StMU Research Scholars

Featuring Scholarly Research, Writing, and Media at St. Mary’s University

May 10, 2018

From Conman to Security Consultant: The Story of Frank Abagnale

You may not be familiar with the name Frank William Abagnale (ah-Big-Nail) Jr., but if you’ve seen the movie Catch Me If You Can, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, you have seen a glimpse of his life story. While the movie, directed by Steven Spielberg, was embellished for cinematic value, the tale of Frank Abagnale Jr.’s transformation from conman to a leading fraud expert is based on real-life events.

Frank Abagnale Jr. was born in 1948 to Frank and Paulette Abagnale in Bronxville, New York. Frank had what would be considered a good childhood; he had a stable home, with loving and attentive parents. Every night, his father would tell him, “I love you” and kiss him good-night. Frank describes himself as having a daddy in a world of fathers.1 Not the typical upbringing of someone who would land on the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted list. While most fifteen to twenty year olds are graduating high-school, going off to college or joining the work-force, Frank traveled the globe, committing forgery, check fraud, and eventually serving time in prison.

Frank’s life of crime started when at fifteen Frank committed credit card fraud against his father. Frank Sr. had given his son a credit card to purchase supplies for his car. Frank devised a scheme with the gas station attendant to fraudulently bill Frank Sr. for merchandise in return for cash, which he used to fund his dating life. It was not until Frank Sr. received a bill for several thousand dollars of merchandise that the crime was discovered.2

During Frank’s adolescent years, his parents’ marriage deteriorated, and ultimately they decided to divorce. The divorce was keep secret from the Frank Jr. until the day of the divorce proceeding. Frank was summoned from school to the court house. The judge presiding over the divorce asked sixteen-year-old, Frank Jr. to choose the parent with whom he wanted to live. Unable to choose between his parents, Frank ran away in tears, fleeing to Manhattan, New York.3

Upon settling in New York, Frank got a job where he earned a measly $1.50 per hour, which was minimum wage at the time. Believing his meager wage was the result of his age, Frank alters his driver’s license, changing his birth year from 1948 to 1938. Frank had always appeared older than his age; he was six foot tall and had premature graying of his hair, so he was able to pass for a twenty-something year old with ease.4 Unfulfilled and making just over minimum wage, Frank turned to check fraud to supplement his income. Frank’s early scheme was rudimentary; he would open bank accounts in his own name, overdraw the account and disappear when the bank demanded repayment. Initially, Frank passed checks in the amount of $25-$50.5

Altered check from the Steven Spielberg movie “Catch Me If You Can” | Courtesy of http://www.spielberg-ocr.com/abagnale.html

With little thought of the consequences, Frank devised a plan to pass checks on a much grander scale by posing as a pilot. In his biography, Catch Me if You Can, Frank writes, “Why, I thought, I could walk into any hotel, bank or business in the country and cash a check. Airline pilots are men to be admired and respected. Men to be trusted. Men of means. And you don’t expect an airline pilot to be a local resident. Or a check swindler.”6 In order to execute his plan Frank first needed to look the part. Frank contacted Pan Am Airlines claiming to be a pilot who had lost his uniform. Frank was able to con his way into getting a replacement uniform for a nominal fee, which was billed to the airline. Frank used the uniform to assume the identity of a Pan Am pilot.7 In addition to passing checks in much higher dollar amounts by posing as a pilot, came the perk of being able to fly for free, known as deadheading. While Frank never flew on Pan Am, he did deadhead on other airlines, allowing his check fraud scheme to span the globe.8

Frank Abagnale was a master of deception; he was able to change his identity and persona with ease. Over the course of five years, Frank had impersonated a physician, a lawyer, and a sociology professor.9

“Frank Abagnale as a physician. | Courtesy of reelrundown.comFrank’s impersonation of a doctor was not intentional; he was asked for his occupation in the process of completing a rental application, in which he answered “pediatric doctor.” Unbeknownst to Frank, an actual pediatrician lived in the same complex. Unable to avoid the pediatrician, Frank toured the local hospital, and used its library in order to add legitimacy to his claims. Frank did not perform any actual medical procedure, realizing that doing so could have life-and-death consequences. Frank abandoned that persona and left the area.10

Frank moved on to Louisiana, where he posed as a lawyer. During his time posing as a lawyer, Frank passed the state’s Bar exam. At the time, the state of Louisiana allowed testers three attempts at the exam. Frank used the process of elimination and on his third attempt, successfully passed the Louisiana Bar exam within nine weeks. A remarkable feat considering at the time Frank had only a tenth-grade high school education.11

