Frank Abagnale Jr: Everyone is Wrong About this Story...
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Oh my gawd shoesssss 👠 👞 👟 🥿
There dog shoes aswell absolute crap
The "three strikes policy" in the US is usually reserved for drug charges, and of course each state and each of the counties in them can all have different laws and policies.
Don't ruin my movie. Bye 😂
If anything, this proves that he really is a great conman, after all. With only a simple story, he hid the embarrassing life he had lived. Replaced with the false reality in his head, using it to make more money and become exponentially more important than he possibly could've by living it, without any of the effort or risk.
I think it proves how stupid and naive most people are. Such easily proven lies and it takes 40 years for anyone to expose him….
Well, it's all relative. If he was really good at it, he would have made it to the White House. This guy is a mediocre amateur at best. Clearly had the determination, without the essential skillset. Or, let's be fair, he probably only lacked the kind of money that would have enabled him to play it big time. It's money that makes all the difference.
Abagnale was basically a bad check artist.
At uni we could send in a photo of ourselves for our ID so my ID had me wearing a crown on it for the whole 4 years lol 😂
Wish I'd thought of that! I wore a bathrobe. Told people it was a kimono. Apparently wearing a bathrobe on your ID card is not nearly as impressive as I thought it would be.
Oh right, and it was a university gym pass. Our university didn't put our photos on our ID, but the gym felt it was too important to keep out the riff-raff.
They had to approve ours and had to be professional for both of the school I have gone to
Frank Abignale Jr. A man who didn't let the truth get in the way of a good story.
Simon is about to ruin possibly the best exaggerated barstool story in history.
And?
I'm here for it...@@harleyjo4875
A correction. In 1964 the Army's basic training was only 6 weeks (42 days) so he absolutely could have finished basic. When i went to Marine Corps basic in 2000 I had a mate that finished basic. Afterwards, you are given two weeks leave to go home before reporting to start your duties. What he didn't know is the first thing they do is drug test you when you come back, and he popped for weed. This morning him a discharge and 3 months in the brig. I can see this also happening to him in 1964 in the middle of the hippy movement
And nothing, it was a complete statment @@harleyjo4875
@@CaptoftheHaggister You test positive for weed at boot camp in 1964 they send you to Fort Leavenworth. My uncles all served back then.
Hi Simon and co,
Big fan and I watch all the channels.
I was writing to suggest a topic for Decoding the Unknown. It would be a doozy as it would be long but with the popularity behind what I am about to suggest I am sure it would do great views.
A debunking of the cases of Ed and Lorraine Warren, the folks who the Conjuring movies are based on. They have done many many many ghost hunts and demon hunts and possession and all of that sort of thing and one video that succinctly breaks down all of them and debunks them would be fantastic.
Thanks for all the great content
THAT would be amazing... great suggestion 👍 I'd really love to see that. Simon loves to debunk ghost stuff, so it's a perfect topic. I'm sure his reactions would be priceless 👏 👏 👏
If you are interested in that, I highly recommend the channel Fleuro's Phantom Files. She has done many amazing in depth videos on their cases!
They’ve done that.
@@Sadweewee Are you sure? I don't remember a decoding the unknown episode about the Warrens
@ it was about a specific case. The one on which they based “The Devil Made Me Do It.”
P1 - Hey, you heard the jokes about Leonardo DiCaprio's girlfriends?
P2 - No?
P1 - Man, they never get old.
Ba-boom.
👎
Hey Simon, after 3? 4ish years, think this was one of my favourites readings by you. You handled it all wonderfully, and yeah I will also see the film again
Leo joke about 20 years is top shelf. Bravo
There is no allegedly about how much you love your Vessies. You’d wear them even if they weren’t sponsoring you.
You are just so entertaining. I've heard about how his story was bogus. Never a word about his jail history. Thank you and your wonderful writer.
Great write-up! Katy rocks.
Usually when a person is compulsively lying about having a job while committing fraud to stay afloat, it gets to a point where they eliminate their entire family when the stacked tower of lies starts to crumble. This could have ended so much worse
oof, that CasCrim PTSD hitting hard
Simon? being a "huge fan," forgot Walken was in it?
Or you US people elect them for president.
@DBZVelena yeah, the stupid is profound over here. We're not all idiots. Just roughly half of us
Lol that's gotta be the biggest exaggeration I've heard in a while 😅 no, compulsive liars who create a fake life to their family do not USUALLY massacre their families. The number of people who have done that is absolutely miniscule compared to those that don't.
