Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Frank Abagnale’s Lies Revealed | The Real Story Behind ‘Catch Me If You Can
Fri, 06 Dec 2024
Frank Abagnale is one of the most notorious con artists in history and the inspiration behind Steven Spielberg's film Catch Me if You Can, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. He claims that before his 19th birthday, he successfully performed cons worth millions of dollars by posing as a Pan American World Airways pilot, a Georgia doctor, and a Louisiana parish prosecutor. But this is a complete embellishment. As Javier Leiva of the Pretend Podcast found out, Frank Abagnale was actually in PRISON while he supposedly carried out these elaborate cons. Javier Leiva is the host of Pretend Podcast https://pretendradio.org/ and can also be found on his new YouTube channel at @PretendPod Javier's Channel https://www.youtube.com/@PretendPod/videos Javier's Website https://pretendradio.org/category/pretend-podcast-con-artist-episodes/the-real-catch-me-if-you-can-frank-abagnale/ Follow me on all socials! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insidetruecrime/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mattcoxtruecrime Do you want to be a guest? Send me an email here: [email protected] Do you want a custom "con man" painting to shown up at your doorstep every month? Subscribe to my Patreon: https: //www.patreon.com/insidetruecrime Do you want a custom painting done by me? Check out my Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/coxpopart Listen to my True Crime Podcasts anywhere: https://anchor.fm/mattcox Check out my true crime books! Shark in the Housing Pool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0851KBYCF Bent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV4GC7TM It's Insanity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFYXKK8 Devil Exposed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TH1WT5G Devil Exposed (The Abridgment): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1070682438 The Program: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0858W4G3K Bailout: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bailout-matthew-cox/1142275402 Dude, Where's My Hand-Grenade?: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXNFHBDF/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678623676&sr=1-1 Checkout my disturbingly twisted satiric novel! Stranger Danger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWQP3WX If you would like to support me directly, I accept donations here: Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MattCox69 Cashapp: $coxcon69
Chapter 1: What are the real facts about Frank Abagnale's story?
Frank Abagnale didn't do half the things that you did or even any of the things that you did. Nobody was chasing him. When the movie came out, when Catch Me If You Can came out, he was getting speaking gigs every day almost. The guy has made a fortune out of a fake story. But it wasn't... millions of dollars. It was hundreds of dollars with checks using his own name. Okay.
This is not a mastermind criminal.
The problem is, is that Abagnale, like there's, there's nothing backing up his version of the story. Like there's just no real documents. And he's saying things that are completely contradictory to the documents that are out there. Like, Hey, I was here at this time. No, you were in prison at this time.
This guy was a low life kind of small time criminal, you know, like robbing, you know, gas stations and stuff like that. Like there was nothing exciting about his real story. So it is embarrassing to say, Hey, guess what? I was really not this mastermind. con artists, I was really just robbing, you know, this mom and dad from, you know, like stealing their checks.
I mean, yeah, I would be embarrassed too. Before he got married and before he met Stan Redding, these lies didn't exist. It's almost like if somebody helped him create this work of fiction and he's just stuck to it, right? He's just stuck to it for all these years.
Hey, this is Matt Cox and I'm here with Javier Leyva. He is currently doing or has done a podcast on the Frank Abagnale story, which is originally taken from the book. Catch me if you can. And there was a movie made. I think everybody knows Frank Abagnale and the movie catch me if you can. And, um,
Basically, Javier came across my radar and I thought it'd be great since there are so many people that compare my story to like a modern day version of Catch Me If You Can. However... The Catch Me If You Can story really isn't real. Like it's parts of it. So we're going to get into that. We're going to talk about it. Hey, Matthew. Thank you for having me. No problem. Yeah. Thanks for coming.
So listen, before we spoke, I don't know. And a lot of times people get booked through my booking agent and we're talking. And then halfway through the conversation, they suddenly... I'll say something and they'll go, well, you know, maybe I'll say something about my past. And then suddenly they'll go, well, what?
And they'll, and so I don't know if you know this or not, because a lot of times people don't even look into who I am at all, which is great, which is fine. Um, But I don't know if you know this, but I was on the run. Did you know this?
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Chapter 2: How did Javier Leiva uncover the truth behind Catch Me If You Can?
And, you know, as much as I hate those programs, if you have to really look back, you know, when I watched them, I was so offended. But looking back on it, I was like, eh, they were pretty much, they were pretty correct. Like they're 99% correct.
Nobody likes to hear their own story. You know what I mean?
I've had that happen a lot. Right. Nobody sees himself as who they truly are. Like, you know, the first time you're called a con man, super upset. But now I look at them like, well, what did you expect them to call you? You're a con man.
Yeah, but you have that separation. I've had that happen too. I interview a lot of con artists and nobody calls themselves a con artist. Nobody identifies that way, right? I do. Yeah. Well, but you've had time to have some retrospection.
