Javier Leiva Ambush interview with Frank Abagnale

Abagnale claims he posed as a pilot, a lawyer, a doctor, and a professor from the age of sixteen to twenty-one years old. But how is that possible if he was in prison most of that time? You won’t believe his response. 

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Timeline of Frank Abagnale’s life between the ages of 16 to 21. 

The video of the interview with Frank Abagnale is further down this page. But for it to make sense, you first must understand the timeline. 

 

Age 16 – 17

Claim: Pilot

• Abagnale claims he impersonated a pilot for PanAm and cashed more than $2 million in 26 countries.

Verified Facts: 

• It’s impossible. Abagnale was not posing as a pilot at age 16. Instead, he enlisted in the Navy and dropped out months later. After his brief military career, he was arrested multiple times in New York.
• He also was arrested for stealing a car in Eureka, CA. 

 

Age 18

Claim: Doctor

• Abagnale claims he worked the overnight shift at Cobb General Hospital in Georgia as a supervisory pediatrician. 

Verified Facts:

• Cobb General didn’t have an overnight shift at the time. How could he pose as a doctor while incarcerated at Great Meadow Correctional Institute In Comstock, New York?

Age 19

Claim: Lawyer

• Abagnale claims he passed the Louisiana bar exam and worked under the Baton Rouge State Attorney. 

Verified Facts:

• Abagnale was still sitting in a Comstock prison until he was granted parole in May 1967. There’s no record of him ever passing the bar exam. 
• After Comstock, Abagnale was released on parole and lived with his mother, Paulette. He was later rearrested in Boston. 

Age 20 

Claim: Professor

• Abagnale claims he taught at Bringham Young University.

Verified Facts: 

• The truth is, Abagnale was sitting in a Massachusetts prison and returned to Comstock to complete his prison sentence.
• On December 1968, Abagnale was released from Comstock.

Ages 21-22

Claim: European adventure

• Abagnale says he was arrested in France, serving six months in the Perpignan prison. 

Verified facts:

• The truth is, he moved in with Paula Park’s family in Baton Rouge, LA. Then, he was arrested and convicted of theft and forgery (February 1969). 

• Eventually, Abagnale did visit France and Sweden, where he was accused of theft (October 1969). As a result, he served three months in France and two months in Sweden. 
• He was deported back to the USA. 
• Despite his claim that he completed all his crimes by age 21, Abagnale didn’t really get started on his brief Pan Am uniform and check scam until he was 22 years old. The whole thing only lasted three months, and Abagnale was arrested without pomp and ceremony on November 2nd, 1970, in Georgia.

Ages 23-25

Claim: Served 3 years in a Virginia Prison

• Abagnale claims he was convicted and served three years for forging $2.5 million in bad checks. 

Verified facts:

• In reality, Frank Abagnale was convicted of cashing $1,448.60 in Pan Am payroll checks (a far cry from the $2.5 million he famously claims). 

Age 26

Claim: FBI

• Abagnale claims he was on parole and quickly recruited to work for the FBI. 

Verified facts: 

• Abagnale got a job at Camp Manison (a children’s summer camp near Houston, TX) and was arrested for theft. He then worked as a social worker at an orphanage under false pretenses. There’s no proof he ever worked for the FBI. 

Age 28 and beyond

• At the age of 28, Abagnale begins promoting his fictitious timeline. He developed a press kit and was booked on “To Tell the Truth” and “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson. The rest is history. 

 

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The smoking gun

Alan Logan, the author of the Greatest Hoax on Earth, challenged me to recreate his research on Abagnale. First, he told me to request the smoking gun—Frank Abagnale’s prison card. Challenge accepted.

So, I contacted the New York States Archives, and sure enough, they sent me the records of his time there between the ages of 17 to 20. 

How to read Frank Abagnale’s prison card

After reviewing his prison records, it’s clear that Frank Abagnale exaggerated his entire life story. 

Above is an original inmate card from Great Meadows Comstock prison. Abagnale was incarcerated from age 17 to 20 (with brief parole in May 1967).  

RC means Remand Center, which is where they bring inmates to acclimate. 

On July 26, 1965, Abagnale was found guilty of ripping off the gas station and was sentenced to 3 years (see – Term 3-0-0). The crime has been redacted, but we could verify it from newspaper clippings. 

GM means Great Meadow. He was brought there on September 15, 1965.

Max Expiry would have been the date he was scheduled to be released, which was supposed to be 3 years after his sentencing, i.e., July 13, 1968. But he was paroled first. 

The top left-hand corner says PAR, which means parole. He was paroled from Great Meadow on May 8, 1967. But that parole was short-lived because of his stolen car conviction in South Boston and low-level check conviction just weeks later. He was sentenced to 120 days in the Charles St. Jail in Boston and then sent back to Great Meadow for the remainder of the full term.

PV means parole violation, and he was brought back from Massachusetts to Great Meadow on December 12, 1967. He stayed in Great Meadow until December 24, 1969, just days before he met Paula Parks. 

1:21 Q: “You pretend to be a pilot, a lawyer, a doctor… but how could you have done all that if you were sitting in prison most of the time?” 

1:43 Javier presents Frank Abagnale his prison card that clearly shows he was in prison from 16 to 21 years old. 

1:56 Frank Abagnale denies writing his own autobiography! 😲

Frank Abagnale admits that his life story is a work of fiction.

Even today, Penguin Books is positioning Catch Me if You Can, the book, as non-fiction, an “uproarious, best-selling true story.” And the movie “Catch Me If You Can” claims it’s based on a true story. 

But now, Abagnale claims he had nothing to do with his own autobiography. So is he implying that Stan Redding, the book’s co-author made the whole thing up? The problem is Frank Abagnale peddled these lies years before “Catch Me If You Can” was published. I have a copy of Abagnale’s 17-page press kit, which details his caper. That press kit became a manuscript, eventually turning into the New York Times best-selling autobiography “Catch Me If You Can.” 

So if this is a work of fiction, how can Abagnale explain the numerous videos of him retelling the big lie? Take, for instance, the Johnny Carson interview, which predates the book Catch Me If You Can. Or how about his Talks at Google video, released 27 years after the book? 

Listen to part 5 of The Real Catch Me If You Can on Apple Podcast or Spotify.