From the Vault - Frank Abagnale Jnr

Summary

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Who Did What Now – "From the Vault: Frank Abagnale Jr."

Host: Katy Charlwood
Date: November 17, 2025
Theme: Exploding the Frank Abagnale Jr. Myth: The Reality Behind "Catch Me If You Can"

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Overview

This episode, chosen for the host's November "cons" theme, revisits the legendary reputation of Frank Abagnale Jr., whose life famously inspired the film "Catch Me If You Can." Host Katy Charlwood turns a critical, irreverent, and deeply researched lens on the myths, movies, and the real, much less glamorous exploits of Abagnale, debunking his self-crafted legend and highlighting the actual harm he inflicted on regular people.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Pop Culture Abagnale vs. The Real One

• Film & Media Image:

  • The story most know is largely shaped by Abagnale’s autobiography and dramatization in Catch Me If You Can, with claims of teenage globetrotting, posing as a pilot, doctor, and lawyer, and evading the FBI.
  • “So there’s this movie that came out in 2007. It starred Leonardo DiCaprio as a youthful fellow, roguish, charming, just a huckster, a grifter, a schemer. He was all of these things...” — Katy Charlwood (05:28)

• The Reality:

  • Contemporary records, police documents, and the work of journalists and researchers (notably Alan C. Logan) show a much less spectacular, far more banal reality.
  • Most of Abagnale’s most famous exploits are either grossly exaggerated or fabricated.

2. Katy’s Sources and Approach

• Primary Sources:
  • Catch Me If You Can and Scam Me If You Can by Abagnale.
  • The Greatest Hoax on Earth by Alan C. Logan.
  • Contemporary coverage and FBI records.
• Charlwood’s Attitude:
  • A joyously skeptical, witty take: “The concept of the con itself, not the man. The man is not worth your time.” (05:13)

3. Frank Abagnale’s Actual Timeline

• Early Life:

  • Parents divorced when Frank was a teenager. He bounced between them.
  • First “con” was running up thousands in charges on a credit card and truck gifted reluctantly by his father.
  • “He gives him a credit card and a truck and he racks up like over $3,000 worth of a bill on it...” (13:17)

• Petty Crimes, Early Arrests:

  • Reform school attendance, mostly untrue; schools Abagnale claimed didn’t even have him on record.
  • Joined the Army briefly, then discharged.
  • Arrests for petty larceny and impersonating a police officer—with “a toy gun and a paper badge. Like, I know it’s the 60s, but that’s a bit much, right?” (15:01)

• Check Fraud and Car Theft:

  • Stole checks, cars, and impersonated several people mostly by obtaining uniforms from local shops—not via masterful forgeries.
  • Repeat arrests, always typically for very amateurish scams.

• Impersonation of a Pilot (the real story):

  • Got a pilot’s uniform by paying for it with forged checks, then promoted himself to local media as a pilot school graduate—quickly arrested.

• Serial Stalking & Abuse:

  • Displays predatory behavior, especially with flight attendant Paula Parks—persistent stalking, manipulation, and theft from her family.

Memorable quote (22:16) – On his stalking and “romantic gestures”:
“He finds out her work schedule and he stalks her. He actually stalks her...my favorite thing I ever heard her say about him was that he smelt really bad because he smelt like fear. Which I think is probably one of the worst insults you can get.” — Katy Charlwood (23:12)

4. Key Debunked Myths

Myth: Master of Disguises and Daring Escapes

• Reality:
  • Repeatedly caught; spent most of the "legend" years in jail, on probation, or on the run from basic charges—not the FBI.
  • No high-level positions held (doctor, professor, lawyer). “So the Reverend introduces him to, like, the faculty of Louisiana State University...they take one look at this boy and go, ha…no, this is bullshit.” (31:36)

Myth: Stole Millions, Outwitted the FBI

• Reality:
  • Total stolen was much lower than claimed, mostly from individuals and small businesses.
  • “He says he cashes $2.5 million and that’s like 17,000 fake checks between the ages of 16 and 24. …To cash 17,000 cheques in 14 months, he would have to cash 40 cheques per day.” (54:31)

Myth: Robin Hood Figure Who “Only Conned the Big Guys”

• Reality:
  • Almost all his thefts were from “small guys”—families who took him in, individuals he befriended, and small businesses.
  • “All he did was steal from the little guy, consistently, just over and over again.” — Katy Charlwood (52:40)

Myth: FBI Consultant/Reformed Man

• Reality:
  • No confirmed employment with the FBI; made a career out of speech gigs and "expertise" built on his own fabricated stories.

5. The Aftermath: The Legend Grows, Truth Forgotten

• Public Speaker and “Security Expert”:
  • Built a lucrative career giving talks and security advice, selling the same myths.
  • Wrote multiple books, lived off his story; benefited immensely from the Spielberg film.
• Debunking and Final Tally:
  • Investigative journalists and researchers repeatedly found no evidence for his wilder claims.
  • “When he’s doing these talks...journalists start catching on that he’s talking absolute bollocks, right?” (51:36)
• No Restitution:
  • Never compensated his victims, even after making millions in speaking and movie rights:
    “He didn’t pay back a single cent to any of the people he fucked over. Even after he made hundreds of thousands from, you know, doing his Google talks and doing his university tour and the money he made from the Catch Me if Youf Can Movie. Millions, actually...” (55:52)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the entire mythos:

  “The greatest con he ever pulled was convincing people that he was, in fact, this amazing, amazing con man.” — Podcast Narrator (12:13)

• On academic/doctor/lawyer claims:

  “He is claiming to be our furloughed pilot for TWA and being, you know, not a total idiot. And he calls the airline…they clearly and concisely tell him, no, this man does not work for us.” — Katy Charlwood (32:38)

• On why he got away for so long:

  “He gets a shorter sentence, he gets probation, he gets a slap in the rest, of course. Handsome, well spoken white boy.” — Katy Charlwood (55:26)

• On the ultimate lesson:

  “The con is that he’s a good con man, you know, or like a big con man.” — Podcast Narrator (52:52)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [04:09] — Introduction to the Abagnale myth
• [05:28] — Movie synopsis vs. reality
• [12:21] — “Let me tell you the real story…”
• [17:25] — Early criminal activity and methods
• [22:16] – [25:15] — Paula Parks, stalking and manipulation
• [29:08] – [31:15] — Abagnale cons the Parkes family; attempts at “going straight”
• [38:48] – [39:33] — Sexual assault under false pretenses (trigger warning)
• [44:49] – [47:27] — Post-prison jobs, repeat offenses, why his cons worked
• [48:40] – [49:49] — Start of public speaking and myth-building
• [51:36] – [54:59] — Journalists catch on, the math doesn’t add up
• [55:10] – [56:52] — No task force, no grand escapes, no restitution
• [56:52] – [57:11] — Abagnale is still alive (“He’s 75 years old at this point...”)

