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Frank Abagnale

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Frank Abagnale
Abagnale in 2008
Born
Frank William Abagnale Jr.

(1948-04-27) April 27, 1948 (age 76)
Bronxville, New York, U.S.
CitizenshipUnited States, France
OccupationSecurity consultant
Criminal charge(s)Fraud, forgery, swindling
Criminal penalty
  • 12 months in a French prison (about 6 months served)
  • 6 months in Swedish prison
  • 12 years in US prison (4 years served)

Frank William Abagnale Jr. (/ˈæbəɡneɪl/; born April 27, 1948) is an American fraudster. According to Abagnale, he had begun to con people and pass bad checks when he was 15. During his teens, he estimated that he flew more than a million miles deadheading while pretending to be a Pan American World Airways pilot. He has said he also pretended to be a physician and an attorney. After getting caught, he was imprisoned first in Europe and then later in the United States. He served fewer than five years in prison before he started to work for the federal government. Abagnale co-wrote a 1980 book on his life which inspired the 2002 film of the same name, Catch Me If You Can. He has also written four other books. Abagnale currently runs Abagnale and Associates, a financial fraud consultancy company.

The veracity of most of Abagnale’s claims have been questioned. In 2021, journalist Alan C. Logan provided documentary evidence that the majority of Abagnale's claims had at best been wildly exaggerated, and at worst completely invented.[1][2][3] In 2002, Abagnale admitted on his website that some facts had been over-dramaticized or exaggerated, though he was vague about what.

Early life

External videos
video icon Catch Me If You Can: Frank Abagnale's Story, Frank Abagnale, 1:02:27, WGBH Educational Foundation[4]

Frank William Abagnale Jr. was born on April 27, 1948, to a French mother and an Italian American father.[5] He spent the first 16 years of his life in New Rochelle, New York.[6] His parents separated when he was 16.[7] His father owned a store where he and his brothers used to work.[7] His father was also an affluent local who was very keen on politics and theater and was a role model for Abagnale Jr.[8] From kindergarten, he was educated first at Iona Grammar School and then Iona Preparatory School in New Rochelle, graduating in 1966.[9]

Early cons

His first victim was his father, who gave Abagnale a gasoline credit card and a truck and was ultimately liable for a bill amounting to $3,400. Abagnale was only 15 at the time.[5][10] Abagnale's early confidence tricks included writing personal checks on his own overdrawn account. This, however, would work for only a limited time before the bank demanded payment, so over time and through experimentation, he developed different ways of defrauding banks.[11]

In one of the few documented facts about Abagnale, it was reported in the Eureka Humboldt Standard (page 11) of June 22, 1965, that Abagnale had been arrested in Eureka, California by the FBI the previous day. Abagnale was pictured in the newspaper, seated in a car, being questioned by special agent Richard Miller of the FBI. Abagnale was reported as scheduled to face Federal District Court Judge Sherrill Halbert in Sacramento to answer to the charges.[12]

Impersonations

Airline pilot

Later, Abagnale decided to impersonate a pilot to look more legitimate when cashing checks. He obtained a uniform by calling Pan American World Airways (Pan Am), telling the company that he was a pilot working for them who had lost his uniform while getting it cleaned at his hotel, and obtaining a new one with a fake employee ID number. He then forged a Federal Aviation Administration pilot's license.[13] Pan Am estimated that between the ages of 16–18, Abagnale flew (as a passenger) more than 1,000,000 miles (1,600,000 km) on more than 250 flights and flew to 26 countries by deadheading.[14] As a teenager, he noticed that his hair was graying, which he parlayed into his pilot persona by giving the appearance of being older and having more professional credentials than he did.[15] As a company pilot, he was also able to stay at hotels free during this time. Expenses such as food or lodging were billed to the airline. However, Abagnale did not fly on Pan Am planes, believing his charade could potentially be identified by real Pan Am pilots or employees who would ask for identification or proof of employment.[citation needed]

Abagnale has written that he was often invited by pilots to take the controls of the plane in-flight. On one occasion, he was offered the courtesy of flying at 30,000 ft (9,100 m). He took the controls and enabled the autopilot, "very much aware that I had been handed custody of 140 lives, my own included ... because I couldn't fly a kite."[16]

