Who Is John Doe?

The title of this post is a play on the first line of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, but it is an interesting question.

According to Wikipedia, the practice of using the name John Doe as a placeholder originated in England, yet the practice there is now rare or non-existent. I wonder what they call him there?

I came to know John Doe in 1968. I remember waking up one morning to see my mother glued to the television set, watching the news of Sen. Robert Kennedy's assassination. The black and white images were not real sharp, and I'll never forget the sight of Kennedy lying on the floor, his head being cradled by a bystander. As the picture went back to the news desk, Walter Cronkite said that the suspect, known as John Doe, was in custody.

At that time, I was not aware of the convention of using the name John Doe as a placeholder. But someone explained it to me that morning.

At school, one of my classmates said that the name of the assassin was John Doe. I, of course, knew better, and explained how these things worked. Due in some measure to days like that, I developed a reputation as a know-it-all. I used to think that was a bad thing, but now I know better.

And the whole purpose of this post was to sneak in that little pun...