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    Summary:  HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel" in July follows the strange life story of Kansas City, Kansas native James Hogue, who set a national four-mile record as a runner at Washington High School in 1977, but went on to be one of the biggest imposters in history.  If found guilty of the latest charges against him he could go to prison for nearly 50 years.

HOB Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel 

To Catch a Thief

    REAL SPORTS profiles James Hogue, one of the most successful imposters of modern times. A non-descript high-school runner in the 1970s, who later ran track at the University of Wyoming, Hogue subsequently transformed himself into a series of characters, fooling academic administrators, friends, coaches and teammates.

    Equipped with charm and intelligence, he began his athletic deception at Palo Alto High School in northern California in 1987, stealing the identity of a child who had died at age two and distinguishing himself as a track star.

    In 1992, Hogue was admitted to Princeton, where he posed as Alexi Indris Santana, supposedly a home- schooled student from the Mojave desert; his fake identity was blown by a former Palo Alto classmate. In Colorado, Hogue honed his burglary skills, allegedly stealing 5,000 items before the police nabbed him.

    Bernard Goldberg in collaboration with Sports Illustrated picks up Hogue's trail and tries to make sense of Hogue's incredible run from justice and the truth. Now 46, Hogue is interviewed in prison in Colorado.
 

Background of James Hogue:

James Hogue was born in 1960 in Kansas City and spent his youth here. He has refused to talk about much of his childhood.

In 1986 Hogue enrolled in a Palo Alto high school as Jay Mitchell Huntsman, a 16-year-old orphan from Nevada. He had adopted the identity of a dead infant. A suspicious local reporter exposed him.

In 1988 Hogue enrolled at Princeton University using the alias Alexi Indris Santana, a self-taught orphan from Utah. He deferred admission for one year because he had been convicted of the theft of bicycle frames in Utah. He violated his parole to enter the class. For the next two years he lived as Santana and as a member of the track team. He was also admitted into Ivy Club.

In 1991 Hogue's real identity was exposed when Renee Pacheco, a student from the Palo Alto high school, recognized him. He was arrested for defrauding the University for $30,000 in financial aid and sentenced to three years in jail with 5 years probation and 100 hours of community service.

On February 19, 1996 Hogue violated the conditions of his parole by returning to Princeton and hanging around the campus using the name Jim MacAuthor. He had not officially enrolled but had attended social functions and eaten in the cafeteria. When a graduate student recognized him he was arrested on February 16 and was given to the custody of Princeton Borough Police who later released him on his own recognizance. He was later interred into the Mercer County Correctional Center and was tried for defiant trespass. Hogue was released from prison 1997 and vanished from the public eye.

In 1999, Jesse Moss, a director making a documentary film about Hogue, tracked him down in Aspen, Colorado and secured his cooperation in making the film. The completed documentary, entitled Con Man, was released in 2001. As of 2006, Hogue maintains no fixed address and has refused to discuss his motivations.

As of January 2006, Hogue was again wanted by authorities in San Miguel County, Colorado on charges of receiving stolen merchandise that was hidden in a secret room in his home. He was apprehended in Tucson, Arizona on February 4, 2006 by United States Marshal Richard J. Tracy Jr. and deputies from the Pima County, Arizona Sheriff's department while Hogue was sitting in a Barnes & Noble cafe surfing the Internet.