Listen Now: I Am Not Nicholas
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hi, I'm journalist Jane McSorley, and I'm about to play you a clip from my podcast, I Am Not Nicholas.
How did journalist Jane MacSorley first discover the Arthur Knight / Nicholas Rossi story?
I came across this story as I was scrolling the morning news back in January 2022, and I immediately thought... This is unbelievable. A man had been arrested in a Glasgow COVID ward. Police were saying he was a fugitive called Nicholas Rossi, who is wanted for rape in Utah. But he was claiming to be an Irish orphan called Arthur Knight. I thought, I really want to look into this. And would you believe, I ended up following this story for over four and a half years. Here's a taster. Here's a taster. I wanted to ask if you knew the American man that lived here. I was seeing this as months and months of work. Hello, my name is Jane McSorley. Could you have just a few minutes now? And it has become practically a year.
You just don't know what's going to happen when somebody answers that door.
Why was a man arrested in a Glasgow COVID ward alleged to be fugitive Nicholas Rossi?
Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
He's not dead. No way. I knew he was still alive. I knew right away. It was very strange. It was very strange. He would lock me in the upstairs bathroom. All I had was the running water. He has never hurt me, never touched me. He doesn't abuse me. A case of mistaken identity?
I mean, what on earth is going on? It really is an unfortunate situation. I cannot get my head around the magnitude of this.
What prompted Jane to start a yearlong investigation into Arthur Knight’s identity?
Hitches. Top of my list when I start work on the story in January 2022 is I want to see this man, Arthur Knight. Well, he claims to be Arthur Knight, an innocent Irishman living in Glasgow. The US authorities say he is really an American fugitive called Nicholas Rossi. I hear he's due to appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court a few days later for a bail hearing. The court is just a ten-minute bike ride away from my house, and I'll be there. It was just the most unbelievable sight. I was outside the courtroom. Arthur Knight is wheeled in. He was in a wheelchair and he had burgundy pyjamas on. He had a burgundy matching dressing gown and he even had a burgundy cloth covering his entire head. So you could not see his face.
It was just like this burgundy mass on wheels. He had socks on, he had no slippers on. So it was just that first image of him. I was blown away. I was with a group of journalists and we're all looking at each other thinking, what on earth is this story? What on earth is this man all about? So then we all get into the courtroom. He's got at least two paramedics there. There must have been prison officers there. And Miranda, his wife, was there. And the cloth is gone from his head. Clearly, Arthur Knight wasn't well. You know, he had COVID very badly. And he was in and out of intensive care. He had a mask covering his nose and his mouth. He had oxygen going into his mask. He's 34. He looks like he could be 64.
He's small, he's round, he's hunched over, he's got greasy lank hair, he's got this beard that's peppered with grey, he's very pasty white, he's got these round black John Lennon style glasses. He had complete disrespect for the court proceedings. He repeatedly, repeatedly interrupted the prosecutor, his own lawyer, and, shockingly, the sheriff. The sheriff, the judge. And it started from the outset. He asks him, are you Nicholas Rossi? And he said, no, I'm Arthur Knight. And then he continued, unabated. And he was told off by the sheriff at least twice, if not three or four times. So that's how it started. But are you curious to know how it ends? Follow I Am Not Nicholas on Audible or wherever you get your podcasts for Series 1 and Series 2.
I Am Not Nicholas, The Trials. You can binge all episodes early and ad-free by joining Audible on the Audible app or Apple Podcasts.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:07
2
How did journalist Jane MacSorley first discover the Arthur Knight / Nicholas Rossi story?
0:07–1:01
3
Why was a man arrested in a Glasgow COVID ward alleged to be fugitive Nicholas Rossi?
1:01–1:32
4
What prompted Jane to start a yearlong investigation into Arthur Knight’s identity?
1:32–4:42