Man Who Impersonated Dead Mom Is Creepier Than You Thought

Thomas Prusik-Parkin mourns/schemes beside his dearly departed mother.

Investigators say it's unclear why Prusik-Parkin kept the casket, so we can only assume it facilitated some kind of bizarre incestuous-necrophiliac-autoerotic asphyxiation fetish. We'll have to wait for the Kevin Spacey biopic (or Billy Bob Thorton?) to really see what it was used for, but in the meantime, Prusik-Parkin and his accomplice, Mhilton Rimolo—who posed as his mother's nephew when Prusik-Parkin would dress in old lady drag to go cash checks or file court papers—were indicted yesterday in Brooklyn Supreme Court. Prusik-Parkin's accused of collecting $1 million in benefits and loans on behalf of his dead mother, who was believed to be alive by the bureaucracy because her son allegedly gave the funeral director a phony Social Security number when she died.

"He said he's not Norman Bates," Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes told reporters yesterday. "This guy is not stupid; this guy is very smart. His schemes were brilliant." According to investigators, the scam was detected when the new owner of Prusik-Parkin's childhood brownstone—lost in foreclosure—got suspicious and tipped off the cops. When detectives showed up to interview the late Irene Prusik in May, they encountered an elderly "woman" in a red dress and dark sunglasses, wearing an oxygen mask and a scarf to cover his Adam's apple.

But according to one investigator, Prusik-Parkin's "rather large hands" were an obvious red flag. He's charged with 47 counts of grand larceny, forgery and conspiracy; the two face up to 25 years in prison if they're convicted and are currently being held in lieu of $1 million bail. They only way this could get crazier is if Prusik-Parkin's "aunt" shows up to bail them out with a suitcase full of counterfeit bills.