Frank W. Abagnale Jr.

He Has Been Debunked Before

Sat 24 Jul 2021 09:11:05 PM EDT

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This article is based on information from the book "The Greatest Hoax on Earth: Catching Truth, While We Can" by Alan C. Logan, which provides a comprehensive look at Frank W. Abagnale's claims throughout his career. The book is very well researched and provides extensive citations to demonstrate that Abagnale's claims are mostly false or in a few cases, greatly embellished.

With many charlatans, especially ones that enjoy a lot of time in the spotlight, a common question we hear is along the lines of: "If they were lying, wouldn't they be exposed already?" The answer is yes and they often have been exposed already. Many journalists simply don't perform a level of due diligence in researching a given topic. In the case of Abagnale, many journalists would blindly reprint material from the press material provided directly from Abagnale. Instead of writing an objective piece and doing their own research, they accepted his claims at face value even if contradictory or entirely outlandish.

Over the years, from 1978 to 2020, at least a dozen journalists questioned Abagnale's claims to varying degrees. They ranged from "pressing for details" to multi-page comprehensive exposes that showed very little of his claims have merit. Despite that, Abagnale continues to repeat the same repeatedly debunked claims for forty years now, and organizations continue to hire him without questions.

The first article exposing Abagnale as a charlatan appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on October 6, 1978, written by Stephen S. Hall. The article was titled "Johnny is conned. A convict who makes up crimes." and was cited in subsequent articles about Abagnale. One of the most notable exposes early in Abagnale's career came from Ira D. Perry in his front page four-page twenty-eight column article in the Daily Oklahoman. The four parts are titled "The Great Imposter Is at It Again", "Inquiry Shows 'Reformed' Con Man Hasn't Quit Yet", "People, Places in Abagnale's 'Past' Vanish Into Thin Air...", and "Sometimes He Managed to Be in Two Places at Once".

Over a dozen publications and one lecture at the International Platform Association (IPA) conference called Abagnale out for his repeated bogus claims. The last major article was written by Tom Aswell for the Louisiana Voice questioning if Abagnale had conned the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI) out of a five-figure fee in return for his talk there. All of these articles and questions were based on research trying to verify his claims while Abagnale kept repeating the same things over, citing news articles based on his own press material rather than facts.