Library:Catch Me If You Can
| Catch Me If You Can | |
|---|---|
| Author | Frank W. Abagnale with Stan Redding |
| First published | 1980 |
| ISBN | 978-0-7679-0538-1 unverified |
| Role | Primary source |
| Domains | Business, Finance & Scams Technology & Media |
| Tactics | Imposture Fabrication |
Catch Me If You Can is a 1980 book by Frank W. Abagnale with Stan Redding.
Summary
Catch Me If You Can is Frank Abagnale's account of his supposed career as a teenage con artist in the 1960s. Written with journalist Stan Redding, it describes how Abagnale claimed to have impersonated an airline pilot, a doctor, a lawyer and a college professor, and to have cashed millions of dollars in fraudulent checks in dozens of countries before he was 21. The book was the basis for Steven Spielberg's 2002 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and a Broadway musical, and helped launch Abagnale's long career as a fraud-prevention consultant and speaker. Bullshitopedia lists it as a primary source because the book itself has become a subject of doubt.
The story
In the book, Abagnale describes running away from home at 16 and inventing a series of identities. As a fake Pan Am pilot, he says, he flew around the world as a "deadheading" passenger, staying in hotels at the airline's expense. He describes posing as a pediatrician at a hospital in Georgia, passing a bar exam to work in a state attorney general's office, and teaching sociology at a university. Throughout, he says he financed his life by forging and cashing checks, until he was caught in France and imprisoned in France, Sweden and the United States.
The doubts
Questions about the truth of the story arose over the years. Abagnale himself said in interviews that his co-writer had exaggerated some parts. In 2020 the researcher Alan C. Logan published The Greatest Hoax on Earth, drawing on newspaper archives, court records and prison documents. Logan concluded that Abagnale had spent much of the period when he claimed to be jetting around the world in prison in the United States, and that many of the book's most famous episodes could not be corroborated. Logan and journalists also interviewed people who had encountered Abagnale and whose accounts differed sharply from his. Abagnale has continued to defend the broad outline of his story.
Abagnale's later career
After his release, Abagnale became a consultant on check fraud and identity theft, lecturing to businesses and law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, for decades. His reputation as a reformed master con man was central to that career, which gives the questions about his story added significance.
Relevance to Bullshitopedia
Catch Me If You Can is a fascinating case of a book about deception that may itself be deceptive. Its success shows how a charming, confident narrative can be accepted for decades, adapted by major filmmakers and used to build a professional reputation, without being checked against documentary evidence. Readers can enjoy it as a story while treating its factual claims with caution.