By the close of the workweek, I had the information I needed for numerous identities. Later, I would only need to write the Bureau of Vital Statistics in the state where the child was born and request a certified copy of the deceased’s birth certificate. With it, I would become the new me. I also had fifty blank birth certificates, each neatly embossed with the South Dakota state seal. (Several years later, when the Feds were returning property that had been seized from me, they accidentally gave back the embossed South Dakota birth certificates as well. Alex Kasperavicius, who was picking the stuff up for me, thoughtfully pointed out that they probably didn’t really want to do that.)