The real McClane here with a non-apologetic plug. I just finished reading the best magazine article I've ever read in my life.
Writer Evan Ratliff wrote a fantastic piece in the September 2009 edition of WIRED magazine about men and women who've attempted to disappear completely and start new lives, and the stories behind their adventures and eventual busts.
After doing the research, studying past stories and learning everything he could about it... this crazy bastard decides to try it out for himself. Evan Ratliff disappeared on August 13, 2009 and WIRED magazine offered $5,000 to whoever could track this guy down. Using any means necessary to find him, an entire nation started stalking this writer as he made his way across the country and back again.
This is the story behind his disappearance, his hunters and his first-person adventures along the way. Ratliff's disguises, fake-outs, red herrings and switch-ups are even more awesome than that time Harrison Ford went on that one-armed-man-hunting rampage.
This story gets my highest possible recommendation.
You can find the first article by Ratliff from the September 2009 issue HERE.
You can read the entire story by clicking right HERE.
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Then, as a bonus, WIRED magazine goes further to provide these amazing other pieces to the story:
You can see all the press and media that got involved HERE.
You can see all the social media sources & hunters that contributed to the chase HERE.
You can read stories from the most prominent hunters HERE.
You can view an image gallery of all of Ratliff's disguises HERE.
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Finally, I guess a lot of people have wondered why Ratliff didn't just go completely off the grid and vanish entirely into mist or smoke or something like a scene from a Billy Ocean video.
It would be no problem to just uproot your life and go live in some cabin in Colorado like a creepy loser hermit guy, sure. If Ratliff had felt like pulling a Jeremiah Johnson and vanishing into some woods, WIRED readers wouldn't have stood a chance. CLICK HERE to learn from the editors at WIRED why Ratliff did it the way he did it. Absolutely amazing stuff.
So if you've ever dreamt of kissing your life goodbye in lieu of a shiny new life full of possibilities and wonderment, consult this story before you dye your hair and hop on some Greyhound bus across the nation.
Unless, of course, you have your sights set on living off the land in some wilderness campground with a pet bear. I would hope the reasons behind this would be an alien attack on major cities, unstoppable zombie outbreak or being a total loser with a flesh-eating disease. If that's the case, don't forget your big ass backpack full of canned beans and salted pork, bud. Happy trails.
Disappearing from your sights but not your hearts,
-The REAL McClane
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