It's Official

I recently followed one of my quixotically pointless paper(less) trails from watching the movie “Catch Me If You Can” through wiki to find out more about the con artist himself. I had never watched the movie before because of its stars (not a fan), but the story was something I found quite fascinating - the story behind the story even more so. Forget the Hollywood licence for changing the story, & even the author’s licence for embellishing parts of the book - as the subject claims to have only met the author a few times. What I found fascinating was the urban legend-ness of it all.

Wouldn’t it be Munchausenly wonderful to have pretended to be a pilot, a doctor, a lawyer - & all before the age of twenty-one! Regardless of your ability to pass off dodgy cheques, living the high life of a successful career without having to do anything to achieve it is just a dream come true. It’s an incredible story, even in its summary on wiki, which starts by saying that Pan Am estimates a fraud of 1000000 miles, 250 flights over 26 countries, over a period of less than three years … but then goes on to say that, in 1978, phone calls to his victim institutions revealed no evidence of any employment under the aliases given.
Curiouser & curiouser.

So, the book about the con was possibly a con. Now we have to determine if Frank Abagnale (the perpetrator) or Stan Redding (the author) was the con man, or if the institutions (banks, hospitals, colleges, the State of Louisiana) were “avoiding embarrassment” by denying all knowledge - that is, conning the one investigating the claims.

This just makes the whole mess more tangled & almost ludicrously funny, such that the movie could have been done by the Marx Brothers. You can imagine the slightly circular argument around the point that, if Abagnale didn’t do what the book claims, then some of the shine of his expertise (a very lucrative consulting business in the area of bank fraud) must rub off. Of course, this would bring into question how much he could be trusted - whether he is a con man or not!

In saying all of this, my point of concern with wiki was that it had no reference for who had made the inquiries in 1978, & whether anyone had interviewed the supposed co-workers of Abagnale at the institutions enuumerated - possibly with pictures of the man. This would not be too onerous a task for someone who showed any real interest. Too often ‘official’ documentation reflects what is essential for upholding the institution, not anything close to the truth - & which institution would reveal the truth over the phone, anyway? People’s memories rarely suffer from such problems.Better yet - track down those people now, because they’re closer to retirement age, & they will desperately want to tell you the story of the disappearing Chief Resident.

It was when I was describing this to my partner that she pointed out that I only had myself to blame for basing my speculations on what I could find on wiki.

Some great questioner of half-truths I turned out to be. I think I’ve just been conned - or have been conning myself. I have been selective in my investigative activities, & am no better than those I complain about. It’s better I deny all knowledge of ever watching the movie.

It’s official.