As soon as Simon said Lunacy Commission I called band name.
Simon is like: “Wait…..you can make a career out of telling stories?”
The whole thing is ONLY entertaining if you never met or were victimized by Frank or the thousands of common low life conmen like him. There is nothing special about con-artists. They aren't particularly smart or smooth. Their superpower is simply Not Caring. They don't care if you catch them in a lie. They don't care if they go to prison. They don't care if you need your money to survive. They don't care about all the things that make normal people basically honest and decent. Great documentary though. Way more entertaining than Frank actually is.
He sounds like the Tommy Tallarico of lying 😂
His mother is very proud.
Seriously though, that pilot uniform is like his version of those Guinness World Records.
His mother is very proud
Yeah, but unlike Frank's mom, Tommy's mom is very proud.
Haahaha, oh my days, absolutely brilliantly written. Love every minute of this one!
I love the film, it's a riot, but wow, even when the film first come out, I was about the same age FAJ would have been when his career _started_ ..
Couldn't help think "what am I doing with my life?"
Finishing school, that's was I was doing 😂
Joking about Leo's girlfriends never getting old never gets old.
What! A con man lied! I'm shocked! Just shocked! Great script, Katy. I'm glad that Javier (the podcast guy) was more than happy to want the truth more widely known.
Finally! Every time Simon talks about that movie I comment how that guy is a con artist alright, the whole story is made up! Im surprised no one seems to know that
I had the pleasure of actually meeting Frank Abagnale when he spoke at a leadership conference at work. He is a very charming guy and did give an enjoyable lecture. Claimed to have come up with a credit card tracing program that other companies now charge money for.
He got DiCaprio to play him in a Spielberg movie, was on Johnny Carson and lives a comfortable life based on his stories. I'd say he's achieved something just as impressive as what he claims he did.
I thought that. Was very much the long con!!!
Genius in how brazen he was for years and years.
No his stories are way more impressive, became the chief pediatric resident, assistant attorney General, passed the bar on his own wiles, became an airline pilot with no training, sociology professor, and international fugitive all before the age of 21 and then became the fbis foremost civilian expert on fraud. But yes it is still impressive he managed to make a career on selling false stories, just not as impressive as if he had actually done all the things he claimed.
Jeez, I can’t even lie well enough to admit to my dinner hostess that I don’t like brussel sprouts.
"everyone loves Tom Hanks" except his son Chet 😂
About the pilots uniform
I served in the US Army and later worked for a large phone company and I’ll confirm that if you look professional and act confident 95% of people will give whatever respect or trust they would expect to give the uniform without questioning it.
Wearing one of my Army uniforms I received lots of thanks and was only questioned once. And it was a CSM “high ranking individual” because I had an unusual patch she didn’t recognize.
More so when I was going to peoples homes for the phone company. So many stories but more than once they would be at work and tell me their 12 year old daughter would let me in. “NOPE” I need an adult to go in.
Or I had the wrong address and they would just let me in until I finally asked what they needed and they would act confused thinking I just needed in their homes for some reason.
A few times they didn’t even use the same company I worked for but just trusted me because of the uniform.
Before starting video:
"I wonder if it will confirm/contradict anything from that podcast I listen to"
After starting video:
"Nevermind"
I can’t believe how bad Simon and Katy are treating poor Frank. It’s his life and he can lie about it all he wants.
Suggest to also do a DTU on Frank Dux. The fake martial artist that inspired the bloodsport movie
I have a checkbook. I wasn't given a choice when I opened my account. I've used three in the 12 years since I opened it. I had a doctor's office that only accepted checks. He's long since retired now.
Credit union? Because banks freaking charge you per check. I had a landlord who insisted on check much as he would constantly rant about receiving it too late (and I was scared to send the check too early for fear he’d cash it before I had the money in my account) so much nonsense that I tried to convince him could’ve been alleviated by allowing Zelle or other such payments. But an entire checkbook from the bank was like $35 or I could get 3 checks for like $5 or something like that- been a few years so I don’t recall the price but know I was buying them in groups of 3 and found it insane I had to pay the bank money for a check to my own dang account. Also the fact that 3 years ago I was paying rent with a check in the mail. 🤦♀️
Had a checkbook from my credit union but as a college student in another part of the state- I had car troubles and my credit union had weird limits on how much money I could take out of my own account or some insanity and I swapped my account over to a major bank… would’ve been 15-16 years ago and even then when I asked about checks, only if I was going to pay for them.
