Catch Me If You Can: The True Story Of A Real Fake (2003) - Plot & Excerpts
This memoir is by a man considered by many police agencies to be one of the cleverest con men they had ever pursued. By the ageof 17, he was successfully impersonating a PanAm pilot, deadheading around the country and using fake identification to cash NSFchecks. He was almost caught in New Orleans, but convinced the FBI and local police that his credentials were authentic -- he had, after all, managed to pull the wool over experienced airline pilots -- but he was pretty lucky, too, because the PanAm offices happened to be closed for the weekend when he was nabbed, and the authorities couldn’t check withtheir personnel office. One police officer said of Frank, “[He] could write a check on toilet paper, drawn on the Confederate States Treasury, sign it ‘you are hooked’ and pass it at any bank in town using a Hong Kong driver’s license for identification.”Fleeing to Atlanta, where he shacked up with a stewardess -- he had flight attendant friends all over -- he then moved into a singles apartment building. Asked for his profession, he simply replied“doctor,” more specifically, pediatrician. This resulted in a bizarre twist because another resident was a real pediatrician and they got to know each other. Before he knew it, Abagnale was asked to be the residents’ supervisor on the night shift for what he initially thought would only be two weeks but stretched into almost a year. How he managed to get away with it is both amusing — he couldn’t stand the sight of blood and once, when forced to walk by the emergency room as a bloody accident victim was being admitted, he had to go to thebathroom to vomit — and frightening. He wasn’t even twenty at the time.He blames his descent into delinquency on a 1952 Ford — that and girls. He couldn’t get enough of them, and to wine and dine them requiredever increasing amounts of money. Soon he had worked a scam on his father, using his gas credit card to get cash. He would go to a servicestation and make a deal with the manager. They would charge a set of tires or battery or gas to the card, but, instead of delivering the product, the dealer would give Frank cash of about 60% the worth of the product and keep the product which could then be sold again for its actual value. The Mobil people finally called Frank’s father to askhow his car could possibly require six sets of tires in less than a month and get far less than one mile per gallon, not to mention need several new batteries.Soon, by making a detailed study of the banking system and the way checks were routed, he was forging all sorts of payroll checks, working through all the banks in a small town, dating the tellers along the way. One girl he helped in Las Vegas happened to be a check designer and, during the course of a pleasant meal, she explained howpresses were used to print checks. Frank then studied special cameras and presses, purchased one and soon had so much money stuffed in hisluggage he had no room for clothes.Abagnale lived a sumptuous life — he says he went through several million dollars — on the lam, until the law caught up with him. The ending — no hints from me — is extremely unsatisfactory.That he is recognized today as the nation's leading authority on financial foul play we learn only from the book blurbs. Assuming theentire book is not a con, or even if it is, Abagnale is a charming rogue whose hilarious, stranger-than-fiction book is a delight to read or listen to.
Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake is all about how a 16 year old boy became the most daring con-man in US history. Over the course of 4 years, Frank had stolen millions of dollars and flown all over the world posing as a piolet for Pan-Am airlines. Oh, and did I mention he also posed as a doctor, lawyer and school teacher? Not only was he caught (several times before finally being put away) but he was later employed by the US government to help catch those trying to do what he did, swindle banks and companies. He was even the subject of a 2002 movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. Wow, did he ever come out of it looking like a million bucks.I really enjoyed this book. Granted, it took me some time to get through it - probably because I've seen the movie a few times and really wasn't that excited to find out what happened. I mean, they basically explain the plot on the back. Even though I knew a lot of the details, my jaw dropped several times just blown away with how he accomplished all of this.In order to bluff his way through all of these careers you not only have to be a good liar, you need to have full confidence in what you're telling someone. The minute you start to expose some doubt in yourself; the suspicions will begain to arise. Of course, with modern technology, schemes like this must become increasingly difficult to succeed with. Back in the '60s, cheques were mailed and when their "phoney-ness" (yes, I used that word) was discovered, Frank was long gone.There are some minor details that apparently have been heightened. Frank said that when banks were called to discuss the validity of Mr. Abegnale's claims, they refused to discuss the events. Frank noted that if a teenager had stolen thousands of dollars from your company - you'd be pretty embarassed going over the details.Overall, I really enjoyed it. I think that you're going to get a far more entertaining story from the movie version but I'm a little biased as I had seen it prior to reading the book. Also, the movie has Tom Hanks. TOM HANKS.
