Frank Abagnale, Jr.

Frank Abagnale, Jr. (born April 27, 1948, Bronx, New York, U.S.) is an American author, former con artist, and financial security consultant. He became a household name after the 1980 publication of his memoir, Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake, which tells the story of Abagnale’s various fraudulent activities throughout the 1960s and ’70s. In 2002 a film adaptation of Catch Me If You Can, directed by Steven Spielberg, was released, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a young Abagnale. Many of Abagnale’s claims about his life experiences have been credibly disputed in recent years.

Abagnale’s account of his early life

Frank William Abagnale, Jr., was born to Frank William Abagnale, Sr., and Paulette Abagnale on April 27, 1948. He attended the all-boys Iona Preparatory School in nearby New Rochelle. His parents divorced when he was 14. At age 15, Frank Abagnale, Jr.’s father gave him a credit card that he could use to buy gasoline on his way to a part-time job. Colluding with local gas station attendants, Abagnale used the card to buy car parts before returning them for a smaller amount of cash, which he pocketed. In total, he racked up $3,400 in false charges. Upon discovering the fraud, his mother placed him in a Catholic school for juvenile offenders. As Abagnale tells it, he lived with his father briefly and then ran away from home at 16; he would never see his father again.

Criminal activities and arrests

Though Abagnale claims in his memoir that he committed most of his frauds between ages 16 and 21, a number of journalists have debunked this timeline. Abagnale claims to have cashed more than 17,000 false checks totaling $2.5 million during this period, a highly improbable feat given he was out of prison for only 14 months between ages 16 and 21. Public records show that Abagnale spent three months in the U.S. Navy between 1964 and 1965 before being discharged. Returning to New York, he was arrested twice in two months, once for larceny by check and then for vagrancy. In June 1965 Abagnale stole blank checks from a gas station in Tuckahoe, New York, and was sentenced to three years in state prison. He was paroled after two years but ended up back in prison after stealing a car in Boston. He was released in December 1968 at the age of 20.

According to his memoir, Abagnale impersonated a Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) pilot during the same period as his other crimes, flying around the world for free. In truth, Abagnale did not pose as an airline pilot until after his release from prison in late 1968, and, when he did, it was primarily for Trans World Airlines, not Pan Am. Author Alan C. Logan, who wrote The Greatest Hoax on Earth: Catching Truth, While We Can, the most extensive exposé of Abagnale, used public records and interviews of those who knew Abagnale at the time to conclude that the fraudster only impersonated a pilot for a few weeks. It was during this time that Abagnale met flight attendant Paula Parks, whom he followed to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Abagnale stayed with Parks’s family for a time, during which he is said to have stolen about $1,200 from his hosts using false checks. Eventually, Sweden issued an Interpol warrant for his arrest, and Abagnale was arrested and imprisoned in France in 1969. He was subsequently extradited to Sweden, and he served a prison sentence before being deported back to the United States.

In November 1970, back in the United States, Abagnale was arrested on counts of check fraud totaling $1,448.60. In April 1971 he was sentenced to 12 years in prison His book claims that he escaped the federal penitentiary in Atlanta for a time; he was never housed there, however. Abagnale was released on federal parole in 1974. He was arrested but not imprisoned that same year for stealing camera equipment from a Texas summer camp. He started his fraud consulting business, Abagnale & Associates, in 1976.

Later life and legacy

Abagnale began peddling his story in the late 1970s, initially to small audiences. In 1977 he landed a spot on the nationally televised panel show To Tell the Truth. His appearance instantly thrust him into the national spotlight; the next year, he was a guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, further enhancing his celebrity. Journalists began investigating and disproving Abagnale’s claims. Nevertheless, he successfully parlayed his television appearances into a best-selling autobiography. Many of the claims present in the book—that Abagnale worked for the FBI, that he was an attorney at the Louisiana state attorney general’s office, that he was a sociology professor at Utah’s Brigham Young University, and that he successfully masqueraded as a doctor and a pilot—were called into question. Nevertheless, Abagnale’s book was adapted into a similarly successful 2002 film as well a 2011 Broadway play. Abagnale continues to profit from his “experience” as a white-collar criminal, speaking at security conferences and events around the country. Abagnale currently lives in Daniel Island, South Carolina. He and his wife, Kelly Welbes Abagnale, have three children.