Frank Abagnale biography

Synopsis

Early Life

Frank Abagnale was born on April 27, 1948, in Bronxville, New York. He was one of four children born to parents Frank Abagnale, Sr. and Paulette Abagnale. The couple met in Algiers during World Ward II, while Frank, Sr. was stationed in Oran. After the war, they moved to New York, where Frank started a stationery business on Madison Avenue.

Frank, Jr. had a happy childhood, and was especially close to his father. When his mother decided unexpectedly to leave his father, however, the young Frank's life was turned upside-down. Not only were his siblings devastated, but so was his father, who was still very much in love with his wife. Frank, Jr. decided to live with his father after the divorce, and he often tagged along on his dad's business dealings. It was during this time that Frank, Jr. learned a lot about white collar businesses. 

Early Crimes

As a teenager, Abagnale got caught up in petty crimes, including shoplifting. He soon grew tired of this practice, though, and decided to move into more sophisticated forms of burglary. Specifically, Abagnale began using his father's gas credit card to make a tidy profit. Frank, Jr. then convinced gas station attendants to give him a portion of his sale back in cash, and allowed them to pocket a portion of the proceeds. The scam fell apart, though, when Frank's father got the credit card bill, which topped several thousand dollars.

The incident caused havoc in the family; his father's business was struggling financially, and Frank's scheme set his father back even further. Tired of his son's delinquency, Frank, Sr. sent his son to a private school for wayward boys. But school didn't stick with the young Abagnale, who left home at 16 to make his own living.

Abagnale left home with $200 in his bank account and no formal education. Using his knowledge of the stationery business, Frank altered his driver’s license to make himself 10 years older than he was, and exaggerated his education. This helped him get better-paying jobs, but he still barely made ends meet.

Using his checkbook, Frank decided to quit his job and write bad checks to support himself. Before long, Abagnale had written hundreds of bad checks and had overdrawn his account by thousands of dollars. Knowing that he would eventually be caught, he decided it was time to go into hiding. 

Impersonations

Frank realized that he could cash more bad checks if he dazzled bank tellers with a new, more impressive personality. He decided pilots were highly respected professionals, so he schemed his way into getting a pilot's uniform. Abagnale called Pan American Airlines' headquarters and told them that he had lost his uniform while traveling. HQ told him where to go to pick up a new one, which he did—and charged it to the company using a fake employee ID.

Abagnale then cleverly forged his own pilot's ID and FAA license, and then learned all he could about flying—once, by pretending he was a student doing a research paper on Pan Am, and later through stewardesses he dated while in uniform. His ruse earned him valuable information about how to impersonate a pilot, which he did in order to hitch rides on planes all across the world.

Once Pan Am and police began catching on to Abagnale's lies, he decided to change identities again, this time becoming an out-of-town doctor taking a sabbatical in Atlanta, Georgia. When a local doctor came visiting, Abagnale thought his identity was blown—but instead he was invited to visit the local hospital, where he became a regular vistor. He used their medical library to bone up on his new role as a pediatrician, and his inquisitiveness and bedside manner landed him a temporary job supervising medical interns during the night shift. He was then promoted to resident supervisor, and given authorization to temporarily practice medicine in the