What I love about your story though is that you really did all these things and someone was really chasing you and you were successful, but I bet you're not making $30,000 a speech.
to just just tell your life story and that's the difference here frank abagnale didn't do half the things that you did or even any of the things that you did nobody was chasing him but yet he has made a career and i'm talking about like multiple decades going on stage sometimes when the movie came out when catch maybe can't came out he was getting speaking gigs every day almost
Can you imagine $30,000, $20,000 a pop? The guy has made a fortune out of a fake story that you actually lived. And what's his secret sauce, right?
Well, I'm in the movie. Yes, I think so.
You just got to convince Steven Spielberg to make a movie out of you.
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Chapter 3: What makes Frank Abagnale's claims questionable?
And that way in the binder, they can see day by day what's going on. Well, what's great is that I can order those, and I was able to figure out what they have, when they found things out. It gives you a 360-degree view of a case. But in Abagnale's day, they didn't have that.
Yeah, but, you know, actually, the story starts in 1964 when he's 16 years old. But we might not have that all bundled up and packaged up for us. But Alan Logan, he's a hell of a research man, researcher. That guy can...
has we have documents like those documents that you described we have them going back to before 1964 we know that he served in the navy he never talks about that he we have like prison records so if you lay out all those documents in the timeline maybe i i know more about this guy's life than i know like month by month that i don't know about my own life you know what i mean because
That's how detailed it is almost to the month. And so just newspaper articles, court records, prison records, we know exactly where he was. There are some gaps still that we don't know about, but for the most part, we have like, these are facts. This is not subjective or we're not making this stuff up. These are like real records, real dates.
So, I mean, essentially what you're saying is that the book that I read over and over again- in prison isn't really factual.
The book that you read in prison was based off of an article written about Abagnale by a reporter that basically either he accepted the lies and just published it anyways, or he was really taken by the story and just didn't fact check it. And he wrote this article, amazing article outlining all of these, these capers. And that article was used as the basis for the book now.
And he's the guy, the reporter, Stan Redding, who wrote the article also co-wrote the book. If you ask Abagnale today, he's like, hey, but Frank, you wrote this book. And he's like, no, no, no. I had nothing to do with the movie, the book, the play. But his name is on that book. He blames the story now on Stan Redding, who is his co-author.
So Stan Redding just, I don't know, was tripping on LSD, I guess, and just made up all these stories.
But it's a memoir. It's all in first person.
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Chapter 4: How did Matt Cox relate to Frank Abagnale's experiences?
They have no clue whether this makes sense or in the 60s or whenever it was, I forget. But they have no clue if this is normal business practices. So they're just thrilled. OK, so they get a check for eleven hundred dollars and they have to write back four hundred dollars. And this is happening with a dozen girls. So he ends up flying over there, flying back.
And he he's made thirty thousand dollars or forty thousand. I love that part of it. Can I tell you the real story? Yeah, tell me the real story about the stewardess.
Because that, I'm so glad you brought that up because that's actually part of my new episode, my new bonus episode. Most of his stories are like 90% fabricated and just like based on nothing. This one, however, I learned and I was shocked to learn that it's actually based on some truth. So let me tell you the real story here. Frank Abagnale
dressed as a pilot, okay, in his pilot costume, gets out of prison, dressed as a pilot, goes to work at a preschool. He tries to get a job at a preschool. The preschool hires him as an assistant teacher. So, like, as a teacher's assistant. But you got to ask yourself, why would a pilot... want a job as an assistant teacher at a preschool.
That doesn't make sense, but this is what he does, and he gets the job. While working at this preschool, all right, his job is to drive these kids to and from the preschool. He hears the other preschool teachers talk about, hey, you know, we have a holiday coming up. Why don't we go on a little trip? They're probably in
talking about maybe like a road trip you know like a small little getaway frank abagnale says hey guess what um i could get us to puerto rico you guys want to go to puerto rico all expense paid trip and so he takes and this is a real story by the way this i feel like it's the inspiration to the story you just said so he takes these preschool teachers all female to puerto rico all expense paid trip pays for the hotel pays for their food drinks everything
And he's doing this presumably with fraudulent checks, right? Like cashing bogus checks. But towards the end of the trip, something went wrong. And he's like, we gotta go, we gotta go. And the girls wanted to stay longer. He's like, no, we gotta get back. They got back to the mainland. And as soon as he got back, he stole the preschool station wagon and drove off.
And that was the last those teachers ever saw of him. Yeah, it's bizarre. But you could kind of see...
Where he got that inspiration, right? Right. Well, plus one of the true stories also was that he was really going to universities. Oh, well, that's true too. As someone who worked for whatever it was, TWA or whoever, I forget.
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