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Tone & Style

Charlwood’s style is gleefully irreverent, direct, and informed by skepticism—a far cry from hagiographic true crime. She’s open about her “obsession with thieves and heists,” but always puts the human cost and underlying harm at the center, punctuating the debunking with acerbic humor and blunt language.

“Everything he did was fucking cunty.” (55:43)

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Useful for First-Time Listeners

• The episode serves as both an entertaining debunking of one of pop culture’s biggest “con man” myths and a compact history lesson on how narratives get built, repeated, and monetized—often at the expense of the real victims.
• Katy provides enough historical and cultural context so listeners unfamiliar with either the true story or the film can follow the unraveling of Abagnale's legend, while emphasizing the importance of skepticism in history and pop culture storytelling.

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Summary Recommendation:
If you want the story of Frank Abagnale Jr. as it actually happened (not as DiCaprio played it), this episode is the perfect companion. You’ll come away entertained, a bit appalled, and much, much more skeptical of any too-good-to-be-true tales of criminal genius.

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Transcript

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[Katy Charlwood]

Hello delicious friends and welcome to who did what Now? The History podcast. That's not your history class with me, your host, Katy Charlwood, history harlot and reader of books. So over the last few months on the podcast I have chosen a specific theme for that month and then made, you know, the episodes related to that theme. And correspondingly on the social media is correspondingly a word. I don't think it is. Anyway, I've been, I've been doing that and for November as it's my birthday month, it's actually my birthday this week at time of recording release and I was like, let's do like one theme per week. It'll be really fun stuff that I really love. And so this week we are focusing on cons. I love cons so much. I think they're so fascinating and interesting like from like a sociological and from a psychological perspective. And sometimes they're just silly and fun.

[Podcast Narrator]

And sometimes they're Just a little bit.

[Katy Charlwood]

Too good to be true. Anywho, I have actually been quite unwell the last few days and I haven't been able to finish writing this week's episode, but I thought, let's do a little encore. And for those of you who haven't heard the story of Frank Abagnale, Jr. Well, why don't you enjoy this this time? And I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, katie, please take your medicine and quit your jibble jabber.

[Podcast Narrator]

And also fact me and fact you I will. But first we've got to get our source on. Our sources are Catch Me if youf can By Frank Abagnale, Jr. The greatest hoax on Earth Catching Truth While We Can. Alan C. Logan Is Great Impostor, A Great Impostor, by Fayette Tompkins, To Tell the Truth by Joe Garagola, the FBI A Centennial History, 1908-2008, and of course, Scam Me if youf can By Frank Abagnale, Jr. Are you sitting comfortably?

[Katy Charlwood]

Good.

[Podcast Narrator]

Then let's begin. Now, I don't really talk about men on this podcast too much because I feel like a lot of history about men has already been said. It's already been out there, and there's not really a lot else to say. But then sometimes you'll find a very interesting man, whether it's for a good reason or a bad reason. And Frank Abagnel Jr. Is simultaneously incredibly boring but also incredibly interesting. And I have an unnatural sort of obsession with thieves and heists and con men. Like, I find the sort of the concept of trickery just very interesting. And I think this might be the ultimate con. And I kind of begrudgingly respect a wee bit because of it. And like the concept of the con.

[Katy Charlwood]

Itself, not the man. The man is. The man is not worth your time.

[Podcast Narrator]

Because I'm going to share the story of Frank Abagnale Jr.

[Katy Charlwood]

Some of you may remember a movie that came out in 2007. It starred Leonardo DiCaprio as a youthful.

[Podcast Narrator]

Fellow, roguish, charming, just a. A huckster, a grifter, a schemer. He was all of these things. And he, from the age of 16.

[Katy Charlwood]

All the way up to, like, his.

[Podcast Narrator]

Early 20s, he performs an array of feats which would dazzle and amaze even, you know, even the most veteran of criminals. The film itself is based on an autobiography by Frank Abagnale, and it opens with an FBI agent played by Tom Hanks. He's in Marseille, France, and he's there to pick up a prisoner called Frank Abagnale Jr. Who's sick because he's in.

[Katy Charlwood]

A horrible, you know, prison in France.

[Podcast Narrator]

And then it pans back to six years earlier in 1963. And Frank, he lives with his parents in New Rochelle, New York. And because his dad's a bit of a schema, he's not doing well with his money. The IRS are there and they're forced to move out of their lovely home into a tiny little apartment, right? Then Frank discovers that his mother is having an affair with a family friend, no less. Then obviously the cat's out of the bag and the parents divorce. And being a 16 year old and upset at his parents divorce, he runs away from home. And so he starts doing a bunch of cons just to make money. He starts off writing some bad checks, which sort of snowballs him to eventually impersonating a Pan Am pilot called Frank Taylor. And he ends up using this to forge a bunch of checks, thus conning Pan Am out of millions. Because not only is he forging checks, but he's deadheading. So he's like, you know, the crew member that comes on board and just.

[Katy Charlwood]

Flies for free because he needs to.

[Podcast Narrator]

Get to his next destination. That's deadheading.

[Katy Charlwood]

So off he goes.

[Podcast Narrator]

But it's these Pan Am checks that get, you know, Tom Hanks involved. So as Leonardo DiCaprio, still full of youth and vigour, comes face to face with the grumpy Hanks, and he ends up pretending to be a Secret Service agent who's also on the lookout for this, this con man, this forger. And he pretends to be a Secret.

[Katy Charlwood]

Service agent called Barry Allen, which is.

[Podcast Narrator]

You know, the Flash, because remember, he's only meant to be like 16, 17 at this point.

[Katy Charlwood]

So, you know, comics at that point.

[Podcast Narrator]

Were in their infancy, and he was very much into what would then become the golden age of comics, right? But by pretending to be the Secret Service agent, he gets the heck out of Dodge and he flees.

[Katy Charlwood]

Tom Hanks.

[Podcast Narrator]

It's at this point that he decides to impersonate a doctor, because that is a perfectly acceptable and reasonable idea. So he goes and does that, and he falls in love with this nurse named Brenda. And she's like, meant to be sort of cute and adorable and naive. Frank decides he's going to marry Brenda. He asks her father for her hand in marriage. And then at their engagement party, they are tracked down by Tom Hanks again. Da, da, da da. So he escapes their bathroom window and Brenda is compromised because as he's waiting.

[Katy Charlwood]

For her to show up at the.

[Podcast Narrator]

Airport, she shows up with some plain clothed agents.

[Katy Charlwood]

And he's like, uh, no. Off he goes.