Doctor

For eleven months, Abagnale impersonated a chief resident pediatrician in a Georgia hospital under the alias Frank Williams. Afraid of possible capture, he retired temporarily to Georgia. When filling out a rental application he impulsively listed his occupation as "doctor," fearing that the owner might check with Pan Am if he wrote "pilot". After befriending a real doctor who lived in the same apartment complex, he agreed to act as a supervisor of resident interns as a favor until the local hospital could find someone else to take the job. The position was not solely administrative as he has since claimed, but was not demanding for Abagnale as seven interns were eager to get experience under his supervision. He was able to fake his way through most of his duties by letting the interns show off their handling of the cases coming in during his late-night shift. However, he was nearly exposed when an infant became critically unwell from oxygen deprivation and he did not initially understand the meaning or gravity of the situation when a nurse informed him of a "blue baby". He left the hospital only after he realized he could put lives at risk by his inability to respond to life-or-death situations.[8]

Attorney

While posing as Pan Am First Officer "Robert Blank", Abagnale forged a Harvard University law transcript, passed the Louisiana bar exam, and got a job at the Louisiana State Attorney General's office at the age of nineteen. Despite failing twice, he claims to have passed the bar exam legitimately on the third try after eight weeks of study, because "Louisiana, at the time, allowed you to take the Bar over and over as many times as you needed. It was really a matter of eliminating what you got wrong."[17] He spent a total of eight months as a fake attorney.[citation needed]

Capture and imprisonment

Abagnale was eventually arrested in Montpellier,[18] France, in 1969 when an Air France attendant he had previously dated recognized him and informed police. When the French police arrested him, 12 countries in which he had committed fraud sought his extradition. After a two-day trial, he first served time in Perpignan's prison—a one-year sentence that the presiding judge at his trial reduced to six months.

He was then extradited to Sweden. During trial for forgery, his defense attorney almost had his case dismissed by arguing that he had created the fake checks and not forged them, but instead his charges were reduced to swindling and fraud. Following another conviction, he served six months in a Malmö prison, only to learn at the end of it he would be tried next in Italy. Later, a Swedish judge asked a U.S. State Department official to revoke his passport. Without a valid passport, the Swedish authorities were legally compelled to deport him to the United States, where he was sentenced to 12 years in a federal prison for multiple counts of forgery.[19]

Alleged escapes

While being deported to the United States, Abagnale escaped from a British VC-10 airliner as it was turning onto a taxiway at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.[20] Under the cover of night, he scaled a nearby fence and hailed a cab to Grand Central Terminal. After stopping in the Bronx to change clothes and pick up a set of keys to a Montreal bank safe deposit box containing $20,000 ($100,000 in today's money) Abagnale caught a train to Montreal's Dorval airport (now Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport) to purchase a ticket to São Paulo, Brazil. After a close call at a Mac's Milk, he was apprehended by a constable of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police while standing in line at the ticket counter. Subsequently, Abagnale was handed over to the U.S. Border Patrol.[citation needed]

In April 1971, Abagnale reportedly escaped from the Federal Detention Center in Atlanta, Georgia, while awaiting trial. During the time, U.S. prisons were being condemned by civil rights groups and investigated by congressional committees. In a stroke of luck that included the accompanying U.S. marshal forgetting his detention commitment papers, Abagnale was mistaken for an undercover prison inspector and was even given privileges and food far better than the other inmates. The Federal Bureau of Prisons in Atlanta had already lost two employees as a result of reports written by undercover federal agents and Abagnale took advantage of their vulnerability. He contacted a friend (called in his book "Jean Sebring") who posed as his fiancée and slipped him the business card of "Inspector C. W. Dunlap" of the Bureau of Prisons, which she had obtained by posing as a freelance writer doing an article on fire safety measures in federal detention centers. She also handed over a business card from "Sean O'Riley" (later revealed to be Joseph Shea), the FBI agent in charge of Abagnale's case, which she doctored at a stationery print shop. Abagnale told the corrections officers that he was indeed a prison inspector and handed over Dunlap's business card as proof. He told them that he needed to contact FBI Agent Sean O'Riley on a matter of urgent business.[citation needed]

