9781422271025

Chapter One

Early Life— Affluence to Homelessness

F rank Abagnale Jr. was born on April 27, 1948, to Frank Abagnale Sr. and Paulette Noel Anton Abagnale in Bronxville, New York. The third of four children, he enjoyed a stable childhood, attending a Catholic church and Catholic school. Neither parent led a criminal life; in fact, both earned status as fine, upstanding citizens. The couple had met in Algiers during World War II, when the late Abagnale was serving in the U.S. military. The teenaged Paulette fell in love with the military man while he was stationed in Oran. The couple wed and moved to New York following the war. The war veteran opened a stationery business, while his wife cared for the children and worked as a homemaker. In many interviews, Abagnale has discussed the relationship he had with his parents and the closeness he felt with his father. He doesn’t frequently discuss his relationship with his mother, however, and he says little about his siblings. Even the major encyclopedias, such as Britannica , leave out the names of his siblings, and most tell all journalists decline to name them. According to the genealogy website Family Search.org, his three siblings have all passed away. His older sister, Linda R. Abagnale, born in 1946, died in 2020. His two

Frank William Abagnale Jr. was born in Bronxville, NY, on April 27, 1948, to a French-Algerian mother and an Italian-American father.

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Early Life—Affluence to Homelessness