[Podcast Narrator]

Flees to Spain and then France. After, like, pretending to be a pilot again, impersonating a pilot, making it all the way back to his mum's hometown in France, right? Where he gets tricked into being arrested. And.

[Katy Charlwood]

Then the time skips forward a little bit and it's, you know, Frank.

[Podcast Narrator]

Being on the plane with Hank. Carl. Carl, Hank.

[Katy Charlwood]

I don't know. Anyway, so they're back on the plane.

[Podcast Narrator]

The FBI agent informs him that his father has passed away.

[Katy Charlwood]

And he is so upset, like Leonardo DiCaprio, full of emotions, great actor.

[Podcast Narrator]

And he ends up just escaping the plane and going to his mum, who.

[Katy Charlwood]

Is now with the family friend that.

[Podcast Narrator]

She was having an affair with. And they have a child. And so he is so grief stricken and so upset by this that he just surrenders himself to Carl. He's like, carl, here we go. And then he ends up working for the FBI, but he's like, super bored with it and stuff because.

[Katy Charlwood]

Ugh.

[Podcast Narrator]

Admin.

[Katy Charlwood]

Ew.

[Podcast Narrator]

And so he decides he's gonna pretend to be a pilot again. But then he's caught by Carl. Oh, Tom Hanks is like, don't do that. And he's like, I will, you know, let you do it one last time.

[Katy Charlwood]

And he's like, eh. And they end up working together in like a bunch of stuff, like, that's how it ends.

[Podcast Narrator]

And yeah, that's. That's the movie.

[Katy Charlwood]

And it's basically based on an autobiography.

[Podcast Narrator]

Called Catch Me if youf can by Frank Abagnale. And of course, this is the Hollywood version, so it's gonna be a bit more colorful and fun and just, you know, a good time.

[Katy Charlwood]

So the real story, or the story.

[Podcast Narrator]

That Frank was pushing was that between like the mid-60s and up to the early 70s, Frank was being a no good con man. He was impersonating pilots. He was a doctor in Georgia. He was a lawyer for the Attorney.

[Katy Charlwood]

General's office in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

[Podcast Narrator]

He was a profess at Brigham Young University. And he also cashed more than $2 million worth of bad checks. And across 60.

[Katy Charlwood]

That's a lie. No, 26. I was gonna say 62.

[Podcast Narrator]

26 countries across the world. And this was while he was a teenager and being chased by the FBI.

[Katy Charlwood]

So.

[Podcast Narrator]

This story of this amazing con man, it's a fucking hoax. He made it up.

[Katy Charlwood]

It's.

[Podcast Narrator]

It's the greatest con he ever pulled. Was convincing people that he was, in fact this amazing, amazing con Man.

[Katy Charlwood]

Right, so.

[Podcast Narrator]

So let me tell you the real story of Frank William Abagnale Jr. Who was born on the 27th of April, 1948 to Paula Abagnale, who was French American, and Frank Abagnel Sr. Who was Italian American.

[Katy Charlwood]

I don't know if being French American.

[Podcast Narrator]

And Italian American is a good mix.

[Katy Charlwood]

I don't think it was for them.

[Podcast Narrator]

Because they got divorced when he was 12 or they separated when he was.

[Katy Charlwood]

12 and they divorced like three years later.

[Podcast Narrator]

So when his parents split, Frank moves.

[Katy Charlwood]

In with his dad and his stepmom, Right?

[Podcast Narrator]

And so Frank basically claims that, you know, the very first person he ever.

[Katy Charlwood]

Conned was his dad. Clearly he wasn't happy about having a stepmom, right?

[Podcast Narrator]

And so he gives him a credit card and a truck and he racks.

[Katy Charlwood]

Up like over $3,000 worth of a bill on it and he.

[Podcast Narrator]

Yeah, yeah, doesn't really do too well for him there.

[Katy Charlwood]

So because of this, he gets sent to this reform school or he says he gets sent to a reform school in Westchester, a Catholic reform school. So, you know, one of the dodgy ones.

[Podcast Narrator]

But like, he always said that he.

[Katy Charlwood]

Went to like these really prestigious private schools and.

[Podcast Narrator]

The schools he says he.

[Katy Charlwood]

Went to is quite funny that he says he went to, they don't have.

[Podcast Narrator]

Any record of him being there or.

[Katy Charlwood]

Anyone with a name even similar to his being there. So, like, he was not at any of these private schools. It was all, it was all bollocks.

[Podcast Narrator]

And on top of that, like, not only is there no record of him.

[Katy Charlwood]

But like, people who went to these.

[Podcast Narrator]

Schools don't ever remember even a whisper of the man. Like nobody, nobody remembers him. So clearly, clearly either the best con.

[Katy Charlwood]

Man on earth or, you know, didn't actually go to these places.

[Podcast Narrator]

But anyway, once Frank reaches 16, he.

[Katy Charlwood]

Enlists in the U.S. army.

[Podcast Narrator]

And he's there for like three months.

[Katy Charlwood]

Before he gets discharged.

[Podcast Narrator]

And two weeks, not even two weeks.

[Katy Charlwood]

Ago, barely a fortnight after he's discharged.

[Podcast Narrator]

He gets arrested for petty larceny, right?

[Katy Charlwood]

And that's what, like in February 1965.

[Podcast Narrator]

A month later, he enters the apartment.

[Katy Charlwood]

Of this person in Mount Vernon in New York, right?

[Podcast Narrator]

He is dressed as a cop.

[Katy Charlwood]

So he's impersonating a cop.

[Podcast Narrator]

And he says that he's investigating this guy's daughter.

[Katy Charlwood]

And he's like, you know, suspicious as fuck, because of course he is. There's a incredibly young looking police officer asking about your teenage daughter.

[Podcast Narrator]

You know, your hackles are going to be up just a wee bit. So he ends up calling The Mount.

[Katy Charlwood]

Vernon Police, you know, just to double check to see if, you know, they sent this office around and they're like, absolutely fucking not. Not even a little bit. So the police come in and as.

[Podcast Narrator]

It turns out, he's in. He somehow got a uniform.

[Katy Charlwood]

I don't know how he got the.

[Podcast Narrator]

Uniform, but he has a toy gun and a paper badge. Like a paper badge. I mean, I know it's the 60s.

[Katy Charlwood]

But that's a bit much, right? So he gets arrested and he gets booked in these charges and.

[Podcast Narrator]

He then.

[Katy Charlwood]

Instead of going to like prison and he gets sent for evaluation in the Grassland Psychiatric Institute in Westchester.

[Podcast Narrator]

Anyway, they, they clearly think he's okay.

[Katy Charlwood]

Or at least not too bad, and he gets released.

[Podcast Narrator]

They're just like, hey, he's just being.

