Posted on 03/19/2023 3:02:58 PM PDT by nickcarraway
After the first time I saw Abagnale on Johnny Carson, I said to myself, "He must be lying."
In related news, the man who portrayed him in the film lied about being an actor.
Tony Curtis starred in The Great Impersonator.
Leonardo DeCaprio in Catch Me If You Can.
Agree. Made for entertainment. Christopher Walken's perfomance was so memorable.
“If this Abagnale had run for office as a Demonrat, he’d be President today.”
Nah, he’s too smart for that.
The movie "The Irishman" was a load of BS also. Entertainment industry nitwits will regurg' whatever they find if they can A) make some bucks off from it and/or B) push their leftist agenda.
Frank Abagnale Stuns Everyone With Stories of Being a Con Man
Johnny Carson Tonight Show
790K subscribers | 4,304,359 views
June 14, 2022 | Original Airdate: 04/06/1978
Transcript 0:00 · i have not met uh my next guest i'm 0:01 · looking forward to talking with him his 0:03 · name is uh frank 0:05 · uh abagnale 0:06 · and he had a short but illustrious 0:09 · career as a con man 0:10 · some of the things he did he 0:11 · impersonated a co-pilot from major 0:14 · airline he faked it as a lawyer on the 0:16 · state attorney general's staff 0:19 · passed as a pediatrician in a georgia 0:21 · hospital 0:22 · was a phony college professor 0:24 · and cashed seventeen thousand bad checks 0:26 · amounting to two and a half million 0:28 · dollars 0:30 · and he did spend he did spend some time 0:34 · that sounds like uh executive material 0:36 · for nbc 0:39 · would you welcome please frank abagnale 0:42 · right 0:45 · [Music] 0:52 · frank since we have just met assure me 0:55 · that you are not passing if somebody 0:57 · tonight has uh frank abagnale and are 0:59 · really uh 1:00 · fred schwartz somewhere or that you're 1:02 · our what you are tonight 1:04 · those are fascinating things i read the 1:06 · audience went uh what it's a little bit 1:08 · like the story of fred was fred demera 1:11 · right in which they made a movie uh the 1:13 · great imposter 1:14 · now you did all these things out of for 1:16 · what reason 1:18 · well basically i uh at the age of 16 1:21 · coming from little town in upstate new 1:22 · york my parents separated when i was 16 1:25 · and kind of emotionally 1:28 · bothered me and i couldn't get my 1:29 · parents back together again so i ran 1:31 · away from home and found myself in new 1:33 · york city without a job with no money 1:36 · and as i went in and looked for 1:38 · employment people would say how old are 1:39 · you i'd tell them i was 16. they wanted 1:41 · to pay me a dollar and a quarter dollar 1:43 · fifty and i realized i couldn't support 1:45 · myself in new york on that amount of 1:47 · money 1:48 · so i decided to advance my age i always 1:50 · looked a little older so i started 1:52 · saying i was 26 years old people started 1:54 · paying me a little more money but not 1:56 · enough to support myself 1:58 · so i 2:00 · got into the habit of starting to write 2:02 · personal checks without having any money 2:03 · in the bank 2:04 · and 2:06 · the more i did that the more confidence 2:08 · i built up that i could do it and found 2:10 · that people easily accepted my checks 2:13 · most people don't realize how 2:15 · gullible the average store keeper is so 2:18 · you can walk in with a 2:20 · with a picture any identification that 2:22 · people could have made would you did you 2:23 · use various names 2:24 · yes i also use various occupations for 2:27 · example the airline pilot with uh 2:29 · pan-american did you basically fly on a 2:31 · plane well i would fly up in the cockpit 2:34 · so that i could fly for free and uh i 2:36 · had a uniform 2:38 · when i uh how i got this idea how did 2:40 · you con was it pan am right how did you 2:43 · con them into that you were well how i 2:44 · got this idea it was time uh for me to 2:47 · leave new york since the police were 2:48 · looking for me not only as a whole 2:52 · for the bad checks 2:53 · and uh 2:54 · i happened to be walking up 42nd street 2:56 · and i saw this airline crew come out of 2:58 · a hotel and i thought that would be the 3:00 · perfect front for me to be able to 3:02 · travel around the country posing as a 3:04 · pilot not only could i fly for free but 3:07 · i would also be able to stay at hotels 3:09 · for free because they don't have 3:10 · resources they have reciprocal things 3:12 · don't they the airlines i mean that's 3:13 · what they call like deadheading you can 3:14 · get on a plane right if they're if you 3:16 · remember one of the major airlines so 3:18 · the first thing to do is get a uniform 3:20 · and so i called pan american airlines 3:21 · got their switchboard and asked for 3:23 · their purchasing department i guess this 3:24 · was my first con and when the purchasing 3:27 · officer came on i told him that i was a 3:29 · pilot based in la was here in new york 3:31 · on a layover someone had stolen my 3:33 · uniform where could i get a replacement 3:35 · and he sent me down to the uniform 3:37 · company and called up ahead told him i 3:39 · was coming they fitted me out 3:41 · when he was done the the uniform 3:43 · manufacturer said i said how much is it 3:45 · he said well it's 289 dollars i said 3:48 · well i'll write you a check he said 3:50 · no i can't take a check i said well i'll 3:52 · pay you in cash she said no i can't take 3:55 · cash 3:56 · so i said oh he said i have to bill this 3:58 · back to your payroll account and it'll 4:00 · be deducted from your uniform allowance 4:01 · i said oh that's even better oh question 4:07 · yeah he was pretty swift he saw you yeah 4:10 · so in other words you fill out a voucher 4:11 · and they sent the voucher back to pan am 4:13 · and i then had the uniform but i didn't 4:15 · have an identification card 4:17 · and so i went to a large manufacturer 4:19 · that i found in the yellow pages in new 4:20 · york of identification cards and i told 4:22 · them that i represented an airline in 4:24 · puerto rico that was getting ready to 4:25 · expand service to the united states hire 4:28 · on 200 new employees and we wanted to go 4:30 · to a formal id card well he told me 4:33 · that's fine he said let me show you some 4:35 · samples i said this is what we're 4:36 · looking for and he said okay let me give 4:38 · you a sample to take back and i said 4:40 · could you fix it up i mean laminate it 4:42 · and make it should look like a finished 4:43 · product you can use me in the picture if 4:45 · you like he said oh fine have a seat 4:49 · and uh 4:51 · the uh 4:53 · the problem i had is when i left there 4:55 · it had no name on it had no airlines 4:56 · insignia no name and it already been 4:58 · laminated so i couldn't type anything on 5:00 · or put anything on so i walked by an 5:02 · airplane hobby shop and i walked in and 5:04 · bought a little model of a pan am plane 5:07 · and i took the decals out of the box and 5:09 · soaked them in water put the little logo 5:10 · that would have went on the tail 5:12 · up on the check up on the id card and 5:14 · then the word pan am what would have 5:16 · went on the wing crossed the id card and 5:18 · the clear decal on the plastic made a 5:20 · great car 5:20 · [Applause] 5:22 · look at this 5:25 · they like this 5:27 · everybody likes a good scam don't they i 5:29 · mean secretly 5:30 · i thought well do these ideas come to 5:32 · you quickly or do you sit and think and 5:34 · think and figure them out i would i 5:36 · would think them out uh i did that for 5:38 · about two years i traveled around about 5:40 · 82 countries when did they catch you on 5:42 · the tracks obviously the checks caught 5:44 · up with you well what i would do is i'd 5:46 · check into a hotel as an airline crew 5:48 · member sign in there'd be bill back to 5:50 · the airline then i'd check out in the 5:52 · morning and i'd write a personal check 5:54 · in the beginning and of course the 5:55 · airlines had an agreement to cover their 5:56 · employees checks up to a hundred dollars 5:58 · with the hotel so they would go ahead 6:00 · and accept it 6:01 · and then as i progressed i started 6:03 · making up airline checks so i could make 6:05 · them for three or four hundred dollars 6:07 · and i would check it 6:09 · and you traveled to some 82 countries uh 6:11 · flew some three million miles always 6:13 · rode in the cockpit in the jump seat as 6:15 · a non-revenue pilot always wrote on 6:17 · everyone but pan am so that no one would 6:19 · ask me where are you based and so forth 6:21 · didn't any of the pilots say hey what do 6:23 · you think of the new law ran system or 6:24 · the dme or well when i first started i 6:27 · was in laguardia airport sitting in a 6:28 · restaurant i'd only had the uniform a 6:30 · couple of days and a twa pilot walked in 6:32 · and said how you doing said hello and he 6:35 · said what kind of equipment are you on 6:37 · and i thought well equipment i didn't 6:39 · know what to say so i said general 6:40 · electric 6:41 · and he said 6:43 · oh and he walked out so i quickly found 6:45 · out what equipment meant