O'Riley's supposed telephone number (the number had been altered by Sebring) was dialed and the call was picked up by Jean Sebring at a payphone in an Atlanta shopping mall, posing as an operator at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Later, he was allowed to meet unsupervised with the FBI agent in a predetermined car outside the detention center. Incognito, Sebring picked up Abagnale and instead drove him to an Atlanta bus station, where he took a Greyhound bus to New York, and soon thereafter, a train to Washington, D.C. Abagnale then bluffed his way through an attempted capture by posing as an FBI agent after being recognized by a motel registration clerk. Intent on making his way to Brazil, Abagnale was picked up a few weeks later by two NYPD detectives when he inadvertently walked past their unmarked police car.[8]

Post-conviction career

In 1974, after he had served fewer than seven years of his 12-year sentence at Federal Correctional Institution in Petersburg, Virginia, the United States federal government released him on the condition that he help the federal authorities, without pay, to investigate crimes committed by fraud and scam artists, and sign in once a week.[19] Unwilling to return to his family in New York, he left the choice of parole location up to the court, which decided that he would be paroled in Houston, Texas.[21]

After his release, Abagnale claims that he tried numerous jobs, including cook, grocer, and movie projectionist, but he was fired from most of these after it was discovered he had been hired without revealing his criminal past. Finding those jobs he was able to land unsatisfying, he approached claimed to contact a bank with an offer. He explained to the bank what he had done and offered to speak to the bank's staff and show them various tricks that "paperhangers" use to defraud banks. His offer included the condition that if they did not find his speech helpful, they would owe him nothing; otherwise, they would owe him only $50, with an agreement that they would provide his name to other banks.[22] With that, he began a legitimate life as a security consultant.[23]

According to Abagnale, "It was hard to keep a low profile in a big city." He claimed that he convinced his Federal handlers that he needed to move himself, his wife, Kelly, and three sons to Tulsa, Oklahoma. There, he stopped making speeches and kept as low a profile as possible. He and his family lived in the same house for the next 25 years. After the sons left home for college and careers elsewhere, Kelly suggested that she and Frank should leave Tulsa. They agreed to move to Charleston, South Carolina.[21]

He later founded Abagnale & Associates, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma,[23] which advises companies on fraud issues. Abagnale also continues to advise the FBI, with whom he has been associated for more than 40 years, by teaching at the FBI Academy and lecturing for FBI field offices throughout the country.[24] In 2015, Abagnale was named the AARP Fraud Watch Ambassador, where he helps "to provide online programs and community forums to educate consumers about ways to protect themselves from identity theft and cybercrime." In 2018, he began co-hosting the AARP podcast The Perfect Scam about scammers and how they operate.[25]

He has appeared in the media a variety of times. This includes 3 times as guest on The Tonight Show, an appearance on To Tell the Truth in 1977 [26][27][28] and a regular slot on the British network TV series The Secret Cabaret in the 1990s.[29] The book about Abagnale, Catch Me If You Can, was turned into a movie of the same name by Steven Spielberg in 2002, featuring actor Leonardo DiCaprio as Abagnale. The real Abagnale made a cameo appearance in this film as a French police officer taking DiCaprio into custody.[30]

Veracity of claims

The authenticity of Abagnale's criminal exploits have long been questioned. In 2021, journalist Alan C. Logan published an in-depth investigation as part of a book on Abagnale's life story, finding earlier newspaper articles and numerous administrative documents that cast doubt onto Abagnale's claims.[3]

In 1978, after Abagnale had been a featured speaker at an anti-crime seminar, a San Francisco Chronicle reporter looked into his assertions. Telephone calls to banks, schools, hospitals and other institutions Abagnale mentioned turned up no evidence of his cons under the aliases he used. Abagnale's response was, "Due to the embarrassment involved, I doubt if anyone would confirm the information." He later said he had changed the names.[31]

Further doubts were raised about Abagnale's story after an October 1978 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, with a news article saying:

Abagnale is indeed a convicted confidence artist. But he is finding willing believers as he promotes and invents a more varied criminal past.

— Stephen Hall, San Francisco Chronicle, Johnny Is Conned, October 6, 1978[32]

In December 1978, Abagnale's claims were again investigated after he visited Oklahoma City for a talk.[33] As part of his investigation into the story, Perry spoke with Pan Am spokesperson Bruce Haxthausen, who responded to the journalists' enquiry saying:

This is the first we've heard of this, and we would have heard of or at least remember[ed] it if it had happened. You don't forget $2.5 million in bad checks. I'd say this guy is as phony as a $3 bill.