From 1964 to 1969, Frank assumed many identities. He is alleged to have stolen 2.5 million dollars, and traveled over a million miles as a deadhead for which Frank was landed on the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted list. Frank was actively pursued by the FBI, state and local law enforcement from the time he was sixteen until his capture at twenty years of age.12

At the age of twenty, Frank found life on the run exhausting and decided to retire to France. Frank settled in Montpellier, the town his parents met in at the end of WWII. While grocery shopping, Frank was recognized by the stewardess ex-girlfriend, who had seen his wanted poster. The ex-girlfriend alerted police of his presence. Frank’s elaborate game of cat and mouse came to an end when he was arrested by Montpellier Police on an Interpol warrant for crimes committed in Sweden.13 At the time of his arrest Frank was wanted in every state in the United States and for extradition in twenty-six other countries. France refused to honor the Interpol warrant, and instead tried Frank for crimes committed in France. After a two-day trial, Frank was found guilty of forgery and sentenced to a year of prison in Perpignan’s House of Arrest.14

Frank served six months of his year-long sentence at the Perpignan Prison. While in prison, Frank encountered horrific conditions. His small cell has no electricity, toilet, or wash basin, and he had only a hole in the floor to relieve himself. Frank entered Perpignan Prison a 198 pounds and left severely malnourished, weighing only 109 pounds.15 At the end of six months, Frank was transferred to a prison in Sweden, to serve the remainder of his sentence. While in Sweden, Italy submitted an extradition request. However, the judge in Sweden instead worked with the FBI to have Frank’s passport revoked, in order to have him deported to the United States.16 Frank Abagnale served five years of his twelve-year sentence. He was released on the condition that he help the FBI investigate fraud and scam artists without pay, to which he agreed. Frank continued to work for the FBI without pay even after fulfilling his sentencing requirement. Frank also repaid the stolen 2.5 million dollars, despite it not” being a term of his parole or probation.

Frank Abagnale in recent years. | Courtesy of biography.com

After his release, Frank approached a bank with an offer to lecture its staff on how to spot tricksters and fraudulent checks. It is this work that Frank finds he has more value serving as a security expert than he had as a criminal. He works today as a security consultant, offering his advice and expertise to banks, law enforcement agencies and others. “More than 14,000 financial institutions, corporations, and law enforcement agencies use his fraud protection programs.” Frank still consults with the FBI, without payment of services or reimbursement of travel expenses.17

It is evident in his storytelling that Frank does not want to be immortalized for the actions of his teenage years, but for the family he has raised since. He credits his wife and three sons as his greatest accomplishment. Frank’s transformation from conman to leading security expert is an inspirational tale of someone who made a mistake, learned from it, and used that knowledge to contribute to building a better society.18

 

  1. Jenna Scafuri, “General Session,” Corrections Today (December 2011): 68-70.
  2. Sandy Lawrence Erdy, “Criminally Entertaining: The Imposter Behind Catch Me If You Can,” Biography, (January 2003): 26.
  3. Frank Abagnale, bioCatch Me If You Can Author Frank W. Abagnale Speaks at Clarkson University,” Clarkson University, 16 July 2013, Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY.
  4. Sandy Lawrence Erdy, “Criminally Entertaining: The Imposter Behind Catch Me If You Can,” Biography, (January 2003): 26.
  5. Frank Abagnale, “Catch Me If You Can Author Frank W. Abagnale Speaks at Clarkson University,” Clarkson University, 16 July 2013, Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY.
  6. Frank W. Abagnale, Catch Me If You Can (New York: Broadway Books, 1980), 42.
  7. Frank W. Abagnale, Catch Me If You Can (New York: Broadway Books, 1980), 42-44.
  8. Jenna Scafuri, “General Session,” Corrections Today (December 2011): 68-70.
  9. Frank W. Abagnale, The Art of the Steal (New York: Broadway Books, 2001), 3.
  10. Frank Abagnale, interviewed by Sarah Montague, BBC Hardtalk, March 15, 2003.
  11. Frank Abagnale, interviewed by Sarah Montague, BBC Hardtalk, March 15, 2003.
  12. Frank Abagnale, “Comments,” September 2002, http://www.abagnale.com/comments.htm
  13. Patrick Lynch, “Catch Me If You Can: The Real Story of Frank Abagnale, Jr.” History Collection, July 2017, http://historycollection.co/catch-can-real-story-frank-abagnale-jr/
  14. Patrick Lynch, “Catch Me If You Can: The Real Story of Frank Abagnale, Jr.” History Collection, July 2017, http://historycollection.co/catch-can-real-story-frank-abagnale-jr/
  15. Frank Abagnale, interviewed by Sarah Montague, BBC Hardtalk, March 15, 2003.
  16. Olivia Solon, “Frank Abagnale on the Death of the Con Artist and the Rise of Cybercrime,” Wired, February 2017, http://www.wired.co.uk/article/frank-abagnale
  17. Stephanie Hunt, “Bona Fide*,” Charleston Magazine, September 2010, http://charlestonmag.com/features/bona_fide#.
  18. Frank Abagnale, interviewed by Sarah Montague, BBC Hardtalk, March 15, 2003.

