9781422271025

His argument proves invalid, since regardless of Abagnale’s claims or any organization’s claims, one entity provides irrefutable evidence as to whether an individual held a job with an organization in the U.S. or worked as an independent contractor there. That organization is the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In his book The Greatest Hoax on Earth , journalist Alan C. Logan fact-checks the entire Abagnale history using the proverbial paper trail of arrest records, booking records, prison records, newspaper articles, and other hard-copy documents. He conducts one-on-one interviews with some of the individuals and organizations Abagnale swindled. Logan also uncovers the truth behind Abagnale’s claimed escape from police custody. It never involved a chase through European streets, as shown in the film—that never occurred. Neither did the escape from an airplane through the toilet system. The YouTube documentary that claims to fact-check the film also got the escape wrong. There was no escape from an airplane kitchen galley either. The truth that Logan uncovered was that the escape actually occurred in a police station. Abagnale had a girlfriend who went into

Frank Abagnale posed as a pilot for Pan Am Airways in order to qualify for free flights at the age of 16.

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Introduction