[Katy Charlwood]

A silly billy, right? And so he gets, he gets out.

[Podcast Narrator]

And in June 1965, he gets arrested.

[Katy Charlwood]

In Eureka, California because he stole a Ford Mustang from one of his dad's neighbors. And so there was like a picture of him in like the paper being questioned by like an FBI agent because in order to like pay this, he had, you know, forged a bunch of checks and done a bunch of like bad checks. And so he'd driven from New York all the way over to California and these checks actually, he'd actually stolen them from like a family. So he wasn't even like forging them really. I mean, he was forging them but he wasn't doing anything like clever. He was just writing checks that belong to this family, like.

[Podcast Narrator]

And so he gets arrested.

[Katy Charlwood]

He's also charged with impersonating a customs official, but that gets dropped because clearly they didn't have enough like tangible evidence. But they could prove that he stole the checks, wrote the checks, cashed the checks and stole the car and. Yeah, yeah. So although he's like caught in California, like the FBI is involved because it's crosses state lines, right? The crime crosses state lines.

[Podcast Narrator]

So yeah, he ends up getting transferred.

[Katy Charlwood]

Back to New York and he gets released into his father's custody because he's 17 and they're like, oh, come on, your dad's going to take care of you now. You know, give you a good smack, cuz, you know, corporal punishment was the way of things back then. And that will sort them out because boy, golly gosh, what a silly boy. Just, just, you know, like every teenage boy does. Every boy just necks a car and goes on a cross country drive, right?

[Podcast Narrator]

No.

[Katy Charlwood]

Okay, so he, yeah, he's in his dad's custody and he decides, I don't.

[Podcast Narrator]

Want to stay here.

[Katy Charlwood]

And this is where he, like, impersonates a pilot. So he goes to, like, a uniform company.

[Podcast Narrator]

It's probably the same place that he.

[Katy Charlwood]

Got the police officer's uniform.

[Podcast Narrator]

So he goes there, gets this pilot's uniform, which he pays for with money.

[Katy Charlwood]

Cashed from forged checks, right? So he's learned a wee bit since, clearly.

[Podcast Narrator]

And he goes around and promotes himself. Like, he actually goes to local media.

[Katy Charlwood]

And local papers and stuff, and he tells them he's a graduate of the American Airlines pilot school in Fort Worth, Texas.

[Podcast Narrator]

And then he's out there selling this, right?

[Katy Charlwood]

But then he gets arrested a couple days later for. For bad checks, right?

[Podcast Narrator]

Or was it bad checks or theft? For stealing.

[Katy Charlwood]

For stealing checks, right? He gets arrested again and he gets sentenced to three years in prison. So he's supposed to go to the Great Meadow Prison and he's supposed to serve three years. He only serves two and he gets released into the custody of his mum.

[Podcast Narrator]

Now, this is what I wonder, right? Was he released into his mum's custody.

[Katy Charlwood]

Because when he was in his dad's custody, he just buggered up, or was his dad just like. Absolutely fucking not? No chance. He's your problem now. Like, do you think it was maybe like that? But yeah, he's, you know, in the custody of his mum. He's on parole because he's what, 16, 17, 22?

[Podcast Narrator]

No, 19.

[Katy Charlwood]

He's 19.

[Podcast Narrator]

Oh, my goodness.

[Katy Charlwood]

I cannot.

[Podcast Narrator]

Math.

[Katy Charlwood]

Sometimes math is hard. Oh, geez. Yeah, so he violates his parole, right, by stealing a car in Boston.

[Podcast Narrator]

He's 19. He's 19 and he's already buggered up again, right?

[Katy Charlwood]

So, yeah, he has to go back to present. And so there he is, sent back to Great Meadow Prison for another year. So he does eventually serve his full sentence. I mean, that's. That's good, right? Right.

[Podcast Narrator]

And after finally serving all three years of his sentence, Frank is finally released.

[Katy Charlwood]

On Christmas Eve, 1968. Now, habits are hard to break, especially for Frank. And he decides that he is going.

[Podcast Narrator]

To impersonate being a pilot again. And so he's on.

[Katy Charlwood]

It's not Pan Am this time or American Airlines, it's twa, right? And so he's on a plane flying from New York to Miami. And this is like 1969, where he.

[Podcast Narrator]

Meets a stewardess, a flight attendant, Paula Parks, right? Paula is pretty, she's smart, she's, you know, she. She's what he wants, right?

[Katy Charlwood]

Obviously. And he finds out what hotel she's staying in. He finds her room and he sends two dozen red roses and a five pound box of chocolate. And she's like, okay, that's nice.

[Podcast Narrator]

I guess, you know, in his defense.

[Katy Charlwood]

Right in this moment, right, it's the 1960s.

[Podcast Narrator]

In the 1960s, if a handsome young.

[Katy Charlwood]

Gentleman were to send me two dozen roses and a five pound box of chocolate. Listen, I use the, I use the decimal system. I don't, I don't know, pounds, right? It sounds heavy. I assume that's a lot of chocolate.

[Podcast Narrator]

Okay, so in fairness, if somebody were to send me two dozen roses now.

[Katy Charlwood]

And a box of chocolates, I would also be very, very appreciative. But he sends her this.

[Podcast Narrator]

And when she goes to fly to New Orleans the next day, he's waiting for her at the airport. Because what he does is he being a sneaky wee bastard.

[Katy Charlwood]

He finds out her work schedule and he stalks her. He actually stalks her.

[Podcast Narrator]

Not so fucking romantic now, is it? So Paula, she does try and tell.

[Katy Charlwood]

Him that she's not interested. Like, my favorite thing I ever heard her say about him was that he smelt really bad because he smelt like fear. Which I think is probably one of the worst insults you can get. Like he, he smelt awful because he smelt like fear.

[Podcast Narrator]

But yes, stinky man here, completely unable.

[Katy Charlwood]

To take a fucking hint.

[Podcast Narrator]

He ends up following her all over the eastern seaboard.

[Katy Charlwood]

Like, what?

[Podcast Narrator]

And yeah, this lasts for bloody weeks. So he's doing this and he even shows up at her apartment in New Orleans.

[Katy Charlwood]

Just shows up and she's like, oh, hi, I have to go visit my parents in Baton Rouge.

[Podcast Narrator]

Clearly this is like a very gentle rejection. You know, I can't spend time with you because I have to go to Baton Rouge and visit my parents. And again, like talking to a brick wall, he thinks, sure, this does sound like a swell idea, I'll tag along too. So he goes with her to her parents in Baton Rouge. He goes there, he meets her mum, her dad, her brother, and they all.

[Katy Charlwood]

Think he's just super.

[Podcast Narrator]

The family are so taken by him.

