Arizona Daily Sun from Flagstaff, Arizona • 6

19 SUN, Flagstaff, Arizona, Wednesday, February 24, 1982 NAU Speaker Has Led Life of Imposter BY DEBI SCHMOYER Sun Staff Reporter By the time this 16-year-old boy reached 21 years of age, he had successfully posed as a Pan American Airline's pilot, a pediatrician, assistant prosecutor, two-time millionaire, prominent stockbroker and Brigham Young University sociology professor. Frank W. Abagnale, that boy, spent a total of five years in prison, two years in service to the U.S. government and repaid $2.5 million in bad checks with his corporate funds while repaying his debt to society. Abagnale closed his Monday night lecture at Northern Arizona University saying nowhere but in America could a person lie, cheat and steal in a country, then come back to lead a productive life.

The author of the bestselling hardback, and recently released paperback, "Catch Me if You Can," is now the president of Frank W. Abagnale and Associates, a Houston, Denver and Vancouver, British Columbia, educational consulting firm. The corporation specializes in preventative criminal methods and grosses $10 million a year while employing about 100 persons. The lecture started with a taped introduction by actor Robert Wagner, who portrayed Abagnale in the popular series, "It Takes a Thief," on television for five years. Abagnale, whose life as a criminal imposter became the basis of the series, said the series was the 11th most popular in the history of television, and is still carried on syndicated television.

Abagnale was the son of wealthy parents, attended a Catholic private school, possessed a 140 IQ and had a photographic memory. At 16, because his parents were getting a divorce, Abagnale ran away to New York. There he was unsuccessful in attaining a respectable job because of his young age. "You can't support yourself on a $1.25 an hour. Since I was about six foot tall and had a touch of gray hair, since I was 14, I began telling them I was 26 when I applied for a job," he said.

Airline Pilot While walking down 42nd Street in New York, he viewed an Eastern Airlines' flight crew walking out of a restaurant. Abagnale, who had a checking account since 14, thought a pilot would be the perfect career. He said he thought it was perfect, because he could fly all over the world and everybody would cash checks for him. Continuing down the street, he soon saw the Pan American Building then he decided he would try to pose as a Pan Am pilot. After calling the Pan American purchasing agent and telling him his pilot's uniform had been lost by his hotel, Abagnale went to a 5th Avenue shop to be fitted for his new uniform.

He charged the uniform to his Pan Am employee identification number, he had made up, and was told it would be taken out of his next payroll check. Realizing he needed an identification card, he posed as a foreign representative for an airlines and went to the company that made Pan Am's identification cards. Asking for a sample, he later applied decals from a Pan American jet model to the blank card, and was now equipped with an employee card. Abagnale said Pan American estimated he traveled about 3 million miles and to 86 countries, posing as their employee. Being careful to travel on any airline but Pan Am, he said, "It was pretty simple.

I had a routine, I would ask for the jump seat, an extra seat in the cockpit area, give them my identification card, and all I would have to do is fill out a form." Abagnale said he was careful not to travel on any Pan American flights, in case someone would try to recognize him or compare identification cards. "As soon as I would reach my destination, I would go over to the Pan Am desk, ask the attendant where we were laying over and go to the hotel," he said. Getting Money For money, Abagnale said he took advantage of the hotel policies which allow airline employees to cash $100 checks with the airline's guarantee. He said he would also cash checks with other airlines, who extend the same $100 courtesy. He said in an eight-hour shift he would work the Los Angeles airport and cash $100 checks at all the different airlines.

At the end of an eight-hour shift, he said he would start again. "I did that for about two years. The only reason I quit is because I heard the Federal Bureau of Investigation had a Joe Doe warrant out for a guy i in his late 20s, passing bad checks for the airlines," he said. Doctor Role Moving to Atlanta, he said he posed as a vacationing pediatrician living in an expensive singles complex. "I figured I was safe saying I was a pediatrician in a singles apartment," he said.

He said he was there for about three months when another pediatrician moved in downstairs. Avoiding him for some time, Abagnale said he decided if he wanted to continue posing as a doctor he would have to study. Taking advantage of his photographic memory, Abagnale would go to the University of Georgia and memorize various reports. "If I was going to stay, I had to study medicine. With my photographic memory, I could easily memorize anything.

That did not mean I could comprehend it, but I could rattle it off verbatim," he said. Abagnale said everything was fine until he was asked by his neighbor to fill in for a doctor who had been called away because of a death in the family. In his position as a resident adviser, Abagnale said he just allowed the interns to do the work. "What should have been the most difficult of my imposter roles, turned out to be the easiest. I just took on an Alan Alda type attitude and no one knew how to take me," he said." "I used to be called into the emergency room, and I hate the sight of blood.

