Thomas Parkin was convicted of charges including grand larceny and mortgage fraud during a 6 year stint in which he wore a blond wig, dress and large sunglasses, in order to deceive others into believing that he was his dead mother. When Parkin’s mother, Irene Prusik, died in 2003, at the age of 73, Parkin stepped into her clothes, cashed her Social Security checks (totaling more than $44,000), and kept her 2.2 million Park Slope, Brooklyn brownstone. Unfortunately, Parkin could not make the mortgage payments and the brownstone was eventually sold at a foreclosure auction. That’s when Parkin and a co-defendant sued the new owner under his mother’s name, claiming the auction was invalid because his mother was still alive. To further the fraud, Parkin modified his mother’s death certificate and crossed-dressed to impersonate his mother in an attempt to renew a New York driver’s license in her name. For 6 years, Parkin cashed more than $44,000 in Social Security checks. The jury found Parkin guilty at trial, after being shown footage of Parkin dressing like his mother in public and viewing photographs of his dead mother’s tombstone. Parker has been sentenced to 13 2/3 to 41 years in prison.
