The Crime Book

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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