Storme Aerison
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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 she committed the majority of her fraudulent activities), and later had her named legally changed to Storme Aerison, the name of one of her female supermodel personas.
Aerison, born a black male, was arrested by the Colorado Springs Police Department in 1990 for enrolling at Coronado High School in Colorado Springs and representing herself to be a 17-year-old white female high school student. In her female persona, Aerison joined the school's all-female cheerleading squad, where she was made head of the squad; however, once arrested and her true identity exposed, Aerison was kicked out of the school and the cheerleading squad.
In 1994 Aerison once again adopted a fraudulent persona, that of her 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.[citation needed]
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 her deceptive persona. Even after being arrested for writing bad checks, Aerison managed to post $100,000 bail pending trial; however, even after her arrest and exposure, she violated the terms of the bail and flew to Tahiti and posed for a photo shoot on Bora Bora she had previously arranged.[citation needed]
[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
- State won’t fund new mental appraisal by Dennis Huspeni, The Colorado Springs gazette, July 10, 2007.
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