Meet the FBI agent who slapped the cuffs on Abagnale

Frank Abagnale was busted for cashing ten bogus airline payroll checks by Joe Shea and two other FBI agents. Shea is the inspiration for the Tom Hanks character in the movie.

Shea died in 2005 at 85, but the other two agents may still be alive. I wonder what they remember about the day they arrested Frank Abagnale? 

If I could get ahold of one or both of these guys, I could finally set the record straight about Abagnale’s most blatant lies. Was there a prolonged chase between Abagnale and the FBI? Was the bureau looking into the sexual allegations at the University of Arizona? Did the FBI recruit Abagnale? If so, these guys should know. After all, they were the ones who put the cuffs on him. 

The three agents were Joseph Shea, deceased, Tom McKewon, and Al Brown, all out of the FBI Atlanta division. The two agents would be about 80 years old if they were still around. So locating them will be no easy task. But with some friends’ help, I found one of them- Retired agent Al Brown. 

Listen to my exclusive interview with retired FBI agent Joe Brown.

Confronting Frank Abagnale

This series is not just a story about a con man who lied about his past experience. No, it’s much bigger than that. This series is about correcting history. For decades, we’ve celebrated Frank Abagnale’s life like he’s a hero or something. He’s invaded our living rooms in countless tv interviews. He’s had Leonardo DiCaprio play him in a movie. John Williams even scored his superhero theme song. And his life has even been turned into a musical that one reviewer wrote: “is an amazing true story with a happy ending we all need.” 

But it turns out that America’s favorite con man is just another petty criminal who’s never really repaid all the money he stole. But if we zoom out, this is the story of the spread of misinformation. Where politicians and other grifters have taken a page out of Abagnale’s book and learned that if they repeat multiple lies over and over, most people won’t question it. And they can get away with it. 

Frank claims he evaded the FBI for five years. They couldn’t catch him even if they tried. Sure, he admits he finally got arrested, but in his version of the story, he became a hero by working undercover for the FBI. 

I may not believe his account, but I think he won in the end. The guy is in his mid-70s, lives in a multimillion-dollar island home, and makes a pre-school teacher’s annual salary every time he takes the stage. He made it! And besides his alleged victims, no one seems to question his success. He fooled us all. 

And he would have gotten away with too, if it weren’t for this meddling kid and his scrappy friend from Belfast. (The Irish guy is Alan Logan, the author of the Greatest Hoax on Earth.) We’re on a mission to set the record straight. So that when you ask someone if they know who Frank Abagnale is, Instead of it being based on a true story, they’ll tell you that he made it all up. 

Abagnale may have been on the run for the last 50 to 40 years, getting away with their biggest lie. But guess what…

We caught him. 

 

Listen to part 6 of The Real Catch Me If You Can on Apple Podcast or Spotify. Or start at the beginning with part 1.