Frank Abagnale Jr. By Dakota Topf

Background• One of 4 children, lived in New York City• Father started a business on Madison Avenue• Mother unexpectedly left the family and it devastated them• Young Frank lived with his father after the divorce• Became very close with his father• Began tagging along on his dad’s business meetings• At the meetings, he began to learn a lot about the white collar

business• Had a part time job, was given a car and gas card• Started going out on dates with women, but needed more

money somehow• Ended up back in his mother’s custody and in a private school

for delinquent boys for a year• Left home at the age of 16• No formal education

Crimes• Shoplifting(stealing goods from a shop while pretending to be a customer)

o He was caught doing these things but received no sentence as an early teenager

• Burglary(theft, stealing money)

o Frank scammed his father and a gas company by running deals on his dad’s gas card which ended up costing his dad thousands of dollars. Frank set out on the run after this in fear of being caught

• Fraud and Forgery (criminal deception and producing a copy of a document, signature, banknote, or work of art.)

o Forged Federal Aviation Administration pilot's license, defrauded banks by writing checks on his overdrawn account and opening fake accounts under aliases, forged Harvard University law transcript

• Impersonations (an act of pretending to be another person for the purpose of fraud)

o Impersonated a Pan Am pilot (made $300,000), a doctor, a professor, and an attorney. Had jobs as all of these and people believed him even though he really had no experience in any of these professions all at the age of 16-18.

Captured• Finally captured in France by FBI agent Joseph

Shea after being on the run for several years• Sentenced to 1 year in the Perpignan prison in

France, served only 6 months• Extradited to Sweeden, then to the United States• Found guilty of forgery, impersonation, and fraud

o Sentenced to 12 years in prisono Served only 5 years, the FBI asked him to work for them

and teach them all the ways that he, or other criminals could commit fraud or break into their systems. Began to get offers from other companies about helping them with security issues.

Quotes, etc• “I was an opportunist and got away with things

because I was very young, but I went to prison and came out and remade my life.”- Frank Abagnale

• Nickname- The Skywayman • Described as the greatest con man of all time• Evidence

o Frank left behind an array of evidence. Ex-girlfriends that he had as a pilot were the evidence that got him caught. He also left behind a forged pilot’s license, and the hundreds of thousands of dollars he overdrew on his bank accounts, along with forged bank checks that he cashed in for cash.

Cultural Reference• Books

o “Catch Me if You Can”, “The Art of the Steal”, “Stealing your Life”

• Movieo “Catch Me if You Can”

• Hollywood movie starring Leonardo Dicaprio as Frank Abagnale Jr.• Trailer• www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFj3OXVL_wQ

Anomie Theory• Frank Abagnale’s deviant acts are best described by

Anomie Theory. He is innovative in receiving wealth. He decided to out smart the police and the government by forging checks. He made hundreds of thousands of dollars by forging checks. He also is rebellious. He broke away from society and rebelled against it. He was innovative by creating a fake pilot’s license. He was innovative by being confident in himself and acting as a doctor, pilot, and teacher. He rebelled against society by going on the run, by not going to college, and then by forging his Harvard Law Degree. He also can be classified under retreatism. He didn’t finish high school and didn’t go to college. Instead he faked those degrees and went out into the world and made money off of fake degrees and licenses and confidence.