Tags from the story

Frank William Abagnale

Recent Comments

John Smith

I think Abagnale sounds like an incredibly intelligent man. I don’t think I can blame him for running into his illegal lifestyle, especially with what his parents did to him. How on Earth can you expect a kid to make that kind of decision in just one moment? I don’t think that was fair to him, but at least he has made a family of his own and has payed off his debts.

reply

21/08/2018

10:14 am

William Rittenhouse

after seeing Frank Abagnale, I had to read this. You chose a great topic. I have seen the movie too many times and is one of my favorites. For only a high school degree he was actually a very smart teen, but using his knowledge for the wrong reasons. It’s still really funny to me how he passed the bar exam by using the process of elimination. It almost makes me question the relevancy of our lawyers, but I’m sure the difficulty and content has increased since then. Very interesting!

reply

22/08/2018

10:14 am

Pedro Gonzalez Aboyte

This article does a great job of telling the story of Abagnale, which I had never heard before. He was a man who was extremely intelligent but didn’t put it to good use. It’s fascinating how he managed to become a successful conman from such a young age. The fact that he managed to pass the Bar exam with only a tenth-grade education is absolutely crazy! In the end, he realized what he had done and took the consequences he deserved. He turned his life around and began helping the government find people who tried to do what he did which I’m sure he enjoyed. The article was great and very informative.

reply

23/08/2018

10:14 am

Michael Hinojosa

This article is the perfect summary of Frank’s rise to fame as both a criminal and a security expert. Like most people I actually had no prior knowledge of this man other than the movie that I watched with my sister during one lazy Saturday, so to actually know that this was based off true events (I missed that part) and that a 16 year old was capable of such acts of fraud and trickery is mind blowing to say the least. Reading this was not only enlightening, but it was also entertaining and educational!

reply

24/08/2018

10:14 am

Megan Copeland

These types of stories always amaze me. Frank Abagnale must have been a really intelligent man to pull this whole scheme off. What I really liked about this story is how when Frank got out of prison, he went to the banks and tried to help them so no one could ever steal from them again. He was trying to make up for some of the mistakes he had made in the past. This article was very informative as it walked us through the life of Frank and took us through his crimes.

reply

25/08/2018

10:14 am

Victoria Rodriguez

Before your article, I had only seen the movie with Tom Hanks and I had no idea that Frank Abagnale pulled off such a grand scheme. Your storytelling of the events that followed his jail time was impeccable. I was able to follow the story easily. I also appreciated the background of his life before he began his fraudulent activities. It is so interesting how he turned his life around and made an honest man of himself.

reply

26/08/2018

10:14 am

Donte Joseph

Throughout the years I had heard many conman stories, watched countless documentaries, and seen many movies, but I had never stumbled upon something as amazing as this article and the fascinating components it offered. Frank Abagnale did awful and unlawful deeds but his curiosity of “how far can I take this” is something I find interesting because normal people would feel bad, and he might have, but he kept going till he was tired of it, not because of guilt.

reply

26/08/2018

10:14 am

Madeline Torres

I absolutely love the story of Frank Abagnale and this article definitely tells it well. It’s incredible just how much intelligence this man had in order to pull all of this off and to continue to run from authorities. The story of Frank shows that many people do learn from their mistakes and do in fact try to grow from them. Frank Abagnale is a great example of how one can mess up tremendously and still find the light at the end of the tunnel.

reply

26/08/2018

10:14 am

Sabrina Hsu

The first time I heard about Frank Abagnale was in my forensics class last year when we were going over forgery. We only went over him briefly so I learned a lot more about him in this article. It’s really mind-blowing that he was able to change from a conman to a security expert. It really shows that not every single criminal stays bad forever, some can change and better their lives. One of the most shocking parts is that he was able to learn how to do all of that with only a tenth-grade education.

reply

26/08/2018

10:14 am

Valeria Perez

I became interested in this article because of the movie, Catch Me If You Can, but now I am definitely reading the book! Besides the obvious fact that everything he did was illegal in multiple countries, Abagnale displayed an impressive amount of intelligence, creativity, and guts. It is equally impressive the manner in which he rebuilt his life and applied his “illegal” skills into something good for society. Amazing story!

reply

28/08/2018

10:14 am

1 2 3

Leave a Reply