Catch Me If You Can: the true story of Frank Abagnale Jr is even crazier than the film, just FYI

Catch Me If You Can is one of the most thrilling movies of the early 2000s — and now, it's drawing in a new generation of fans thanks to its recent drop on Netflix, where it's climbing to the top of the charts.

The Steven Spielberg-directed classic stars Hollywood greats like Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, and follows the alleged life of Frank Abagnale Jr., who, by the age of 19, claimed to have illegally earned millions of dollars by posing as a pilot, a doctor, and a prosecutor.

All sounds very far-fetched, right? The movie, which was also based on Abagnale Jr.'s semi-autobiographical book of the same name (in which he openly divulged these criminal exploits), has been heavily disputed. Even the author himself has admitted to embellishing a few facts: in 2002, the same year the film was released, he confessed on his website to overdramatising some aspects of his life. However, he wasn't specific about which parts.

So, as new audiences question how on earth Abagnale Jr. got away with his crimes for so long, let's take a deep dive into his story. Which is, quite frankly, unbelievable.

Leonardo DiCaprio as Frank Abagnale Jr. in Catch Me If You Can

The myth of Frank Abagnale Jr. goes that during the mid-1960s and early 1970s, he lived his life under various monikers. But how did he learn the ways of a criminal? During the 60s, when he was just a teenager, he began forging cheques. Abagnale Jr. claims that his first victim was his father, who, when he was 15, gave him a gasoline credit card and a truck. The young criminal quickly racked up a bill of $3,400.

In June 1965, after a reported stint in a New York reform school and three months in the US Navy, Abagnale Jr. was arrested in California for stealing his father's neighbour's Ford Mustang. He reportedly financed the New York to California road trip with blank cheques stolen from a Bronx family business.

Petty (ish) crimes aside, this is where Abagnale Jr.'s crimes jump up a notch. When he was 17, he reportedly decided to impersonate a pilot. Casual, we know. With the stolen cheque money, he allegedly purchased a pilot's uniform from a company supplier, and in July 1965, he told local media that he was a Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) pilot school graduate. This con was a key element in Catch Me If You Can.

During this scheme, he utilised the 'deadheading' practice, where non-working crew members ride in the cockpit or in a passenger seat. Abagnale Jr. claimed he travelled over two million miles, visited 26 countries, and flew on around 250 flights. He also reportedly stayed in hotels and dined at restaurants, which he billed to Pan Am.

Abagnale Jr.'s days as a 'pilot' were numbered, though, as he was arrested in July 1965 for the cheque theft in New York and sentenced to three years in jail. He only served two. After his release in December 1968, he ditched Pan Am and moved to Louisiana, where he posed as a Trans World Airlines pilot. Here, he befriended Paula Parks, a Delta Air Lines stewardess he had met in New York. Abagnale Jr. stayed with the family of Parks during this time, which is when he is said to have stolen around $1,200 from them using false cheques.

While in Louisiana, he also posed as a lawyer. After forging a Harvard transcript and passing the Louisiana bar exam (in the film, Hanks' character FBI agent Carl Hanratty asks Abagnale Jr. how he managed to pass the bar), he started working in the Louisiana State Attorney General's office.

Frank Abagnale was the subject of the 2002 film

In late 1966 to 1967, before his 19th birthday, his other alias was born: Frank Abagnale Jr. the doctor, who was reportedly the chief resident paediatrician at a Georgia hospital. Going by the name 'Frank Williams' and forging credentials, Abagnale Jr. supervised interns. During his 11-month stint in the hospital, he claimed he didn't like handling emergencies, which explained his hands-off approach.

In 1968, Abagnale Jr. was ultimately arrested in Louisiana and was charged with theft and forgery. However, he was unable to make bail and was convicted in June 1969 and sentenced to 12 years of supervised probation. Not content with this new reality, he swapped Louisiana for Europe. Two weeks later, he was arrested again in Montpelier, France, after he reportedly defrauded two local families in southern Sweden. He was also sentenced to four months in France, serving three in Perpignan's prison.

After spending time in a French prison, Abagnale Jr. was then extradited to Sweden. He was convicted of gross fraud by forgery and sentenced to two months in a Malmö jail. He was subsequently banned from Sweden for eight years.

Once Abagnale Jr. was back in the US, he returned to his old tricks. He cashed a fake Pan Am paycheck in July 1970, in North Carolina, which caught the FBI's attention. Soon after, he was arrested in Cobb County, Georgia, but managed to pose as a prison inspector and walk out of the front door of the local jail. (Literally the stuff of movies!) He was later caught by the authorities in New York City a few days later.

But perhaps his biggest escape from the authorities — and the most disputed one of all — was his 1969 apparent plane escape. While being flown from France to the US, he escaped from the plane as it was taxiing. Of course, such a wild moment was bound to end up in the film.

The end of Abagnale Jr.'s criminal story ends here, kind of. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1971 for forging checks, while his Cobb County jailhouse landed him an extra two years. However, after only serving two years out of 12, he was released in 1974 on parole.

Frank Abagnale Jr. became somewhat of a celebrity

In 2020, journalist Alan C. Logan debunked Abagnale Jr's story, claiming he had evidence that disproves its legitimacy entirely. He penned the book Self-Styled: Chasing Dr. Robert Vernon Spears, which explored a separate medical conman's involvement in a mysterious 1959 commercial airline disaster. Of Spears' and Abagnale Jr's similarities, he told Pulse, a health and science podcast: "And everyone who read the book started comparing Spears, who was verifiable … to Abagnale, to Catch Me if You Can. And I just thought, well, let me look into [it] a little bit. And nothing was adding up, nothing was verifiable."

This convinced Logan to write The Greatest Hoax on Earth, Catching Truth While We Can, which he claimed exposed the real story of Abagnale Jr. Using public records and newspaper clippings, he was able to reveal the real story — specifically relating to his TWA pilot hoax.

Logan also explained on the Pulse podcast: "What really happened was that, dressed as a TWA (Trans World Airlines) pilot, which he only did for a few weeks, [Abagnale] befriended a flight attendant called Paula Parks. He followed her all over the Eastern Seaboard, identified her work schedule through deceptive means, and essentially stalked the woman." After stealing the said $1,200 in cheques from the Parks family, he was caught and arrested.

Logan added: "So Abagnale's narrative that between the ages of 16 and 20, he was on the run, chased all over the United States and even internationally by the FBI. This is completely fictitious. Public records obtained by me show that he was confined for the most part in prison during those years."

The legitimacy of his story has been questioned

Sophie Williams

Freelance Journalist and Copywriter

Sophie Williams is a Freelance Journalist and Copywriter, covering everything from Fashion to Entertainment to music, Lifestyle and Features. She has interviewed a range of musical artists and authors including Alyssa Edwards, Courtney Barnett, Confidence Man, The Vaccines, Loyle Carner, Gabrielle, and John Niven, and has written for publications like Metro, Reader's Digest, ITV's Woo! and Vice’s NBGA. She is also working on a book for HarperCollins about Taylor Swift, due to be published in 2024.