Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake

“I wasn’t a Pan Am pilot or any other kind of pilot. I was an imposter, one of the most wanted criminals on four continents, and at the moment I was doing my thing, putting a super hype on some nice people.”

This is one of many moments wherein Abagnale demonstrates a sense of conflict regarding his schemes. He recognizes that often, he is successful as a con man because the individuals he cons are “nice people,” inclined to trust him and accept the idealized image he presents as a reality. This line is particularly significant in conjunction with the book’s first line and within the context of the book’s subtitle: The True Story of a Real Fake. Abagnale is a “real” fake in the sense that his disguises reflect aspects of himself he earnestly wishes to embody. He is ultimately, however, a “fake” in the sense that he has not truly gone through the years of education and training necessary to be a copilot. He is, rather, “an imposter” performing the skills of a copilot and tricking people in the process.

“I was always aware that I was Frank Abagnale, Jr., that I was a check swindler and a faker, and if and when I were caught I wasn’t going to win any Oscars. I was going to jail.” 

Here, Abagnale affirms that beneath the various identities he assumes, he is always aware he is truly Frank Abagnale. In this sense, there are often two people occupying his body: the persona he outwardly presents (a copilot, a doctor, a lawyer) and the “real” person he knows himself to be. He also significantly accepts that there are consequences for his actions and that he is aware of this at all times. He does not delude himself that a convincing performance will help him to evade those consequences.

“There’s a type of person whose competitive instincts override reason. They are challenged by a given situation in much the same manner a climber is challenged by a tall peak: because it’s there.” 

Abagnale reflects on his motives for pursuing criminal activities. He contemplates ways to pull off his crimes and compares this problem-solving process to “a tall peak” he wishes to conquer. This visual metaphor is particularly significant when applied to the aspirational nature of Abagnale’s disguises: scaling the “challenge” of this proverbial “tall peak,” he is an effective social climber. 

“When you're up there hundreds of people will claim you as a friend. When you're down, you're lucky if one will buy you a cup of coffee.”

Visiting home from boarding school, Abagnale learns that his father lost his business and has pursued a much lower-paying job as a postal clerk. Distressed by his diminishment in status, Abagnale asks his father to contact his “friends” in politics to help him. This line is spoken to Abagnale by his father in response. His words provide significant motivation for Abagnale’s social-climbing disguises: he never wants to lose his mobility or his “friends.”

“As long as a man knows what he is and who he is, he’ll do all right.”

This line is spoken by Abagnale’s father in the hope of comforting him when he learns of his postal-clerk status. Abagnale significantly notes that he (Frank) does not know who he is, suggesting that his various disguises provide a way of exploring potential identities. 

“There is enchantment in a uniform, especially one that marks the wearer as a person of rare skills, courage, or achievement.”

Here, Abagnale reflects on the appeal of his copilot disguise to others. Donning the uniform of a copilot makes him feel as though he also possesses the education, training, skills, and attributes of a copilot, inspiring confidence he does not possess when going through the world as Frank Abagnale. 

“I loved them for their minds.”

This quote refers to the airline stewardesses Abagnale dates. He explains that he pursues them not only with the hope of dating beautiful women, but with the objective of learning more about their industry from the ground level. Their insider knowledge helps Abagnale to perform more convincingly as a copilot. Throughout the book, Abagnale frequently uses his romantic liaisons to source information, making women unknowing accomplices to his scams.

“Airports, small cities that they are in themselves, had a low crime ratio, with theft the common problem.” 

Abagnale’s metaphor suggests that even before he left New York, he was traveling to the “small cities” of different airports, observing peoples’ behaviors and acquiring knowledge. He also explains that the safety regulations within airports in the 1960s were very different from today, pre-terrorist attacks. Abagnale knowingly suggests that he could not have pulled off his scam in the present day.

“The bank didn’t return my checks with the notation ‘worthless,’ ‘fraudulent,’ or ‘forgery.’ They merely sent them back marked ‘insufficient funds to cover.’” 

This quote explains the professional modus operandi that allowed Abagnale’s scams to go undetected until he left town; in the 1960s, it was not the habit of operations to immediately assume wrongdoing or fraud. 

“Little things mean a lot to a big phony.”

In the midst of deconstructing his process for making his identity appear legitimate, Abagnale explains the importance of “little things.” He keeps a notebook of industry terminology, names, and other “little things” to consult when he needs them.

“The deputies were clearly uncomfortable and I had a hunch this was an affair in which they weren’t really sure of their role.”

Throughout the book, Abagnale notes that he is frequently successful in his scams because people are so absorbed by their own professional roles they play and anxious about doing the right thing, initially assuming they are in the wrong when something unusual happens. This is the case when the police first apprehend Abagnale; the notification falls into a gray area of their protocol and they are unsure how to behave, anxious that they will overstep their boundaries.

“When I looked in the mirror, I saw a mature man of twenty-five or thirty and that’s how I felt about myself, too.”

Though Abagnale previously notes that he never deluded himself about his true identity, this quote complicates our understanding of his self-perception. Here, he seems to absorb some aspect of the role he has been performing, feeling as though he truly is “a mature man” because this is what he appears to be.

“But a thrift store dress is usually taken for high fashion when it’s revealed under a mink coat.”

This quote refers to the first check Abagnale attempts to forge. Though his work is sloppy, he makes the sloppiness appear to be concurrent with standard production by providing a legitimizing “mink coat”: a windowed envelope with a messy stamp. Bank tellers who see the typical-looking envelope overlook the forged check inside.