6:49 unless, of course, you watch Simon’s channels. Then you question everything and have internal arguments with yourself. 😂
I know a retired doctor that always wears scrubs, yeah it’s not his white coat but he says regular clothes are never as comfortable as scrubs so he just wears them everywhere
I've heard about this. The big con was convincing everyone he was a great conman.
But doesn't that make him a great conman
I loved this! Well done, Katy, Simon and co xx
In the US, children get to chose which parent once they are 13 or at least that's how the states I am familiar with are
This is pretty interesting. You should do a decoding the unknown on Patricia Highsmith(my fav author)-particularly her diary entries cause it gets wild
OMG YES!!!!
That would b awesome 😮
I hope these comments make it down to the basement so the writers can get to work on it
I agree...another vote for Patricia Highsmith, please!
Trigger warning sensitive material⬇️
I was six and my brother was 9 and we got dropped off by our mother at 3 am, in a park in North Richmond California, which is right next to Oakland and just as bad if not worse than Oakland,then she drove off to go get drunk, and get heroin she forgot she had dropped us off and we stayed in the park for 2 days. then we got picked up buy the cops, and then CPS put us in foster care. And we went through 4 different homes in 5 years and then me and my brother got adopted out finally. my case was a little bit more on the extreme side. everything from physical abuse and sexual abuse mental abuse and only one parent that left us unattended 90% of our childhood. & yes there are many cases where the child gets to choose which parent he or she wants to go with. And as you say most of the time Simon, having a f***** up childhood does not excuse you for anything you do in your life. I was physically abused sexually abused I watched extreme violence extreme drug use me and my brother were left alone for days at a time half starving & we both turned out all right(allegedly) I Love most of your channels. keep it Twitchy homeboy (I don't know how you can read your script with as much as you bounce around I thought my ADD was bad)💙
Maybe put a trigger warning at the top of your comment . Not everyone scrolling the comments is going to be mentally prepared to read your very intense story.
That said I’m sorry you had such a hard time x
Sorry for your childhood. Hope you're doing well now.
@MadJenno yeah I never thought about that I just took care of it thank you kindly 🤘
@@Heyitsallgoodman doing good yes thank you kindly
I'm sorry, but I'm glad you are doing well. I have a very good friend with similar upbringing. He is a wonderful, caring person and has the same mindset. Wanted better, so made things better as he got older. Be well 🙏
In defence of everyone who got taken in by Frank Abagnale before about the 1990s, it really was much less easy to check people's ridiculous claims out before the internet. I also suspect anything remotely associated with children has tightened up on hiring practices in recent decades and US airlines are definitely more bothered about security. The man really was a product of his era.
When I read his book I assumed some was exaggerated and a few stories might be lies, but I believed most of it. Then I used to listen to a podcast about scams that he was co-hosting at one point, and I thought it was weird that all his anti-scam advice was super basic and based on paper/pre-digital stuff. He just didn’t sound that knowledgeable but he was so confident and the podcast presented him as an anti-scam expert so I didn’t really question it. All so obvious in hindsight!
Less easy compared to today's "google it" world, but each thing he claims to have done could be verified with a simple phone call. (well, other than the FBI... they won't say shit.) Vetting things from that era today will still most likely require phone calls, and trips to boxes of records in an otherwise abandoned basement. Having grown up in that era, any claims on your resume could and would be verified by phone. These days, they'll just pull a credit report. (my former employer, of 20+ years, pays people to do the background checks - somewhat understandable for an international company.)
"Based on a true story" is honestly super easy thing to meet. It doesnt need to even be 10% accurate, so long as it is inspired and based on real events.
Which it wasn’t 😆
@@katywatson4940 He existed, conditions met
There is a 1961 movie called "The Great Imposter" staring Tony Curtis. In the movie Curtis plays the imposter Ferdinand Waldo Demara Jr., an also true story. He portray a Monk, Marine, Canadian Navy doctor, assistant prison warden and the FBI agent assigned to hunt him down. The movie is based on the biography by the same name. It probably inspired Frank.
Simon, you must have a checkbook. You learned the language. Well, I guess that’s a Czech Book. 😂
1:09:00 See also Geoff Lazer Ramsey of RvB fame -- when he went to the courthouse to legally change his name to Ramsey after his stepfather, the clerk said "Y'know, it doesn't cost any different if you change your whole name," presumably trying to talk him into the easier spelling of his first name. So Geoff, being the type of guy that he is, kept the difficult spelling and gave himself a stupid legal middle name.
