Inspiration for popular film tells tale of second chances
Frank Abagnale, the subject of the book “Catch Me If You Can” and the inspiration for the movie, a Broadway musical and the television show “White Collar,” proved to a crowd of USC students that every man does deserve a second chance.
The former con man’s lecture, sponsored by Carolina Productions, gave the audience a firsthand account of his life, from the events leading to his arrest to his service with the FBI. It was apparent that Abagnale had shared his story with audiences many times, as he told it with ease and close attention to colorful details.
Abagnale grew up in Westchester County, N.Y. as one of four children. He was educated at a private Roman Catholic school from kindergarten through high school.
When Abagnale was 16, his parents decided to get a divorce. He did not find out about their divorce until he was standing in front of a judge in family court and had to choose which parent he wanted to live with. This decision caused Abagnale to cry and, unable to pick one, he ran out of the courtroom and was gone before his parents got outside. He didn’t speak to his mother again for seven years after this happened and never spoke to or saw his father ever again.
“In the mid-1960s, running away was a very popular thing for young people,” Abagnale said.
But instead of getting caught up in the hippie scene or drug culture, Abagnale took a few belongings from his home and boarded a train for New York City.
His father owned a stationary store in Manhattan and Abagnale worked there as a stock boy and delivery boy, so he applied for similar jobs at stores in the city. He was hired for a small wage and worked limited hours, but was unable to support himself with his paycheck.
“As long as people believed I was 16 years old, they weren’t going to pay me any more money,” Abagnale said.
Because of this realization and a physical appearance that suggested Abagnale was far older than 16 (his friends used to say that “when [they] dressed for mass, [he] looked more like a teacher than a student”), he chose to lie about his age. He altered one digit on his ID, making him ten years older. He found that he could now make more money and get more hours for the same work.
After checks from his father’s account started bouncing, Abagnale needed a way out of New York City. He began his next adventure by impersonating a Pan Am pilot from age 16 to age 18.
He obtained a uniform through a few phone calls to the corporate office and doctored a laminated ID card with Pan Am decals from a model plane kit. Abagnale said Pan Am estimates that he flew more than one million miles during those years.
Airline regulations at that time allowed any member of a flight crew to cash a personal check of up to $100 at any airline desk, allowing Abagnale to acquire a large amount of money on a daily basis by stopping at every counter and taking advantage of shift changes. Abagnale said these regulations are still in place in 2012.
Abagnale impersonated a doctor while living in Atlanta, learning medical terminology by memorizing articles from medical journals. He took and passed the bar exam in Louisiana in two months (“not two weeks as the movie implies”) and worked for the state’s attorney general for about a year.
Abagnale was arrested at age 21 by the French police under a Swedish warrant for check fraud. He served sentences in France, Sweden and the United States. At 26, Abagnale was taken out of prison on terms that he work for a federal agency for the duration of his sentence.
He has now worked with the FBI for 36 years, serving 26 years beyond his legal obligation. He gives technical talks about fraud and embezzlement at banks and corporations across America. Abagnale and his wife live in Charleston, S.C. permanently. He frequently commutes to Washington, D.C. and up and down the east coast for work.
Abagnale said he had “very little to do” with Steven Spielberg’s film version of his life. Abagnale said “Catch Me If You Can” was the first movie Spielberg made about a real person who was still living and said Spielberg made the movie not because of what Abagnale did but because of what he has done in the past 30 years.
Abagnale ended his lecture on a sentimental note, reminding students how important their parents are and to “hug them, kiss them, tell them you love them.”
“All children need their mother and their father,” Abagnale said.
Abagnale told students to learn from his mistakes.
“When you make a mistake in life, you have to live with that mistake the rest of your life,” Abagnale said. “Think twice about what you do.”