It seems to me the fascination with this type of story (and it's not the first I've seen here) is the element of remaking ourselves. A lot of famous people got famous under a stage name: John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison; John Mellencamp became famous as John Cougar; Julie Newmar was born Julia Chalene Newmeyer. On this site, the man behind Mixergy took the name Andrew Warner because his ethnic name was an obstacle to business success. Many people also go by "handles" on various online forums rather than their real name and plenty of people have nicknames that their close friends use for them.

I suppose one lesson to learn here is that there is a right way and a wrong way to remake yourself. And that assuming a new identity does not automatically prevent problems from following you.