prove you are who you say you are if someone else was better at claiming your identity than you? Hmm? I don't know the answer, and quite frankly, that terrifies me. But I do know this. William Woods never stopped telling the truth, even when it cost him, damn, everything. [51:54] Even when the courts ordered him to become someone else, he refused, and in the end, the truth won. [52:05] So that's our story for today. Hey, if this case affected you, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening. Those reviews help other people find the show. If you visited truecrimeunheard.com in the past, and you subscribed to the site email, when this show drops, you will receive the email with the secret link for you to download all the court documents and read them yourself. If you haven't yet subscribed, go to truecrimeunheard.com. Subscribe today so you can get the next episode drop. And if you know someone who should hear about how fragile identity can be in America, well, share this episode with them. Until next time, stay curious, stay safe, and stay subscribed. [53:01] Yeah. Bye.