[Katy Charlwood]

That like Paula's mum like invites him back and promises to teach him how to fish.

[Podcast Narrator]

And they just, they just adore him. Cuz they just find him so charming. But as they're driving back, you know, to Louisiana, Paula tells him, no, we're done.

[Katy Charlwood]

I don't want to see you anymore.

[Podcast Narrator]

You know, showing up at my apartment.

[Katy Charlwood]

And then traveling with me to see my family.

[Podcast Narrator]

Bet much. And we're can.

[Katy Charlwood]

No, just no. Paula and Frank, they, you know, they part ways.

[Podcast Narrator]

They, they Disperse, you know. And she thinks that's going to be the end of it. Of course she does, because she thinks he's a sleek wee bastard. He is suspicious and just kind of sleazy.

[Katy Charlwood]

And he doesn't pass the vibe check, not even a little bit.

[Podcast Narrator]

But Paula is unaware of just how skeezy this faila is.

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[Podcast Narrator]

So after Paula goes back to work.

[Katy Charlwood]

You know, cuz she's a flight attendant, she's, she's going to go do her thing.

[Podcast Narrator]

She's going to be away for a while. As she's away, you know, on the planes rationally thinking this isn't going to.

[Katy Charlwood]

Be an issue anymore.

[Podcast Narrator]

This is done.

[Katy Charlwood]

He's, he's aware now, right? Nothing more is gonna come of this and that this weird fella is gonna be a distant memory and she's Hoping, dear Lord, I'm not gonna meet him on another plane. But in a move that is absolutely.

[Podcast Narrator]

Batshit, Frank shows up at her parents house, like a couple days after she's gone. He shows up and he's like, hey, I'm a pilot on furlough. I'm Paula's friend.

[Katy Charlwood]

Can I stay with you?

[Podcast Narrator]

And they invite him in because, you.

[Katy Charlwood]

Know, they're kind and considerate humans.

[Podcast Narrator]

So they take him in for a.

[Katy Charlwood]

Little bit and he's supposed to stay.

[Podcast Narrator]

For a couple of days. And he ends up staying for weeks. Like four or six weeks in total. He's staying in Paula's bedroom.

[Katy Charlwood]

And.

[Podcast Narrator]

The family, they think he's her friend. They think he's just, you know, a.

[Katy Charlwood]

Kind, cute little pilot.

[Podcast Narrator]

Like, he's adorable, he's fine. They trust him. Like, they, they feed him and they.

[Katy Charlwood]

Like, introduce him to people who were all around.

[Podcast Narrator]

And he would just like, con this family.

[Katy Charlwood]

He would take them out to dinner.

[Podcast Narrator]

He would buy them like flowers and shit. And he would just do all these.

[Katy Charlwood]

Little wee confidence tricks, some might say.

[Podcast Narrator]

But how he did this, like how.

[Katy Charlwood]

He paid for the meals and the gifts and the flowers, was by stealing their fucking money. Like, he rifled through their papers, he found their checks, and he stole from this family.

[Podcast Narrator]

He stole.

[Katy Charlwood]

He steals like, was it twelve hundred.

[Podcast Narrator]

Dollars at the time.

[Katy Charlwood]

And he also, like, goes around Baton Rouge sort of nicking like, money from these businesses too.

[Podcast Narrator]

So he's hanging out with the parks.

[Katy Charlwood]

And Mr. Parkes, as it turns out, is a lawyer.

[Podcast Narrator]

And so he's. He's saying that, you know, maybe being a pilot isn't for me. I think law might be the way to go. And Paula's dad straight up offers to help him pass the Louisiana bar exam.

[Katy Charlwood]

Like, he's like, I'll help you do this.

[Podcast Narrator]

You know, this could be something great for you. Because he's a fucking kind hearted person.

[Katy Charlwood]

Who doesn't realize he's being absolutely fucked over by him.

[Podcast Narrator]

No. So Frank's in Baton Rouge, he's staying.

[Katy Charlwood]

With the parks, and he befriends like, a local minister who works and all.

[Podcast Narrator]

Of these areas to do with children. And Frank convinces him that he has.

[Katy Charlwood]

A master's degree in social work from Ithaca College. Like, he's a pilot with a social work degree.

[Podcast Narrator]

Now, I'm not, I'm not claiming that.

[Katy Charlwood]

You can't have a social work degree and have another job, but those are two very long training programs. Like, and he is clearly a young man.

[Podcast Narrator]

The times just don't add Up.

[Katy Charlwood]

But, you know, everyone is charmed by him.

[Podcast Narrator]

He is convincing. And so when he says that he's.

[Katy Charlwood]

Looking for work with, you know, vulnerable young people with disabilities, specifically intellectual and developmental disabilities, the Reverend is like, yes, we need more kind, young, considerate people.

[Podcast Narrator]

Like you, especially those with, you know.

[Katy Charlwood]

Social work degrees, because you know what you're talking about.

[Podcast Narrator]

Like, you can genuinely help these people. But as we know, can he fuck?

[Katy Charlwood]

Absolutely not.

[Podcast Narrator]

So the Reverend introduces him to, like.

[Katy Charlwood]

The faculty of Louisiana State University. And.

[Podcast Narrator]

They take one look at this.

[Katy Charlwood]

Boy and go, ha.

[Shark Beauty Advertiser 2]

What?

[Katy Charlwood]

No, this is bullshit. As one of my friends says, my favorite saying is, what absolute fucking bullshit is this nonsense?

[Podcast Narrator]

What absolute fucking bullshit is this nonsense?

[Katy Charlwood]

Who is this child? Why is he here?

[Podcast Narrator]

So and absolutely unsurprisingly, they inform the.

[Katy Charlwood]

Reverend that this dude has no fucking clue what he's talking about. He is just a fraud. He's a fraud.

[Podcast Narrator]

And so the Reverend is like, okay.

[Katy Charlwood]

Taking this on board because these guys, he knows they know what they're talking about.

[Podcast Narrator]

And Frank is, you know, he's claiming.

[Katy Charlwood]

To be our furloughed pilot for TWA and being, you know, not a total idiot. And he calls the airline.

[Podcast Narrator]

He's like, hey, any chance this guy.

[Katy Charlwood]

Is a pilot for you? And they clearly and concisely tell him, no, this man does not work for us. And after getting this information, the first.

[Podcast Narrator]

Thing the Reverend does is contact the.

[Katy Charlwood]

Baton Rouge Police Department. And then on Valentine's Day, 1969, he's arrested. So initially they arrest him on vagrancy charges.

[Podcast Narrator]

But as it turns out, the car that Frank was driving was a rental car from Florida.

[Katy Charlwood]

So he has stolen a car, driven.

[Podcast Narrator]

It across state lines, which he's, you know, I'm fairly certain, not supposed to.