FBI will actually confirm employment, but only that and only to future employers
1:25 - Mid roll ads
2:45 - Back to the video
4:15 - Chapter 1 - The version we all know
10:50 - Chapter 2 - The slightly changing versions
14:00 - Chapter 3 - The actual truth
1:08:20 - Chapter 4 - A family business ?
1:12:00 - Chapter 5 - FBI loose ends
1:14:25 - Chapter 6 - The ever changing story of frank abagnale Jr
1:23:50 - Chapter 7 - Why was nobody calling him out earlier ?
Movie so old Leo is about to disown it.
“It keeps your ankle warm”
Say no more 😂
12 min! Yesss... I been trying and trying to get into ONE of his channels n comment 1st. Y... Well.... Idky, theres just so many channels its hard to keep track of which starts when usually what days do they come out or is it random.... I wanna write for one of his channels and mb if im 1st one of the writers will comment back. Stranger things HAVE happened!!!😊❤
This was so well written, well read and entertaining. Loved it!
Could call the remake "Catch me at the Con" !!
When I was in 6th grade we had to read an autobiography and do a presentation as if we were that person. My mom recommended me Catch Me If You Can: The Book, and I picked it up. Only like 100 pages, so I figured it would be easy enough to read. And I remember reading it and going, "This just does not seem real. How would someone not get caught doing all this stuff? I don't believe it," and my mom got so mad at me because she liked to believe she was a master thief and could have gotten away with this stuff in the time period in which it supposedly happened. Kind of vindicating that like 20 years later I can say without a doubt that I was right in Child Me thinking the story sounded fishy.
Really! To me, it's hard to understand how kept talking himself out of serious prison time. These days, and I suppose then too, he'd be flagged a habitual felon and spend his entire life behind bars. But he'd talk his way off the cliff before every judge, and parole board! That's more incredible than the story he tells - and that part is real!
@@jfbeam if he never committed the fraud, he never had to talk his way out of it
I am reminded of the documentary F For Fake, which was about a man who had confessed to being the most prolific art forger of all time, and the creator of forgeries that hung in prominent museums and were in some of the most respected collections, and how his confession sent shockwaves through the art community.
And then about halfway through it takes an abrupt turn, as the filmmakers realize that essentially everyone is taking his word for all of that. While some of the works he claimed as his were provably forgeries, for many if not all of them the only evidence that he had created them was his confession.
Which leads to the weird position of "We know this man is a fraud. He has confessed to being a fraud. But is he being a fraud about being a fraud?"
Is Frank Abagnale the greatest impersonator in history because he successfully impersonated a great impersonator?
Someone should write a script about Bloodsport and Frank Dux, though its a basically this story but martial arts
"When legend surpasses fact; print the legend."
I hate to say it but all this just solidified how spectacular he is at being an imposter to me. He literally pretended to be the greatest pretender ever and everyone bought it. I think that means he is.. right?
Simon's version of a judge "I'm the judge" is so ominous.
It quite impressive he has gotten away with this all this time. I guess it does prove what a great talker and conman he is
The "lecture" Hanks is referring to is the story Abagnale tells - *repeatedly.* I've seen his "talks" (people love to put them on YT), and he tells the identical story every single time. Word. For. Word. Like he's literally reading from the book. The very book he now says he didn't have anything to do with, yet his name is on it as if he's the author, and he's called it an "autobiography" for decades. (isn't there a quote about repeating a lie...) He's a conman and pathological liar. Did hollywood (and his "co-writer") add some flair? Sure - hollywood loves to make things grand. Did he do all the things he -- and hollywood, and the book -- claim? The paper trail says no. Is it a fantastic story? Hell Yeah! And he tells it better than any script.
I believe that Frank is a child mentally and emotionally. Everything he does in his lies and stories are the same as my young children do. I mean how many of us as children pretended to be a pilot, doctor, teacher, firefighter, police or any other high profile professional. Frank just took his pretend and with the false confidence of a flawless teenager he became exactly who he thought he was.
This guy took the idea of fluffing your resume to a whole new level 😂
He should relaunch his career with a full confession of how he scammed people into believing that he was the greatest scammer of all time.
Simon, love your show, you know that. Having said that, when are you going to be recording in 4k????
I watched the movie (which was fun), but didn't realize that he had claimed to have been teaching at Brigham Young University. I would have immediately said that's not true. I have two kids attending there right now, and have had other family members attend in the past. It's a private church university, so maybe he thought there are no public records? In any case, in my understanding, you have to be a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to teach there and have interviews with ecclesiastical leaders periodically. No way he could have taught there without getting caught.
Simon's middle name is infact legend. He is just being modest in his old age.
