The Criminals Who Fool Doctors

“Malingering” – faking a sickness for an ulterior motive – is surprisingly common. Here are some of the ways in which doctors tell real illnesses from false ones.


They called him “The Oddfather”. He was boss of New York’s Genovese crime family and one of the most influential Mafia figures of his time.


But for more than three decades, Vincent Gigante feigned insanity to avoid jail time, wandering around Greenwich village in a bathrobe and slippers. His niece, Rita Gigante, later remembered: “He’d abruptly stop and point and start mumbling gibberish. If he thought for sure he was being taped or filmed by the feds, he’d really lay it on thick.”


Occasionally, he would pointedly ask parking meters if they would join him on a walk. FBI agents once arrived with a subpoena only to find Gigante standing naked in a running shower, clutching an open umbrella.

But Gigante was malingering: a term that describes intentionally producing false symptoms, or grossly exaggerating existing ones, with an external incentive in mind. Those incentives include obtaining financial compensation, housing, or drugs, or avoiding work, military duty or criminal prosecution.


http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190521-malingering-when-criminals-fake-diseases