[Katy Charlwood]

Be doing anyway, you know, like, he's just. As a general rule. So he had, you know, fake.

[Podcast Narrator]

Fake identification, fake IDs. He had a fake ID. Hey, mister. He's got a fake ID.

[Katy Charlwood]

And so he's got, like, a fake, like, airline personnel id.

[Podcast Narrator]

And. And, you know, that's two for two.

[Katy Charlwood]

So naturally, the police are like, we need to investigate a little bit more. And that's when they realized that he.

[Podcast Narrator]

Was stealing cheques from the family and.

[Katy Charlwood]

From Baton Rouge businesses. And so he's charged with theft and forgery. Naturally, he's unable to make bail, and he gets convicted on the 2nd of June, 1969.

[Podcast Narrator]

But instead of sending the little shit.

[Katy Charlwood]

To prison, what they do is they sentence him to 12 years supervised probation.

[Podcast Narrator]

Now, of all the choices, they could have made.

[Katy Charlwood]

They thought this was the right one, this slimy motherfucker right here. But he's like, fuck this for a game of soldiers and gets the heck out of Dodge and he flees to Europe. So he ends up going to Sweden and France. So when he's in Sweden, he's in, I think kleppen. I'm not going to try and pronounce that in a Swedish accent because I.

[Podcast Narrator]

Sound like the Swedish chef.

[Katy Charlwood]

Which is funny because my brother lives in Sweden.

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So.

[Katy Charlwood]

Haha. So he ends up defrauding two families in Sweden. He steals one of their cars.

[Podcast Narrator]

I think it's an automobile.

[Katy Charlwood]

He steals a car and then he ends up in Montpellier in France. So when he gets there, it's like.

[Podcast Narrator]

Two weeks after the warrant has gone.

[Katy Charlwood]

Out for his arrest for, you know, disappearing. And this is the part where he's caught. He's caught on Montpellier. And I don't know if it's like his mum's hometown or his mum's family's hometown because I'm fairly certain his mum is just like a French American as opposed to, you know, French, because they.

[Podcast Narrator]

Want to make it sound fancier for the movie.

[Katy Charlwood]

But yeah, so he gets arrested in France and he gets sentenced to four months in prison. So because he's stolen shit. And they're like, okay, so he goes to France and he serves three months in Perpignan prison. And he only sends three months there.

[Podcast Narrator]

Because he then gets extradited to Sweden.

[Katy Charlwood]

Because he's convicted of gross fraud by forgery.

[Podcast Narrator]

And then he's in Malmo. In Malmo, which I think is near where my brother lives.

[Katy Charlwood]

He doesn't care. He doesn't listen to this podcast, hi, Dominic. He doesn't give a shit. Like, he doesn't. He doesn't listen to anything I do. But yeah, he lives, I think near Malmo. And if he doesn't, eh, then I wasn't paying any attention to anything he said.

[Podcast Narrator]

And it's conveniently no Swedish accent, but I digress.

[Katy Charlwood]

So Frank says that the time he spent in these two prisons were the worst in his life because he lost.

[Podcast Narrator]

Like a third of his body weight in the French prison.

[Katy Charlwood]

And when he gets into the Swedish prison, it's like worse. It's dank. And he gets ill and he's just not. Not feeling it.

[Podcast Narrator]

So when he's in prison, he promises to, you know, refund and reimburse and.

[Katy Charlwood]

Compensate, you know, his Swedish victims, these families that he's frauded.

[Podcast Narrator]

He does not.

[Katy Charlwood]

And he gets deported back to the US in June 1970. So he serves two months in Malmo prison and then he is banned from Sweden for eight years. Sweden just kicks him out. You're not allowed in. And he appeals this. But no, he gets. He gets deported back to the US and you think they would do something, but no, no.

[Podcast Narrator]

June 1970, he is back in the.

[Katy Charlwood]

US.

[Podcast Narrator]

And he's 22 years old. And again, cannot help himself, Gets himself a pilot's uniform and he starts traveling.

[Katy Charlwood]

Around all these college campuses like more bad checks. Of course he is, but he's doing this sort of Pan Am recruitment, or he claims he's doing a Pan Am recruitment.

[Podcast Narrator]

And sometimes when people lie, like they.

[Katy Charlwood]

Say the best lies are closer to the truth, right? And that's fine.

[Podcast Narrator]

But this guy, he says he's a.

[Katy Charlwood]

Pilot and a doctor and he goes around these colleges and like at the University of Arizona, he states that he's, you know, part doctor, part pilot. You know, like fucking Batman. Millionaire by day, vigilante by night.

[Podcast Narrator]

What the. No, you're not a pilot and a.

[Katy Charlwood]

Doctor, you absolute tit wank. No.

[Podcast Narrator]

Oh, so he, he is an absolute creepy piece of shit, right?

[Katy Charlwood]

Because what he does a trigger warning for sexual assault, okay, skip like 45 seconds.

[Podcast Narrator]

So what he does, he's doing this.

[Katy Charlwood]

Recruitment for Pan Am, and in order for women to be recruited, they have to undergo a physical examination. So he physically examines these fucking teenagers, right?

[Podcast Narrator]

Teenage girls, and he molests them. Because that's what this is, assault.

[Katy Charlwood]

This is molestation. That's what it is.

[Podcast Narrator]

Like, he just. And he got away with it. Absolute piece of shit.

[Katy Charlwood]

I want to punch him in his face, but he's already dead. Spoiler warning. So anyway, the. The biography sort of implies that he does actually, you know, recruit these new women for like a flight. This fictional flight attendant program, right? But he never actually sets this up. He just seems to use this as an excuse to run around, make money and molest women. So he's doing this for like a.

[Podcast Narrator]

Couple weeks, maybe, maybe a month, where.

[Katy Charlwood]

He cashes like 10 Pan Am checks, and on it's like the 30th of July, 1970 in Durham, North Carolina.

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Today.

[Podcast Narrator]

He, you know, he catches the.

[Katy Charlwood]

Attention of the FBI at this point.

[Podcast Narrator]

Because he has cashed 10 Pan Am.

[Katy Charlwood]

Payroll checks in these different towns, like, and eventually gets caught, I think, in November. Three months. Three months he cashes his checks for. And he gets arrested in November 1970 in Cobb county in Georgia.

[Podcast Narrator]

And this is the jail that he escapes. So he did it.

[Katy Charlwood]

So he escapes Cobb County Jail, Cobb County Jail. But then he gets arrested again, like, four days later in New York. Like, he gets. He gets caught. And then in 1971, he gets sentenced to a decade in prison for forging a grand total. Well, forging checks that come up to a grand total of $1,448.60. And then he also gets like two more years added on to that. Just tapped on to the end because, you know, he fucking escaped prison. You know, so while he's in jail, he writes letters to the family, to the Parkes family back in Baton Rouge, you know, telling them what they did, that he forged the checks that he stole money from, you know, Paula's brother's, like, savings account and that he was.