Just last night I was talking to a flight attendant about starting a podcast where we just made up stories and I was saying that it could be like catch me if you can except completely false. Little did I know that it was in fact completely false so it would just be catch me if you can
Him being a professor at BYU was what made me suspicious. Although not impossible, it’s hard to work there if you aren’t a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Great script Katy! But…imagine if Javier Leiva and Alan Logan are both just Frank again telling us a new tall tale that still isn’t true 😂
OMG!
I love that move, so of this video is gonna ruin it; *THIS VIDEO BETTER BE GOOD*
(Edit) it is a great video! Great writing!! Great Edit...
Simon did his thing. Hour and a half well-spent!
Mr. Whistler doesn't like musicals? What a plebian. Am i right, Peter!?
He was a very entertaining speaker - I wouldn't go as far as the Tom Hanks quote, but still very good.
1:27:30 It's honestly impressive how he avoided getting awkwardly confronted on his guest speaking circuit.
It seems pretty strange of him to say that he wasn't old enough to drink when at the time he would have been old enough to drink since the age was not raised from 18 to 21 until the 80s.
1975
And could be called "Cash-me if you can"!
Grifters grift, that's what they do. They never change, never.
Now you gotta do an episode about koko the gorilla
Leave me some illusions!!!
is that the signing gorilla? ‘cuz animal communication would be a pretty meaty DtU topic, there’s even youtube channels whose gimmick is those little pet communication buttons
8:15 American millennial here. I grew up seeing my parents write checks all the time and they taught us how to write checks in school as well as balance a checkbook and so I always assumed we would do that when we grew up. I'm in my 30's now and I have never owned a checkbook and I've only endorsed and cashed checks given to me by others. Now it just seems insanely outdated and unsecure to hand someone a piece of paper with an amount on it claiming it's a promise of payment and just trusting that they actually have money in that account.
I've never heard of this guy before. I've heard OF the movie "Catch Me If You Can," but I didn't even know what it was about.
"My favorite sponsor. Allegedly."
I see Casual Criminalist Simon is spilling into this one.
And they say fake news is a *recent* phenomenon. Meanwhle, Frank's entire existence disproves that.
I never questioned the story, because I figured so much of it was easily verified, so someone else must have checked. I remember how James Frey was so easily and publicly ripped apart by lying about his addiction…so I assumed THIS story would have been checked! Now I’m realizing no one verified it because we all assumed someone else was doing it.
That's just it. People did check out his story, but no one listened to them. Frank tells such a good story most don't care if it's real.
As an Australian I know Eureka as the one of the last places that the Rhett and link billboard is up in! Decades after this story of course.
this was a great episode lots of decoding!
19:49 When I was 12 my parents separated in Germany and I got to choose where to go. I stayed with my father.
Great episode! I do feel that media studios who promote that what they are showing as being based on true events, or even inspired by true events, should have a duty to investigate beforehand.
Got the storm burst thank you so much my feet have never been so dry and comfortable first five minutes were weird but then I was amazed used a power washer against them waterproof is true thanks for talking me into these vessi shoes brother
It bothers me that everytime i see Leo put that decal on the Pan Am check that it's just a tad bit crooked.....
This makes me sad. Next things you're going to tell me is that Star Wars didn't happen the way it did in the movie either.
Katy, Queen ruining memories and popping kids balloons!
DiCaprio won’t date women who were born before “Catch Me if You Can” came out.
50:30. Is the movie Tropic Thunder?
I know it’s not relevant, but what is that font? I like it, it’s funky 😅
Great job!
23:41 I know Simon,, I know😂😂
8:20 in my 40's. Never got a checkbook. Keeping track of what I'd spent seemed like too much hassle than just using my card.
So the cool criminal who really deserves a blockbuster movie about him is that kid who stole airplanes, Colton whatshisface. What a shame the production company never did anything with the story. They should stop hoarding the film rights so someone else can make the movie
The barefoot bandit.
IP rights should only last if they’re actually working on it
Its like the great Gatsby. Almost 😂
The twist in the movie should have been that the only person he fooled was himself !
This form of podcast was destined to become a bit stale after some time given the finite amount of engaging material to pull from so its nice to see an entertaining and interesting episode this time.
imagine a kid like frank in JAIL back then?!?!?!?? OMG!!!!! THAT puts the whole "wants to work with kids" thing in a creepy light.
8:04 I am 41 years old, Canadian and I have never written a cheque let alone having a chequebook.... LOL
wait, why did I think Simon already covered this story? xD