IRENE PRUSIK
The real mother.
Prosecutors say he impersonated his mom — right down to the red dress.
The trial began in Brooklyn yesterday for the wacky son who allegedly impersonated his dead mom so he could cash her Social Security checks.
Thomas Prusik-Parkin — an admitted Norman Bates fan — is accused of collecting Irene Prusik’s government benefits and rent subsidies for six years after her 2003 death — with the help of a wig, some nail polish, a scarf and his mom’s favorite bright-red dress.
Her trademark look is even mentioned on the 73-year-old woman’s headstone in Staten Island’s Ocean View cemetery. “Everyone is talking about the lady in red,” it says.
Prosecutors contend that Prusik-Parkin falsified his mom’s SSN and her date of birth so he could keep her benefits and rent subsidies on the $2.2 million Park Slope apartment building she had left him.
“No one has that number,” Special Agent Gilberto Camilo said of the Social Security number on the mom’s death certificate. “That number does not exist.”