“I learned later that I exited the bank barely five minutes before the actual FBI agent—Eureka’s only G-man, in fact—arrived. I also learned later that Mrs. Waring herself was more than a little upset when she learned she had been duped, but then FBI agents do have a certain romantic aura of their own and a woman doesn’t have to be young to be impressed by a glamorous figure.” 

This quote responds to a moment where Abagnale tricks the head bank teller, Mrs. Waring, into giving him a check that he accidentally wrote his real name on. Abagnale does so in the guise of an FBI agent just minutes before the real FBI agent arrives. During his conversation with Mrs. Waring, she speaks disparagingly of the teller who cashed the check, saying that she was a young girl distracted by a good-looking pilot in uniform. By effectively distracting Mrs. Waring with his FBI-agent disguise, Abagnale slyly suggests that anyone is capable of being conned. One can read a possible feminist thought line into this moment, as Abagnale denounces the assumption that the women he cons are easily fooled or unintelligent. 

“I was an independent actor, writing, producing and directing my own scripts. I did not know any professional criminals, I did not seek out professional expertise and I shunned any place that smacked of being a criminal haunt.” 

Here, Abagnale compares his criminal activities to acting. While he frequently uses different forms of “scripts” (as with the notebook of names and industry language), he is often forced to perform off-script when learning a new skill (such as the forging of checks). 

“Of course, as someone once observed, there is no right way to do something wrong, but the most successful check swindlers have three factors in their favor…The first is personality…The second is observation…The third factor is research.”

This quote comes from Abagnale’s break-down of his check-forging methodology. This deconstruction is redolent of 1960s sociologists such as Erving Goffman, who wrote The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life, describing social interactions as a kind of conscious performance. Abagnale describes his actions as a social script that can be easily compartmentalized (into three categories) and used to one’s advantage.

“I was actually incapable of sound judgment, I realize now, driven by compulsions over which I had no control.” 

Here is another quote that complicates Abagnale’s original proclamation of full-consciousness without self-delusion. With this quote, he implies that after trying on so many different identities and moving so frequently from place to place, he is losing control, finding it harder to anticipate his next move.

“I looked at her and was irritated. I had established and followed a certain felonious code of ethics since taking up crime as a profession. Among other things, I’d never diddled an individual…It suddenly occurred to me that Cheryl would make a lovely exception to my rule.”

In this moment, Abagnale expresses annoyance when he learns that Cheryl—an attractive woman he met at a party and wants to sleep with—is in fact a sex worker. He responds to his annoyance by breaking his “code of ethics” and cheating her out of $400. This moment can be read a number of ways, including a revealing commentary on Abagnale’s gender politics and double-standards for women. Though he has frequently “used” women he sleeps with to extract information he uses to con people out of money, he expresses indignation at the idea that a woman would try to con him. 

“My targets had always been corporate targets—banks, airlines, hotels, motels or other establishments protected by insurance.”

This quote is a follow-up to Abagnale’s internal commentary on Cheryl. Here, he illuminates his “code of ethics,” which essentially consists of never cheating an individual person. Abagnale has, however, arguably cheated a number of individuals prior to the incident with Cheryl, as he has slept with numerous women who aided his crimes without their consent. 

“If I were going to hallucinate, I determined, mine would be planned hallucinations, and so I began to produce my own fantasies. I would sit on the floor, for instance, and recall the image I presented in my airline uniform and pretend that I was a real pilot, commander of a 707. And suddenly the cramped, vile, and oozy pit in which I was prisoner became a sleek, clean jet liner, crowded with joyful, excited passengers attended by chic, glamorous stewardesses.”

In the harsh French prison, Abagnale reflects on his fantasy of being a real pilot. Outside of prison, it was easy to take this fantasy for granted, as it was part of his daily performance. Inside of prison, this fantasy takes on a new shape. The pilot dream functions to get Abagnale through days in his cell, where reality and fantasy are very different from one another. 

“They don’t believe in rehabilitation. They believe in an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. In short, they believe in punishment for a convicted criminal and you’re a convicted criminal.”

Abagnale describes how the inhumane conditions of French prisons arise from their particular philosophies on crime and punishment. These philosophies are a harsh wakeup call for Abagnale, whose confidence and experience helped distract him from the inevitable consequences of his criminal actions.

“It was a man. It had to be a man, but God in heaven, what manner of man was this?...I shuddered as I regarded the apparition. As I shuddered again a recognition loomed. I was facing myself in a mirror.” 

This moment—wherein Abagnale faces his reflection for the first time before leaving the French prison—is a dramatic inversion of the moment that begins the book. Abagnale directs the reader toward the contrast between his idealized “pilot” reflection and the starved, sick image that was the consequence of this ideal. In the opening scene, Abagnale notes that “A man’s alter ego is nothing more than his favorite image of himself,” a thought that lends grim resonance to this moment, wherein Abagnale cannot stand to look in the mirror. 

“Escape never entered my mind. I loved it at Malmo prison.” 

Here, Abagnale demonstrates the radical difference between his treatment in Swedish prison and his treatment in French prison. He suggests that, when practiced in earnest, the philosophy of rehabilitation is very effective. Though he was a prisoner, he felt like an autonomous individual at Malmo prison, and felt a desire to improve himself rather than escape.