[Podcast Narrator]

Gonna, like, repay them. Now, this may come as a shock to some of you, but he did not do that.

[Katy Charlwood]

He did not pay them back one bloody cent. Nothing. So after spending, I think, only two out of the 12 years he was supposed to serve in prison because, I don't know, I guess the Federal Correctional.

[Podcast Narrator]

Institute in Petersburg, Virginia, just like, just wasn't feeling it anymore.

[Katy Charlwood]

So he gets released on parole, and.

[Podcast Narrator]

He doesn't want to go back to.

[Katy Charlwood]

His family in New York. He just doesn't want to do it. And so he requests the court to choose his parole location. And they sent him to Houston, Texas.

[Podcast Narrator]

Because, of course they do.

[Katy Charlwood]

So he's in Texas and he needs to get a job. Now, Abagnale, he says, abagnale, Frank, fuck him.

[Podcast Narrator]

Frank, he.

[Katy Charlwood]

He says that he's, like, doing all these jobs, you know, but he gets fired from those jobs because, you know, they realize that he, as a parolee, that he had, you know, criminal shit. But maybe, maybe. But again, sorry for that being really harsh for anybody listening with headphones on.

[Podcast Narrator]

1974, what does he do?

[Katy Charlwood]

He gets a job at a children's summer camp, Camp Madison.

[Podcast Narrator]

And it's the 70s. You can get away with shit. So all he had to do was keep his head down and do, I.

[Katy Charlwood]

Don'T know, his fucking job for once.

[Podcast Narrator]

And he would have been okay. But instead he steals cameras from the other people working there, right? And he only gets fined, which is.

[Katy Charlwood]

Like, so fcking shitty.

[Podcast Narrator]

But he manages to then.

[Katy Charlwood]

While still pretending to be a fcking pilot. Oh, with a master's degree in who the fuck knows what social work, probably pretending he still has that, right, and.

[Podcast Narrator]

He gets hired by an orphanage. A fucking orphanage, right? Here's the thing, like, after a parolee, like, this is in violation of his parole. Like, this is not good. So he.

[Katy Charlwood]

He's in, like, the Houston area. He's working in his orphanage, and his job is finding foster homes for children who are living in the orphanage.

[Podcast Narrator]

And, you know, he couldn't just pick.

[Katy Charlwood]

Something small, something easy, but no, he needs something that has power, doesn't he?

[Podcast Narrator]

Like every job it has or everything he pretends to be. There's a level of.

[Katy Charlwood]

What's the word?

[Podcast Narrator]

There's power, but there's also respect.

[Katy Charlwood]

There's reverence. You know, It's. It's.

[Podcast Narrator]

You're looking up to it. You're above your aspirational.

[Katy Charlwood]

As my mother is like, you need to be aspirational, darling.

[Podcast Narrator]

I'm like, do. I'm cute and funny, and I like history, but aspirational?

[Katy Charlwood]

Who the fuck's gonna want to aspire to be me? Says me, who's literally in the pink hoodie I've been living in for a.

[Podcast Narrator]

Little while, just while recording in my mother's bedroom, because there is no other.

[Katy Charlwood]

Room in this house that's free. I'm doing my best, okay?

[Podcast Narrator]

So, yeah, aspirational.

[Katy Charlwood]

He goes for all of these jobs.

[Podcast Narrator]

That have esteem, okay? Because he can't just be okay.

[Katy Charlwood]

But luckily his parole officer is not a fucking idiot and catches him in the act. And so he removes him from the orphanage and basically moves him into, like, this. This, like, little living space above his garage.

[Podcast Narrator]

Like, he moves him above his garage because he knows he cannot trust this skeezy wee bampot not One bit after this, he gets a job at etna where he is fired and sued for check fraud.

[Katy Charlwood]

Why are we even surprised?

[Podcast Narrator]

Now, after this, he does something. He does something good. I don't know what the good is.

[Katy Charlwood]

But he does something because it was.

[Podcast Narrator]

Enough for his parole officer to suggest that he start doing talks about, you.

[Katy Charlwood]

Know, how he is a reformed criminal, how he is doing well, you know, and not being an absolute dodgy bastard. And it's from here where he starts doing these. These public talks. And so he's going around saying that between the ages of 16 and 21, he was a doctor in a Georgia hospital for a year, an assistant state.

[Podcast Narrator]

Attorney general for a year, that he.

[Katy Charlwood]

Served two semesters as a sociology professor.

[Podcast Narrator]

And that he was a Pan Am.

[Katy Charlwood]

Pilot for two whole years. He also says that he recruited university students as Pan Am stewardesses and that.

[Podcast Narrator]

He traveled throughout Europe with them for three months.

[Katy Charlwood]

He talks about escaping the FBI on an airplane, no less.

[Podcast Narrator]

And my favorite part of this is.

[Katy Charlwood]

That it's like he managed to escape by going through a toilet on the airplane while the plane was taxiing on the Runway. Like, that's his. That's his story. Like, yeah, okay, cool.

[Podcast Narrator]

So he starts doing these talks, and then the talks get really popular, and then he starts writing his books. But during this, he manages to get.

[Katy Charlwood]

Married to his wife, Kelly.

[Podcast Narrator]

So they get married, they have three.

[Katy Charlwood]

Sons, and then in 1985, they move from Houston to Tulsa.

[Podcast Narrator]

So, like, he says he met his.

[Katy Charlwood]

Wife when he was working as an undercover FBI agent and she was a cashier in a grocery store. Like, either this woman is so naive and genuinely believes this man's bullshit or she's in on it. Like, that's. That's gonna be it, right? There's. It's gonna be one or the other. But yeah.

[Podcast Narrator]

So while he's out and about doing these speeches, he's also setting up his own business.

[Katy Charlwood]

He founds Abagnale and Associates. The purpose of this company is to, like, advise company on secure documents, basically, you know, to warn them against, like, you know, check fraud and other kind of fraudulent shit like document frauds and other such bullshit. So it's all about scammers and how scammers operate. And that's his whole business. And so while he's doing that, he's doing all these talks. So he starts doing this, and by 1977, he ends up on To Tell the Truth. And he also ends up on the Tonight show with Was it Johnny Carlson? And so the story of this cotton that he pulled, that he says he pulled just becomes a mega hit.

[Podcast Narrator]

So it's what year when he reads, writes his book.

