Dive deeper into Nick Alahverdian's story with these podcasts and documentaries

The outlandish story of Nicholas Alahverdian, the former Rhode Islander who faked his death in 2020 to elude the law, only to be captured in Scotland the following year pretending to be someone else, has generated an endless array of publicity on two continents.

Arrested on an international fugitive warrant, Alahverdian, 37, is now being held without bail in Utah, charged with raping two women in 2008.

Alahverdian, who professes to be an innocent Englishman, is charged under the name Rossi, which is the surname of his Rhode Island stepfather, who adopted him when he was an adolescent. Alahverdian is his birth name.

As a young adult, Alahverdian cultivated a public persona as an advocate for children in state care. But to those who knew him better, police have said, he sowed a reputation as a narcissistic predator of women, who also scammed people for money and committed credit-card fraud.

As his trials inch closer, a new documentary film series on Alahverdian is launching this month in the United Kingdom, with plans to show it in the United States sometime later.

Here’s a quick look at that documentary and several credible television shows and podcasts that have told the Alahverdian story:

'Imposter: The Man Who Came Back from the Dead'

The four-part documentary series by Five Mile Films, directed by Owen Phillips, tells the complete wild tale of Alahverdian’s life, with interviews with numerous people who knew him and who were hurt by him.

They include:

• David Rossi, Alahverdian’s former foster father in Johnston, Rhode Island, who describes his former stepson as evil.

• Several women abused by Alahverdian, including his former Ohio wife as well as a former Dayton college student who filed sex assault charges against Alahverdian and won.

• Former Utah prosecutor David Levitt, who says he lost his reelection in part because of Alahverdian’s online propaganda attack against him.

Rossi, a onetime Rhode Island lounge crooner and Engelbert Humperdinck impersonator, sings in the documentary the song Scottish inmates taunted Alahverdian with as he was awaiting extradition: "Leaving on a Jet Plane."

Look for the documentary series to be available in the United States this summer.

'I Am Not Nicholas'

This nine-part podcast by BBC Studios, reported and narrated by reporter Jane MacSorley, was first released on Audible in February 2023.

MacSorley was among the pack of British reporters covering Alahverdian’s initial arrest and his soapbox declarations of being wrongly accused (he maintains he’s a suit-clad academic by the name of Arthur Knight).

MacSorley manages to get inside the Glasgow apartment that Alahverdian and his wife, Miranda, shared while he was on bail to interview him.

The visits become confrontational as MacSorley begins to challenge the couple’s story.

In a last visit, MacSorley demands repeatedly that “Arthur” lower his mask to show the pronounced space between his front teeth – just like the one in the photo she produces of Alahverdian. She and her producer are ordered away.

MacSorley also concludes, using audiotape recording comparisons and a voice expert, that Miranda Louisa Knight is the mysterious “Louise” – Alahverdian’s supposed widow, who, in phone calls to Rhode Island reporters and others, conspired to spread the lie of Alahverdian's death.

When later confronted on the street by MacSorley with audio comparisons of her voice with that of "Louise," Miranda has nothing to say.

The podcast is available on Audible.

'Dateline NBC: Dead Man Talking'

The network aired a two-hour episode on Alahverdian in April 2023, noting “Nicholas Alahverdian is one of the most perplexing and confounding people 'Dateline' has ever come across.”

Relying heavily on reporting by The Providence Journal, the show interviews a host of people whose lives intersected with Alahverdian's and with law enforcement authorities charged with bringing him to justice.

One of the more memorable moments of the show is when Alahverdian attempts to deny his identity by claiming he’s so incapacitated from COVID that he can’t stand up. He illustrates that by attempting to stand while flailing his arms over his head. “Exactly, exactly,” he says, speaking with a strange accent as Miranda steadies him back in a chair.

When correspondent Andrea Canning asks him how he would respond to those who say he’s making the whole thing up, Alahaverdian begins to sob, his glasses steaming up over an oxygen mask he’s wearing: “Andrea,” he cries, “I am not Nicholas Alahverdian. I do not know how to make this clear.”

You can still watch the show on the Peacock streaming service and listen to the show on Apple Podcasts.

'Unmasking a Fugitive'

This is a BBC podcast by Scotland-based reporter Steven Godden, who covered much of Alahverdian’s lengthy extradition process.

The podcast examines the “bizarre” story from both the goings-on in Scotland – including the daily media circus of Alahverdian’s wheelchair arrival to court – to sit-down interviews in Rhode Island with people such as former Rep. Brian Coogan.

Coogan once considered adopting Alahverdian when he was a ward of the state – until a Family Court judge warned against it, noting Alahverdian’s deceptive and manipulative personality.

In an interview in Scotland with Alahverdian and Miranda, Godden asks him to show his arms for the cameras. Alahverdian was positively identified, in part, by the distinguishing tattoos on his arms.

Alahverdian declines, saying, “Honestly, I’m exhausted.”

He would later try to explain away the tattoos by saying that someone in the hospital inked them on his arms while he was in a coma.

Contact Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Nicholas Rossi case: Learn more with these great podcasts