Unveiled: The Shocking Truth Behind the Real-Life Conman Who Inspired ‘Catch Me If You Can’
Abagnale purportedly even showed up at her New Orleans apartment one time. She tried to get rid of him by explaining she was going to visit her family in Baton Rouge. Instead, Abagnale invited himself to join her.
“So Frank Abagnale meets her parents in Baton Rouge,” explained Logan. “Frank and Paula… part ways, and a few days later, Frank Abagnale shows back up at the house in Baton Rouge and said, ‘Hey, I’m Paula’s friend. Remember me? I’m on furlough as a pilot.’ And they invited him in out of kindness.”
San Francisco ChronicleNewspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle had previously caught Abagnale in various lies, but the dots weren’t all connected until 2020.
The generous family introduced Abagnale to their high-profile friends. Meanwhile, he stole $1,200 worth of checks from them and various businesses in the area — in stark contradiction to Abagnale’s narrative of only ever defrauding hotels, banks, and airlines.
In addition, much of Catch Me If You Can follows Abagnale as he works undercover for the FBI, particularly Agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks). There is no evidence that Abagnale ever worked for the agency, and Hanratty didn’t really exist. His character is based on several FBI agents, including Joseph Shea, whom Abagnale claimed to have befriended during his parole in the early 1970s. However, even this alleged relationship seems to be exaggerated. Instead, it seems that Abagnale and Shea didn’t even meet again until the late 1980s.
Sometime between his release from prison in 1974 and the publication of his book in 1980, Frank Abagnale Jr. decided that the real story of Catch Me If You Can wasn’t nearly exciting enough — and he started stretching the truth until it became a completely different tale altogether.
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