— Ira Perry, The Daily Oklahoman, Inquiry Shows 'Reformed' Con Man Hasn't Quit Yet, December 10, 1978

In 2002, Abagnale addressed the issue of his story's lack of truthfulness with a statement posted on his company's website, which said in part: "I was interviewed by the co-writer only about four times. I believe he did a great job of telling the story, but he also over-dramatized and exaggerated some of the story. That was his style and what the editor wanted. He always reminded me that he was just telling a story and not writing my biography."[34]

Logan's 2021 investigation found that Abagnale's claims were, for the most part, fabrications. Documents show that Abagnale was in Great Meadow Prison in Comstock, NY, between the ages of 17 to 20 (July 26, 1965, and December 24, 1968) as inmate #25367, the time frame during which Abagnale would claim to have committed his most significant scams. Logan's investigation uncovered numerous petty crimes that Abagnale has never acknowledged, and with Logan giving evidence to argue that many of Abagnale's most famous scams in fact never occurred.[2][3]

Federal court records show that Abagnale was convicted for the 10 Pan American Airlines checks in five states (Texas, Arizona, Utah, California and North Carolina), worth a grand total of less than US$1,500.[1] Following parole, he claimed he went to work for the FBI. However, he was arrested in the summer of 1974 in Friendswood, Texas, for theft at a kids' camp, Camp Manison. This arrest was noted in the local paper.[35] Logan also found no evidence to support a variety of other claims of Abagnale's such as his claim that he was included in a coffee table book celebrating the 100th anniversary of the FBI.[3]

Personal life

Abagnale lives on Daniel Island near Charleston, South Carolina, with his wife Kelly, whom he met while working undercover for the FBI. They have three sons, Scott, Chris, and Sean.[36] Scott works for the FBI.

Abagnale cites meeting his wife as the motivation for changing his life. He told author Paul Stenning,

She met me as someone else with a completely different background and when the assignment was over I had broken protocol, because you're never supposed to do this, but I told her who I really was because I wanted to continue to see her. She accepted what I told her and eventually we got married and have been married ever since.[37]

Abagnale and Joseph Shea, the FBI agent on whom the character of Carl Hanratty (played by Tom Hanks) was based in the film, Catch Me If You Can, remained close friends until Shea's death.[38][39]

Books

  • Catch Me If You Can, 1980. ISBN 978-0-7679-0538-1.
  • The Art of the Steal, Broadway Books, 2001. ISBN 978-0-7679-0683-8.
  • Real U Guide to Identity Theft, 2004. ISBN 978-1-932999-01-3.
  • Stealing Your Life, Random House/Broadway Books, April 2007. ISBN 978-0-7679-2586-0.
  • Scam Me If You Can, 2019. ISBN 978-0525538967.
  • The Greatest Hoax on Earth: Catching Truth, While We Can, Indiana Landmarks, 2020. ISBN 978-1735557229

