Catch Me If You Can is a 1980 semi-autobiographical book about criminal exploits allegedly engaged in by Frank Abagnale Jr., an American onetime con artist. Abagnale claims that, as a young man, he cashed $2.5 million worth of bad checks while impersonating a Pan Am pilot, a doctor, a teacher, and an attorney. The book is acknowledged to have been partly fictionalized, and the actual basis for the events contained in the book has been challenged. Co-written by Abagnale and Stan Redding, Catch Me If You Can was adapted into a film of the same name by director Steven Spielberg in 2002. In the film, Abagnale was portrayed by actor Leonardo DiCaprio. In recent years, the veracity of many of Abagnale's claims of scams have been subject to scrutiny.
Contents
Plot
Summary
The book is loosely based on the real con artistry exploits of Frank Abagnale. It is written in the first person and describes how Abagnale cashed $2.5 million worth of bad checks. He assumed various jobs, such as pretending to be a Pan Am pilot, a doctor, a teacher, and a lawyer, and for these impostures was pursued by the police and the FBI. Abagnale was eventually caught by the gendarmerie while living in France and served approximately five years in prison—six months in France, six months in Sweden, and four years in the United States. The book ends with an epilogue telling the story of Abagnale's final capture and his rehabilitation, which resulted in the creation of his security firm.
Details
Abagnale's parents discover his smalltime scheme. He has been profiting recklessly from a line of credit for auto work that was never done and car parts that were never sold. His father forgives him, but his mother sends him to boarding school for boys.
Between school terms, Frank is devastated when his parents decide to divorce. He runs away and takes up forging checks. He is easily mistaken for an adult, and uses this to his advantage by impersonating a 26-year-old in New York.
Inspired when he sees smiling pilots and pretty stewardesses leaving a hotel, Frank does some research on airline work culture. After some time, he successfully forges a pilot's license and lies his way into a warehouse. He gets a tailored uniform there identifying him as first officer for a commercial airline
Frank begins passing himself off as a deadhead (a pilot riding along in cockpits on the way to scheduled takeoff points) thus conning his way into free air travel. He explores cities throughout the U.S. and stays well ahead of his expenses with increasingly innovative check fraud.
One tense situation arises when he's brought in for questioning for reasons unclear. All those with whom he has direct interaction, though, see only a charismatic pilot with a license that looks real to their discerning eyes. He accepts their apologies for the inconvenience. (See also "Close calls" below.)
Eventually, Abagnale moves to Atlanta, into one of the new "swinging singles" apartment complexes, called River Bend. He enjoys the life of an unattached, wealthy playboy.
He whimsically claims to be a doctor on his rental application. The application shows that he is graduated from Harvard University. At his first opportunity, he forges physician's credentials to supplement his cover.
Members of the local medical community respect his preference not to work, at first. When a position opens for head of a hospital, though, they insist Frank is the best temporary fit. Frank hesitantly accepts the job and comes up with tricks to improve his façade as he goes. He forms a relationship with one Brenda Strong, but the romance is overshadowed by his fear that the FBI could be close to tracking him down.
Veracity
The book is prefaced with the statement: "This book is based on the true-life exploits of Frank Abagnale. To protect the right of those whose paths have crossed the author's, all of the characters and some of the events have been altered, and all names, dates and places have been changed." The character of FBI Agent O'Riley is known to be based on Joseph Shea, with whom Abagnale went on to form a lifetime friendship.
After Abagnale spoke at a seminar in 1978, two years before the book's publication, a San Francisco Chronicle reporter phoned a number of institutions that Abagnale mentioned to confirm his claims and found no evidence for them. Abagnale responded that he doubted anyone would confirm them due to embarrassment. He later said he had changed the names.
In 2002, Abagnale addressed the issue of the book's truthfulness with a statement posted on his company's website which said (in part): "I was interviewed by the co-writer only about four times. I believe he did a great job of telling the story, but he also over-dramatized and exaggerated some of [it]. That was his style and what the editor wanted. He always reminded me that he was just telling a story and not writing my biography." Specifically he addressed details such as the amount of money he wrote in bad checks, and the years in which his crimes took place.
In 2020, journalist Alan C. Logan made an in-depth investigation as part of publishing a book on Abagnale's life story, finding earlier newspaper articles that cast doubt on Abagnale's story and locating numerous administrative documents that contradicted many of Abagnale's claims. Logan's investigation found that Abagnale's claims were, for the most part, fabrications. Documents show that Abagnale was in Great Meadow Prison in Comstock, New York, between the ages of 17 and 20 (July 26, 1965, and December 24, 1968) as inmate #25367, the time frame during which Abagnale would claim to have committed his most significant scams. Logan's investigation uncovered numerous petty crimes that Abagnale has never acknowledged, and Logan offers evidence to argue that many of Abagnale's most famous scams in fact never occurred.
Film adaptation
The 2002 film Catch Me If You Can, directed by Steven Spielberg, stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Abagnale and Tom Hanks as his FBI pursuer, renamed Hanratty in the adaptation. The film is based upon his life and the autobiography and is mainly true to the source as Abagnale was a consultant to the writers, but some of the details were changed to create a more dramatic narrative for film. Abagnale is also credited in the film with a cameo as one of the French Police officers.
Musical adaptation
Abagnale's life was adapted into a musical of the same name, which previewed on March 11, 2011, and opened on April 10 at the Neil Simon Theatre on Broadway. The show starred Aaron Tveit as Abagnale, Norbert Leo Butz, Tom Wopat and Kerry Butler. Butz won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical at the 65th Tony Awards. The show closed September 4, 2011.