In 2002, Catch Me If You Can was released to positive reviews at box office success. The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio as A young, charismatic, highly intelligent con artist. The movie claims to be based on the True-Life biography of Frank Abagnale JR. In the movie, Abagnale poses as a pilot, doctor, and prosecuting attorney all before he is 22. After finally being caught by the FBI He serves a short prison sentence. After he is released, he goes to work for the FBI. It's a great movie with performances from Tom Hanks and Christopher Walken as well. This doesn’t change the fact Frank Abagnale's story is mostly Bullshit.
It took Alan C. Logan an entire book to show all the lies Frank Abagnale Junior told in his memoirs about being a con artist. The best I can do in an article is summarize. Frank Abagnale, Junior, April 27th, 1948, was born to a French American mother and an Italian American father. His parents separated when he was 12 and divorced at 15. Unlike the movie. Where he's an only child. Abagnale was one of four. In the movie, Abagnale runs away Forrest Gump style when he is told he must choose between his mother and father. In reality, he moved in with his father.
Abagnale's first theft was from his father, who gave him a gasoline credit card and a truck, which would cost his father $3400. This is important because Abagnale claimed, “he never hurt little people, just went after big businesses.” This makes his character in the movie far more likable. Abagnale was a petty thief who was caught most of the time. He often stole checks from regular people and would have to be bailed out by his parents.
Despite his claims that he conned his way to a job at Pan Am, allowing him to travel all over the world while forging paychecks. The Real Abagnale joined the Navy at 16 and was discharged less than three months later. The real Abagnale looked older as he was a big man with graying hair even as a young man. After leaving the Navy, he was arrested for vagrancy after impersonating a police officer and entering a residence apartment, claiming to be investigating the resident's teenage daughter. This would not be the last time he stalked a young woman.
After stealing a Ford Mustang from his father's neighbors Abagnale went on a cross-country trip financed by blank checks, which he stole from a family business. (This is the guy who never stole from people, just large corporations) he was arrested and released to his father's custody on July 2nd, 1965. This caused his father a lot of grief and stress. His father died of a heart attack in 1972. In the movie, Abagnale is constantly sending his father money and He takes him to a nice restaurant. In the movie, his father is so proud of his air pilot son. The real Frank Abagnale SR. understood that his son was a con artist who didn't care who he stole from.
Five days after being sent back to live with his father Abagnale forged some checks to get a pilot's uniform. Shortly after, he was once again arrested. Although Abagnale was good at Impersonating certain job positions, he wasn't able to keep up the ruse. He only thought one move ahead. He was always caught within months at the latest of whatever crime he committed.
Frank finally had to serve three years at Great Meadow Prison in Comstock, New York. He was released after two years to his mother's custody but decided it was a good idea to steal a car and break his parole. He would serve another year and be released on December 24th, 1968. He was 20 years old.
After being released, Abagnale was able to impersonate a pilot once again. He was able to fly to different locations. But he was never able to forge any paychecks. While flying with TWC Airlines. Abagnale began to stalk. A young flight attendant named Paula Parks Campbell. Abagnale sent her two dozen roses and a 5-pound box of chocolates. He surprised her at multiple airports throughout the country. Campbell later claimed “He was very charming, but he smelled bad. It wasn't bad. Body odor. It was fear.” In other words, he was far from Leonardo DiCaprio. He was more like Donald Trump.
Campbell tried multiple times to get through to Frank that she didn't want to date him, but like a good stalker, he persisted. Frank eventually showed up at Campbell's apartment in New Orleans, where she once again told him that she wasn't interested and was leaving to go see her family in Baton Rouge, LA. Frank offered her a ride, and she accepted for some reason. She would later learn what she should have already known that it is never a good idea to invite your stalker to meet your family.
At this time in the movie, Leonardo DiCaprio is already posed as a doctor, where he fell in love with a nurse who was about to be a single mother. In the movie, DiCaprio tells her he will go with her and pretend to be a man asking her hand in marriage. This is more movie bullshit. He never landed a job as a doctor or hospital administrator. The nurse he fell in love with in the movie was the flight attendant Paul Campbell in real Life.
When they arrived in Baton Rouge, Campbell's family fell in love with Abagnale despite their daughter's protest. He could be very charming when he wanted to be. He took them out to fancy dinners with the money he made from stealing from their checkbook. Frank never became a lawyer, never passed the bar, and never tried a case. By the time Frank was caught, he had stolen $1,200 in checks from Paula's family ($10,506.08 in 2023) and even more money from local Baton Rouge businesses. It turned out to be a local reverend who called the airline where Abagnale pretended to work. This blew his cover.
In 1969, Abagnale was sentenced to 12 years in prison, but the reverend convinced the judge to give him probation, financial restitution, and psychological treatment as opposed to hard time. (Can you say white privilege?) In the movie, Abagnale Escapes to France just ahead of Tom Hanks. Frank did take off to France but didn't escape an FBI manhunt. He simply skipped out on probation.
While in France, Abagnale was arrested for scamming 2 French families. He then took off to Sweden, where he was arrested again. After serving a couple of months, I've acknowledged was deported back to the United States. When Abagnale came back on July 30th, 1970, he got a fake Pan Am uniform and was caught forging airline checks. The checks totaled around $1200.00 (far from the 2.5 million he claimed) and he was caught because he cashed them using his own name. Because Abagnale committed check fraud, he had a record with the FBI, but he was never chased across the country, and he was never in the top 10 Most wanted. He was just a regular con artist who was good, added Impersonating people.
On November 2nd, 1970, Frankie Boy was arrested again for bad Pan Am checks and sentenced to 10 years. He never escaped from Atlanta federal prison like he claimed. He did, however, escape from Cobb County Jail, where he was caught for trying to pass bad checks like a total dumbass. Finally, Abigail went to Fulton County Prison to serve his sentence. Good. He was paroled in February of 1974. Upon release, he never worked for the FBI. Why would the FBI want to have a criminal who's been caught numerous times doing what he claims to be an expert area of expertise?
The only brilliant thing Abagnale ever did was convince people his made-up story was true. He began to work as a consultant to companies. Helping them to detect fraud. He also managed to convince AARP that he should be hired as a security consultant. He managed to fool Johnny Carson, who had him on the show multiple times.
As Abagnale got older, he began to write books about his fraudulent story. In 1982, he managed a fool and up-and-coming director named Steven Spielberg, who bought the Movie rights. Frank Abagnale Never would have been able to impersonate airline pilots in today's world. He took advantage of a time without a national database and more trusting people. The Internet would have eaten him alive if he had tried to tell a story today. If anyone Googles Frank Abagnale fraud, there will be numerous YouTube videos.
The real Frank Abagnale was never a 140 IQ prodigy That he pretended to be. He hurt lots of people, as most of the people he got away with stealing from were working-class or small business owners. Charlotte Parks (Paula Parks Cambell's mother) said in a 1981 interview “he had the key to our front door. It was never recovered. We changed the lock. I fed him. I cooked. I don't trust people as much anymore." That is the real Frank Abagnale.