[Katy Charlwood]

He writes his book in 1980. So three years after, you know, he basically goes the 1970s version of going viral, right? And he writes a book in 1980 and then he writes like a couple more books like Catch me if you can as his autobiography. But then he does like other books on like identity theft and scammers and all this kind of stuff. And he does really well.

[Podcast Narrator]

But when he's doing these talks around.

[Katy Charlwood]

All the way from the 70s, all the way up to like before he died, these journalists start catching on that he's, he's talking absolute bollocks, right?

[Podcast Narrator]

So by the, what was it, the.

[Katy Charlwood]

Early 2000s, you know, the kids are grown up, he's with Kelly and they move to this Daniel island, was it.

[Podcast Narrator]

One of the Carolinas?

[Katy Charlwood]

South Carolina. South Carolina. So they had filed for bankruptcy and like, like with nearly $2 million in debt.

[Podcast Narrator]

Although now they don't seem to have.

[Katy Charlwood]

That probably had something to do with the movie. But yeah. So Frank's whole thing is that he doesn't, he doesn't like con the little guy. He only conned the big guys, the big guns and all that kind of thing.

[Podcast Narrator]

But yeah, it's, it's not, it's not even remotely true. All he did was steal from the.

[Katy Charlwood]

Little guy consistently, just over and over again.

[Podcast Narrator]

It's like he, he just kept fucking people over, little people, just because he.

[Katy Charlwood]

Wanted a better life. So between security guards, small journalists, like they don't have big journalists, but these people all through like the 70s upwards get a wee nagging feeling about this fella and they dig deep and they're like, nope, this guy's a con man. The con is that he's a good con man, you know, or like a big con man. And it becomes this whole thing where they start looking at the numbers and he's like, oh well, you know what? They didn't really, you know, want to say anything because no company wants to admit that I took this much money from them. And the FBI don't want to admit.

[Podcast Narrator]

That they couldn't catch me.

[Katy Charlwood]

Hahaha. Like I'm in there like, like 100 year anniversary, like coffee table book.

[Podcast Narrator]

I have looked through that book, my friends, and let me tell you, he's.

[Katy Charlwood]

Not fucking in it. That was a hard read. It was very heavy. But anyway.

[Podcast Narrator]

He says that he stole.

[Katy Charlwood]

So much money, right?

[Podcast Narrator]

And like millions he says, was it now 2.5 million, he says he cashes.

[Katy Charlwood]

$2.5 million and that's like 17,000 fake checks between the ages of 16 and 24. Like, remember, this is the time frame. He's given $2.5 million. 17,000 forged checks between the ages of 16 and 21. Now, I don't know about you, I'm not the most genius person here, but that math just ain't mathing.

[Podcast Narrator]

So if you add up all the time that he, you know, wasn't in.

[Katy Charlwood]

Prison, that's like.

[Podcast Narrator]

14 months.

[Katy Charlwood]

13 months. 14 months. 14 months. I'm gonna stick with it. And in order to cash that much money, in order to cash 17,000 cheques in 14 months, he would have to cash 40 cheques per day.

[Podcast Narrator]

So, yeah, he didn't escape a federal prison.

[Katy Charlwood]

He did not escape, you know, the FBI.

[Podcast Narrator]

He did not have a task force chasing him.

[Katy Charlwood]

From the 1960s all the way through to the 70s.

[Podcast Narrator]

He spent most of his time in jail and he just lucked out so.

[Katy Charlwood]

Many times, like, he was so fucking lucky.

[Podcast Narrator]

He gets a shorter sentence, he gets probation, he gets a slap in the rest, of course.

[Katy Charlwood]

Handsome, well spoken white boy.

[Podcast Narrator]

Right?

[Katy Charlwood]

Right, straight white boy. Yeah, absolutely fucking lutely.

[Podcast Narrator]

But yeah, everything he did was fucking cunty. And he didn't pay back a single.

[Katy Charlwood]

Cent to any of the people he fucked over. Even after he made hundreds of thousands from, you know, doing his Google talks and doing his university tour and the money he made from the Catch Me if youf Can Movie.

[Podcast Narrator]

Millions, actually, he would have made millions from that. And nobody, nobody got recompense. None, none, none.

[Katy Charlwood]

Oh, what an absolute piss bag I am. Oh, he's awful. He's awful. And you know what? I said he was dead earlier. I was wrong. He's not dead. I just clearly just manifested that in my brain. But no, he is not dead. Although if he dies, like within the next couple days, I didn't make it happen. I don't have that kind of power because if I did, I would have that kind of power to make me more money and not have all the things wrong with my body right now.

[Podcast Narrator]

But, yeah, he's still alive.

[Katy Charlwood]

He's 75 years old at this point at time of recording. But yeah, that is the story of the hoax, the myth, the absolute bollocks of Frank Abagnale Jr.

[Podcast Narrator]

So if you liked my retelling of this story, feel free to rate and review.

[Katy Charlwood]

Five stars on, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify.

[Podcast Narrator]

Or wherever you listen to podcasts, you can follow me and support me on.

[Katy Charlwood]

Twitter, which is whodidwhatnowpd? TikTok, Instagram, and probably other places with.

[Podcast Narrator]

Hooded what now Pod.

[Katy Charlwood]

I'm also on Patreon, which I am working on at the minute. It's slow, but it's getting there. And I also have PayPal if you want to donate. And for gummy bears and other such treats and books. I spent a lot of money on books. Oh, it's, it's, it's worrying right now how much money I have on books.

[Podcast Narrator]

And I need somewhere to put them.

[Katy Charlwood]

So I might have to invest in like a shed library. I don't know. But yes, let's just skip to recommendations, shall we?

[Podcast Narrator]

Yes. So for listening, I am gonna recommend.

[Katy Charlwood]

The Bar is Ankle High podcast. If you have ADHD or you know.

[Podcast Narrator]

Anybody with ADHD, or even if you.

[Katy Charlwood]

Don'T have ADHD and you just like people who do have it, go listen to that. The gals are absolutely fab for reading.

[Podcast Narrator]

I am absolutely going to suggest Vanity.

[Katy Charlwood]

Fair because it's my favourite book because it is a book without heroes and I adore that. Right. So gonna recommend that.

[Podcast Narrator]

And for watching, I'm gonna go with she's the Man.

[Katy Charlwood]

It's been all over TikTok on this week, so go watch she's the Man. Just go do it. It's a retelling of Shakespeare, but it's fun. I mean, I love Shakespeare anyway, but go listen to it. Watch it. That's what I was gonna say.

[Podcast Narrator]

And with that, I am going to.

[Katy Charlwood]

Bid you good night.

[Podcast Narrator]

Adios.

[Katy Charlwood]

Au revoir.

[Podcast Narrator]

Au revoirs, my friends. Bye. Bye.

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[Katy Charlwood]

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