What do You think about Catch Me If You Can: The True Story Of A Real Fake (2003)?
what a great book. i enjoyed the movie, which i saw previously, but the book was a different form of entertainment. obviously, the movie is quite dynamic, and had to enhance some characters for interesting-ness sake. but what i enjoyed about the book is that frank's narration of his own events are just that, narration. he tells what happened, without too much of the look-at-how-freaking-awesome-i-am egotistical attitude. this man is brilliant. he says many times, or eludes to it, how a finely groomed appearance and confident air can get you whatever you want. it's crazy to think that all his exploits were done so early in his life, and he was ready to 'retire' at 20. what i also love about it is how he used his knowledge and skill, post prison, to make a living honestly. he mentions the 'highs' that came with scamming, i.e. respect, being able to command a room, recognition and monetary gain, were available to him in teaching workers how to detect fraud more easily. this was a quick read, and quite enjoyable.
—Carlie
4 STARS"I stole every nickel and blew it on fine threads, luxurious lodgings, fantastic foxes and other sensual goodies. I partied in every capital in Europe and basked on all the world's most famous beaches'. Frank W Abagnale, alias Frank Williams, Robert Conrad, Frank Adams and Ringo Monjo, was one of the most daring con men, forgers, imposters and escape artists in history. In his brief but notorious career, Abagnale donned a pilot's uniform and co-piloted a Pan Am jet, masqueraded as a member of hospital management, practised law without a licence, passed himself off as a college sociology professor, and cashed over $2.5 million in forged checks all before he was twenty-one. Known by the police of twenty-six foreign countries and all fifty states as 'The Skywayman', Abagnale lived a sumptuous life on the run - until the law caught up with him. Now recognised as the nation's leading authority on financial foul play." (From Amazon)I loved this book. I just ate it up in one sitting. It is funny and most unbelievable story you will hear. I enjoyed the movie as well.
—Kris - My Novelesque Life
Basic Summary: Watch the movie, you'll get the gist. This book claims to be an autobiography written by Frank Abagnale Jr, a first-hand account of his wild, sexy, preposterously daring days posing [most significantly] as a Pan Am pilot during the 70's. [But also as a sociology professor, a pediatrician and a lawyer]. While on a Wikipedia binge regarding the subject, I came across a quote from Abagnale who said he only spoke to the author a total of 4 times during the book's conception. And that the author (Stan Redding) frequently reminded him that he was not writing a memoir, but a story. The editor and himself wanted a more egregiously scintillating novel. Therefore, I must assume that this story is largely fictionalized.That being said, it was still remarkably entertaining. The idea that someone swindled nearly everyone they met, sans shopkeepers and peasants because even con men have souls, and got away with it at the mere age of 16! Altering his age, forging birth certificates, Harvard transcripts, medical licenses..the work! He even managed to pass a bar exam and became eligible to practice law in Georgia -- all acquired with fraudulent documents and never having finished high school.For 11 months [supposedly] he posed a supervising doctor on a pediatrics floor of a hospital. Until a baby almost died from oxygen deprivation under his care. If taken with a grain of salt, the book is fun ditty to read. I understand that Abagnale was a real-time con man of an extremely high level, served jail time in 3 countries and nearly had to serve in 6-8 additional countries for check fraud. As taken from an interview though, you can't believe everything he did:Did Frank really escape a VC10 jetliner by removing the toilet and climbing down beneath it, eventually escaping through a hatch onto the tarmac?The event is in Frank's 1981 memoir, but airline experts say it is impossible. "The entire system is sealed," says Skip Jones of the Aerospace Industries Association. "No matter what happens in there, you can't get into the rest of the airplane." Payload systems engineer Alan Anderson explains that the toilets are mounted on top of tanks that weigh over 100 pounds, and even if he manage to undo the toilet, he would have to crawl through a pipe four inches in diameter. "A person would have to be pretty small, and it would be messy," says Anderson.Then again..."Things that happen in real life are sometimes a hundred times more fascinating than anything a person could make up off the top of his head," - Leonardo DiCaprio
—Tima