what type of 6:47 · aircraft sonic aircraft you find 6:52 · what did you think you were flying a 6:54 · washer or something 6:57 · i don't know general electric i think 6:58 · didn't make my engines i know you might 7:00 · as well of course i'm referring to the 7:02 · power plant and that would 7:03 · it's a you know if you really look like 7:05 · you belong somewhere it's true isn't it 7:08 · and you have a feeling of authority 7:11 · people will almost accept you anyplace 7:12 · if you do it directly 7:15 · very true i've done that uh when i had a 7:18 · friend in the hospital i wanted to see 7:19 · them pretend put on put on well put on a 7:22 · jacket tie or dress as doctors i know 7:25 · several well dressed like marshall grove 7:27 · we both know yeah people don't ever stop 7:29 · to think walk quickly uh don't have to 7:31 · carry anything and people who kind of 7:33 · recognize me 7:34 · have said oh good morning doctor i say 7:36 · good morning 7:37 · sit down 7:38 · we'll be back here this school for 7:40 · scandal in just a moment stay with us 7:44 · talking with uh frank abagnale about 7:46 · some of his uh former exploits uh most 7:49 · of the cons you had or the flim-flam 7:50 · games were against 7:52 · corporations like airlines and so forth 7:53 · did you ever 7:54 · work on individuals as a con type of 7:57 · thing only once i was in miami and i was 7:59 · posing as a wealthy stockbroker which 8:01 · was a front for passing checks and i had 8:04 · rented a rolls royce for the chauffeur i 8:05 · was about 18 at the time 8:07 · and i was uh 8:09 · staying at the fountain blue hotel for 8:10 · about 500 a day had a penthouse and all 8:13 · of this was a front for me and i met a 8:15 · city councilman in miami and he was very 8:17 · impressed thought i was about 32 very 8:20 · wealthy and he invited me to a party 8:21 · they were giving for the mayor of miami 8:23 · at the mayor's home and while i was 8:25 · there i ran into a gorgeous model 8:28 · a well-known model at that time 8:30 · and 8:32 · one of the guests came over and said 8:34 · kind of have to watch her he said 8:36 · if you were thinking about taking her 8:38 · back to your room this evening it would 8:40 · cost you a great deal of money so wash 8:42 · yourself in ladies evening right so when 8:44 · i got talking with her i said how much 8:46 · would it cost me to take you back to my 8:48 · room for the rest of the evening 8:50 · and she said well i how much do you 8:52 · think i'm worth being 18 i had no idea 8:55 · how much she was worth but i uh 8:57 · not 50 bucks 9:00 · but i uh 9:01 · i offered uh i offered 300 and she said 9:04 · no that's i'd go back to your room with 9:06 · you for 300. 9:09 · she said that's a little bit too low so 9:10 · i said okay well what if i doubled it 9:13 · and made it 600 and she said well that's 9:16 · a little more like it i said i'll tell 9:17 · you what we'll be here all night i tell 9:18 · you what why don't you just take me back 9:20 · to your hotel room for two hours and 9:23 · i'll pay you one thousand dollars in 9:25 · cash in advance 9:27 · she said let's go so we went back to her 9:30 · hotel and she was opening her door and i 9:32 · said now i'll be right back she said 9:34 · wait a minute where do you where are you 9:35 · going i said well i don't carry a 9:37 · thousand dollars on me i'm going 9:38 · downstairs in the lobby 9:40 · cash a check i'll be right back 9:42 · she said this hotel isn't going to cash 9:44 · a check at this hour of the morning for 9:45 · a thousand dollars i said first of all i 9:48 · own 35 percent of this hotel never been 9:51 · in it in my life of course and i said 9:53 · this is a cashier certified check i said 9:56 · just like gold they'll cash it she said 9:58 · let me see this is a cashier's check why 10:00 · don't you just make it out to me i said 10:02 · are you crazy i said this check is for 10:04 · fourteen hundred dollars we already 10:06 · agreed on a thousand so she gave me 400 10:09 · change and that's what it costs 10:12 · [Applause] 10:44 · that is uh 10:46 · that's what's known as right folks yes 10:48 · double double jeopardy no that's 10:50 · that's what's known as hooking the 10:51 · hooker i'm hooking the hooker 10:53 · i wonder the checks did you spend time 10:55 · i was you know this sounds kind of 10:56 · glamorous but come on this is a it's 10:58 · illegal and it's a crime okay really i 11:01 · think being quite honest about it it 11:03 · people say it must been very glamorous 11:04 · but to me it was kind of very lonely 11:06 · despairing life constantly being on the 11:08 · run all the time for five years i was 11:10 · eventually caught in a little town in 11:12 · southern france when a stewardess 11:14 · recognized me from a photograph and i 11:17 · was arrested convicted by the french 11:20 · court sent to prison in france later 11:22 · extradited to sweden convicted by the 11:24 · swedish court sent to prison there and 11:26 · later extradited to the united states 11:28 · and sent to federal prison here in the 11:30 · united states during my stay in the 11:33 · federal prison system i escaped three 11:35 · times 11:36 · on one particular occasion i 11:38 · impersonated a prison inspector and 11:39 · walked out the front door of these 11:42 · and uh 11:45 · but i eventually served my time you bet 11:47 · you did serve your time did serve my 11:48 · time there must be a place for you in 11:50 · show business 11:52 · this is really incredible now 11:54 · what do you what do you do now 11:56 · i had a legitimate type of uh yes for 11:58 · the uh last four years i have a firm in 12:01 · houston and i do consulting work for 12:03 · large corporate banks and uh department 12:06 · stores and stuff like that 12:08 · on how not to get ripped off ah in other 12:10 · words use preventive measures and so 12:12 · forth right yeah because i've had ray 12:13 · johnson on the show a couple of times 12:14 · who served many years in prison and 12:17 · uh does that kind of work now you know 12:19 · helps people get their security and so 12:20 · forth so you're not recommending this 12:22 · kind of uh no i definitely would how did 12:24 · you pass yourself as a pediatrician well 12:26 · that's kind of tricky because i mean 12:28 · that's technical and uh well as the 12:30 · pediatrician probably uh it was really 12:33 · ended up being the most easiest which 12:34 · should have been the most difficult i 12:35 · supervised seven interns on the midnight 12:37 · to eight shift have you had any medical 12:40 · training no medical training 12:42 · and i i don't like the sight of blood 12:43 · and when i was uh when i would be called 12:46 · to the emergency room i'd walk in 12:47 · there'd be two or three interns there 12:49 · and i'd be called down and i'd walk in 12:50 · and i'd say what's the problem 12:52 · they'd say doctor we have a severing 12:53 · cardio here with a i didn't know if the 12:55 · guy broke his leg had a heart attack 12:58 · so i would say well dr carter what do 13:00 · you think well doctor i would like to 13:01 · administer 30 cc's of this dr john i 13:04 · concur jane i concur gentlemen have at 13:07 · it and that i would go 13:09 · well 13:10 · i became one of the most respected 13:12 · residents because i was the only one 13:13 · that ever allowed them to do anything 13:15 · without him 13:15 · [Laughter] 13:18 · crazy story we'll come back 13:24 · we're talking with frank abagnale i 13:26 · believe 13:27 · uh 13:29 · i find this absolutely mind-boggling 13:32 · it says on the card here you also faked 13:34 · it as a lawyer 13:35 · on a state attorney general staff can 13:37 · you talk about that yes uh i uh after 13:40 · the doctor thing went had enough 13:42 · confidence to go down and did they ever 13:43 · catch you on the doctors now you finally 13:45 · got tired of it i was i was never caught 13:47 · in any of my impersonations they found 13:49 · out about them later after i resigned 13:51 · and and left 13:52 · and uh and paid well for those right 13:56 · paid well didn't they ever say uh doctor 13:58 · could we see your certificate in 14:00 · pediatrics or your body i would present 14:02 · phony credentials 14:05 · and i went down and uh presented some 14:07 · credentials to take the bar in louisiana 14:10 · and uh i studied for it for about three 14:12 · or four months took it three times the 14:14 · third time i passed it legally passed it 14:17 · and uh went on work as a a corporate 14:20 · lawyer on the attorney general's staff 14:23 · and 14:23 · worked there for almost a year yeah won 14:26 · a number of cases while 14:30 · [Applause] 14:33 · you ever get the feeling you could end 14:34 · up prosecuting yourself 14:36 · yeah uh but that's weird airline pilot 14:38 · did you doctor did you ever have to have 14:40 · to watch drinking so that you wouldn't 14:43 · fumble or 14:44 · did you could you not drink or did you 14:46 · have to watch yourself that i i always 14:48 · did i never drank i never smoke and 14:50 · today i don't smoke and drink very 14:52 · little 14:53 · as a result you must have been running 