The Crime Book

86

A

ged 16 and just after

learning that his parents

were divorcing, Frank

William Abagnale Jr left home with

a small bag of belongings, including

a chequebook, and headed to New

York’s Grand Central Station. In the

six years that followed, Abagnale

became a legendary imposter,

performing feats of con artistry

that confounded FBI detectives.

Standing 1.8 metres (6 ft) tall

and passing as a twenty-something,

Abagnale changed one digit on his

driver’s licence to increase his age

to 26 and took a job as a delivery

boy. Frustrated with his income,

he started writing cheques that

bounced. Police were already

searching for him as a runaway,

so Abagnale fled to Miami.

The “skywayman”

Passing a hotel in the city,

Abagnale noticed a flight crew and

was struck by an idea: he could

pose as a pilot, travel the world,

and never have a problem cashing

cheques. The next day, he called

the Pan American World Airways

office and asked for the purchasing

department, claiming that the hotel

IN CONTEXT

LOCATION

New York, Utah, Louisiana,

and Georgia, US

THEME

Imposter and cheque forger

BEFORE

1874 James Reavis, a master

forger, uses false documents to

claim land in Arizona and New

Mexico, then sells property

deeds for over $5 million (£84.7

million today).

AFTER

1992 Michael Sabo, a master

imposter and cheque forger

from Pennsylvania, is

convicted of bank fraud,

forgery, grand larceny, and

identity theft.

1998 John Ruffo, a former US

bank executive, swindles

multiple banks out of $350

million (£280 million); he is

caught and sentenced to 17

years in prison but disappears

on the day he is due to start

his jail term.

Redemption

Frank Abagnale demonstrates

a pronounced and enduring

need to atone for his crimes. He

is still associated with the FBI

42 years after he was first

assigned there as part of his

conditional release, and he has

refused to accept payment for

government work he has

performed. Abagnale has

also turned down the offer of

pardons from three different

Presidents, insisting that “a

paper won’t excuse my actions,

only my actions will.”

Using his unique skill set for

good, Abagnale has become a

renowned expert on personal

and corporate identity theft,

fraud protection, and security.

In 1976, Abagnale founded his

own security company, and his

fraud prevention programmes

have been implemented by

14,000 corporations, law

enforcement agencies, and

financial institutions worldwide.

Abagnale became friends

with Joseph Shea – the agent

who led the investigation into

him – and they remained close

until Shea’s death in 2005.

AT THE TIME, VIRTUE

WAS NOT ONE OF MY

VIRTUES

FRANK ABAGNALE, 1964–69

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87

Since his release, Frank Abagnale

has transformed from master con man

into one of the world’s most respected

authorities on fraud, forgery, and

embezzlement.

See also: The Sale of the Eiffel Tower 68–69 ■ Clifford Irving 88–89

CON ARTISTS

he was staying at had lost his

uniform. They directed him to their

New York supplier, who fitted him

for a new uniform.

Abagnale used adhesive

stickers from a model Pan Am plane

to make a Pan Am pilot’s licence,

and found that he could use it to

travel the world for free, courtesy of

an airline policy offering free rides

to each other’s pilots.

Career changes

After two years as a “pilot”, he

moved to Utah, changed his name

to Frank Adams, forged a diploma,

and was hired as a sociology

professor at Brigham Young

University for a semester. Next,

despite never attending law school,

Abagnale passed the Louisiana

state bar exam on his third try. He

was recruited as a legal assistant

by the corporate law division of the

Louisiana Attorney General’s office.

Abagnale left the job after a year

when a lawyer started to question

his credentials. He then passed

himself off as a paediatrician in a

Georgia hospital, working under

the alias of Dr Frank Williams.

All the while, he passed fake

cheques and dummy bank deposit

slips, effectively leaving a trail for

the FBI to follow.

Flight risk

Abagnale was finally apprehended

in 1969 in France. He was deported

to the US, but escaped the aircraft

and fled to Canada, where he was

rearrested in Montreal. He then

Frank Abagnale’s “professions”

Sociology Doctor

professor

FBI agent

Undercover

Bureau of

Prisons agent

Lawyer

Airline pilot

escaped again, posing as an

undercover prison agent, and fled

to Washington, D.C. where he

narrowly evaded capture by

impersonating an FBI agent. He

was captured by chance when he

walked past two NYPD detectives

in an unmarked police car.

Abagnale was sentenced to 12

years in prison, but four years into

his term he was released on the

condition he work for the FBI for the

remainder of his sentence.

Abagnale later founded a

security company advising banks

on how to avoid and combat fraud.

His 1980 biography, Catch Me If

You Can, was filmed by Steven

Spielberg and released in 2002. ■

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