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Alan C. Logan (December 2020). The Greatest Hoax on Earth: Catching Truth, While We Can. Indiana Landmarks. ISBN 978-1-73555-722-9.
  2. ^ a b Well, Thomas (2021). "New book further debunks myth of scam artist Frank Abagnale, Jr. of 'Catch Me if You Can' book and movie". Louisiana voice.
  3. ^ a b c d Lopez, Zavier (April 23, 2021). "Could this famous con man be lying about his story? A new book suggests he is". WHYY-TV. Retrieved May 9, 2021.
  4. ^ "Catch Me If You Can: Frank Abagnale's Story". WGBH Educational Foundation. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  5. ^ a b Abagnale, Frank (2000). Catch Me If You Can. New York City: Broadway Paperbacks. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-7679-0538-1.
  6. ^ "Abagnale, Frank". Current Biography Yearbook 2011. Ipswich, Massachusetts: H.W. Wilson. 2011. pp. 1–4. ISBN 978-0-8242-1121-9.
  7. ^ a b Catch Me If You Can | Frank Abagnale | Talks at Google, retrieved March 7, 2021
  8. ^ a b c Abagnale, p. 277
  9. ^ Cox, Robert (January 13, 2019). "Secret Service High Rise Raid Tied to New Rochelle Post Office Check-Washing Scheme, Sources". Talk of the Sound. Archived from the original on May 15, 2020. Retrieved May 13, 2020. {{cite news}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; May 13, 2020 suggested (help)
  10. ^ Bell, Rachael. "Skywayman: The Story of Frank W. Abagnale Jr". TruTV Crime Library. Atlanta, Georgia: Turner Broadcasting Systems. Archived from the original on August 31, 2009.
  11. ^ Hammerand, Jim (December 11, 2012). "Q&A: 'Catch Me if You Can' Conman Abagnale Tells How to Prevent Fraud". Minneapolis Business Journal. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
  12. ^ https://newspaperarchive.com/tags/?pc=9271&psi=14&pci=7&pl=abagnale&ob=1/
  13. ^ "Frank Abagnale Biography". biography.com. 1996.
  14. ^ "Catch me if you can". Florida Sun-Sentinel.
  15. ^ "The true tale of Frank Abagnale". The University News. St. Louis, Missouri: St. Louis University. April 28, 2014. Retrieved September 15, 2019.
  16. ^ Abagnale, Frank W.; Redding, Stan (2000). "The Fledgling (1)". Catch me if you can. Broadway. pp. 3–4. ISBN 978-0-7679-0538-1.
  17. ^ Bell, Rachael. "Skywayman: The Story of Frank W. Abagnale Jr". Crime Library: Criminal Minds and Methods. Turner Entertainment Networks. p. 6, "Practicing and Evading the Law". Archived from the original on October 9, 2014. Retrieved September 13, 2014.
  18. ^ Vynckier, Ivo. "Arrests of the Escape Artist Frank Abagnale – Spielberg, Abagnale and OCR".
  19. ^ a b Conway, Allan (2004). Analyze This: What Handwriting Reveals (1st ed.). PRC Publishing. p. 64. ISBN 978-1-85648-707-8.
  20. ^ Buck, Paul (2012). Prison Break - True Stories of the World's Greatest Escapes. Kings Road Publishing. ISBN 9781857827606.
  21. ^ a b Eaton, Kristi; Holton Dean, Anna (March 2019). "The Road to Fame: Frank Abagnale". Tulsa People. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
  22. ^ Abagnale, Frank W. (2001). The Art of the Steal. Broadway Books. ISBN 9780767910910.[page needed]
  23. ^ a b "Abagnale & Associates". Abagnale & Associates. Retrieved May 20, 2007.
  24. ^ "aboutfrank", abagnale.com webpage.
  25. ^ "Fraud Watch Ambassador Named". August 27, 2015.
  26. ^ List of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson episodes (1978)
  27. ^ "The Tonight Show". December 3, 2013.
  28. ^ Video on YouTube
  29. ^ Production company website, accessed April 19, 2021.
  30. ^ Van Luling, Todd (October 17, 2014). "11 Easter Eggs You Never Noticed in Your Favorite Movies". HuffPost. TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  31. ^ Baker, Bob (December 6, 2002). "Portrait of the con artist as a young man". newsthinking.com. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved February 14, 2011.
  32. ^ Hall, Stephen (October 6, 1978). "Johnny Is Conned". No. 114th Year, No. 221. San Francisco Chronicle.
  33. ^ Perry, Ira (December 14, 1978). "Inquiry Shows 'Reformed' Con Man Hasn't Quit Yet". The Daily Oklahoman.
  34. ^ "Abagnale & Associates, Comments". Retrieved July 7, 2009.
  35. ^ "Houston man arrested for Camp Manison theft". The News. Friendswood, Texas. September 5, 1974. p. 1. Retrieved May 9, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
  36. ^ Hunt, Stephanie (September 2010). "Charleston Profile: Bona Fide". Charleston Mag via abagnale.com. Retrieved April 1, 2011.
  37. ^ Stenning, Paul (November 24, 2013). Success – By Those Who've Made It. In Flight Books. p. 102. ISBN 978-1628475869.
  38. ^ "Joseph Shea". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. August 7, 2005. Retrieved November 3, 2013.
  39. ^ "An Obituary for Joseph Shea". Retrieved November 3, 2013.
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