14:54 · on a sort of adrenaline high the whole 14:56 · time i was running a lot 15:00 · do you miss the challenge of that uh 15:03 · i mean do you ever get that little 15:04 · craving and saying hey 15:06 · i've got a real scam 15:08 · that i think would be fun to do 15:11 · we must understand and i think we've 15:12 · pointed out so we don't get mail 15:13 · tomorrow we're not saying you know 15:15 · crime this is this is the kind of thing 15:17 · because it's it's amusing because you 15:19 · serve time in all of those prisons right 15:22 · i uh i feel that uh 15:25 · what i do now i find very challenging 15:27 · people sometimes pay me to go into their 15:30 · places of business and actually see if i 15:32 · can beat a system or be 15:34 · write a bad check in one particular bank 15:36 · or something short change someone what's 15:38 · the best way to tell a bad check is 15:39 · there any way 15:41 · uh in dealing with personal checks the 15:43 · best way is by the number up in the 15:44 · right-hand corner 15:46 · do we have 15:48 · was this what this is 15:49 · all right 15:51 · well this is the thing that says how to 15:52 · detect bad checks six simple steps you 15:55 · want to talk about those as we show them 15:56 · one of them is 15:58 · feel the edges what does that what does 16:00 · that mean okay this is a card that i 16:01 · design that banks and retail stores use 16:04 · one of it feel the edges is that all 16:06 · legitimate checks are perforated on at 16:08 · least one of their four sides most 16:10 · forgeries are not 16:12 · second is the code number the first 16:14 · number after this bracket on an account 16:16 · number is a federal reserve bank there 16:18 · are 12 federal reserve banks in the 16:20 · united states california is 12 all of 16:22 · the west coast is 12. a forger for 16:24 · example cashing a la check 16:27 · in la would change the number 12 on the 16:30 · check to the number zero one which would 16:32 · send it to boston that gives him six 16:34 · days three days while it gets out three 16:36 · days while it gets back six days to cast 16:38 · checks without anyone knowing yes but if 16:40 · a forger can make these kind of checks 16:42 · up with the perforations and have them 16:43 · printed how is anybody supposed to tell 16:46 · us a bad check 16:47 · well one would be this knowing your 16:49 · correct code number when you train a 16:50 · teller you teach her to know that 16:52 · california is 12. so if someone gave her 16:54 · a check it was from a california bank 16:55 · and it was 0-1 it's a forgery well why 16:57 · wouldn't the four jervis bright make it 16:59 · up and put 12 there well 17:01 · 12 would bounce in less than 24 hours ah 17:03 · this gives him a chance zero one would 17:05 · take six days to find hip what else now 17:07 · mag 17:10 · this is magnetic ink and magnetic ink is 17:12 · a dull ink and most forges cannot obtain 17:15 · it magnetic ink will not reflect under 17:17 · light and so the forger 17:20 · uses standard black ink and when the 17:22 · teller goes like this with the check 17:23 · under her light she sees a glare or 17:25 · shine off of this number she knows it's 17:27 · standard black ink 17:29 · now how many uh stores and people in 17:32 · stores are trained i can see in banks 17:35 · but how many people in the clerks and so 17:37 · forth are trained to do this i designed 17:39 · this card about a year ago over a 17:41 · million of them have been sold they're 17:43 · used by retailers banks are used in 17:45 · schools for educating distributive 17:47 · education students and students going 17:49 · into the banking retail business no it 17:51 · says useful things that mean i review 17:52 · but it says require proper 17:54 · identification now anybody could go and 17:56 · print up a phony driver's license can 17:58 · they not and put their picture on it and 17:59 · that's true but most people don't have 18:01 · to do that they can just take someone's 18:03 · driver's license not too long ago 18:05 · demonstrating for kroger stores i walked 18:07 · into a store and uh 18:10 · showed them that i went through an 18:11 · express lane wrote a check with my dr my 18:14 · check for ten dollars and gave the girl 18:16 · the store manager's driver's license 18:18 · well not only was he not me but he was 18:20 · black and i'm white and she cashed the 18:22 · check 18:23 · [Music] 18:24 · a little lacks there we'll be right back 18:28 · [Music] 18:28 · [Applause]
Today he could be President!
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