I never walked over to a patient, I would just stand over by the door and tell the intern, it's not a life and death situation, it's just routine and you know the proper procedure," he said. He continued at the hospital because the doctor he replaced did not return. He said he figured since he pulled it off for 10 days, he could keep doing it. After working for about a year, five nights a week, he left on his own decision. "The nurses didn't like me because I was always after the candy stripers, but the nurses were too old and the candy stripers were my age," he said.

BOSTON (AP) Carrying signs reading "Park Free Or Die," some 300 demonstrators held "The Great Boston Ticket Party" Tuesday on the edge of Boston Harbor. The protest, organized by Jerry Williams, a radio talk show host, included the symbolic dumping of photocopied parking tickets and select rhetoric about the city's new gettough parking policy. "The main we're here is to protest the methods of the mayor." Demonstrators Hold 'Party' O'Connor Among Award Winners 'Professor' After that, he proceeded to Louisiana where he took the bar examination and passed, never attending law school or finishing high school. Her passed the test after three tries. In his role as Bob Conrad, assistant prosecuting attorney, he tried and convicted 33 cases for the State of Louisiana.

"Brigham Young University was looking for someone with a Ph.D. in sociology. I figured anyone could teach sociology, so I applied," he said. After getting the job, he said he would just read one chapter ahead of his students. "The only problem I had was being Catholic, and trying to be a Mormon," Abagnale said.

Catching Up Abagnale said the FBI said he was so hard to catch because he was a criminal of opportunity, never planning a crime enabling them to establish a pattern. John Shea was the FBI agent assigned to the Abagnale case. Shea, a 25-year veteran with the FBI, asked the agent who had the case two questions. First, he asked how they knew the "John Doe" was 28 years old. Second, he asked if the bureau had the fingerprints, why had they not identified him.

Realizing a 28-year-old criminal would have had to be registered with the military, Shea asked for a list of runaway juveniles in the past three years. Later, he identified the John Doe as Frank W. Abagnale and started tracing his steps. After moving to France, Abagnale was apprehended by French authorities and sent to prison for forgery. The prison, which was built in the 17th Century, had no plumbing, electricity or bed.

Living on only bread, water, coffee and soup and sleeping on the floor, Abagnale was released in six months. He said during that six months, he went from a 190 pounds to 109 pounds. Wanted in 26 countries, he was then extradited to Sweden, where he said the prison was like a Hilton Hotel. "After a six month stay in Sweden, I was suppose to be extradited to Italy, but thanks to the Swedish government they thought two prison terms were enough," he said. Back to U.S.

"They sent me to the United States on a non-stop flight to New York, without a passport, where the FBI was to pick me up," he said. Knowing the planes from his days as an imposter pilot, Abagnale escaped through the toilet of the jet, as soon as the plane landed. Eventually caught by the Canadian Mounted Police, Abagnale was returned to the United States to face charges of forgery and flight to avoid prosecution. While awaiting his arraignment, Abagnale escaped from the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, a prison that held Al Capone. "I was and still am the only and youngest 1 man to escape from that prison," said Abagnale.

After being apprehended again, Abagnale spent four years in a Petersburg, prison. Abagnale was released from prison under an agreement with the U.S. government, that he would work for them with no pay for two years. He did not relay the nature of his work other than "some sort of investigative New Business During his parole period in Houston, Abagnale started his current business with a phone mate, a reputation and $50. Now, the multi-million dollar business ironically is used by eight major airlines, including Pan American.

A regular on the Johnny Carson Show, Abagnale considers acting as a hobby. He has also appeared on "MASH," "Hart to Hart, "Rockford Files" and "'Hill Street Blues." Abagnale gives over 200 lectures a year, mostly to big firms on ways to avoid and detect corporate crime. He also consults with police and law enforcement agencies, free of charge. And in recent years, he has started speaking at one university or college a week. Abagnale said 50 colleges a year are chosen for his lecture schedule, and he said the waiting list is about two years long.

He has never been married because he said he could never find a woman that would trust him. He said although some think his life is glamorous, that is in the eyes of the beholder. "I'm 33 years old and I feel like 70. The only mother I had since I was 16 was room service," he said. VALLEY FORGE, Pa.

(AP) Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, VisionQuest and a Flowing Wells High School graduate are among the winners of the 1981 Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge National Awards, the foundation announced. Mrs. O'Connor, a former Arizona Court of Appeals judge, won a Distinguished Award from the foundation. Jill Barber, a freshman political economy major at Hillsdale College in Michigan, won a "Youth Essay George Washington Honor Medal. She was valedictorian of the 1981 Flowing Wells graduating class.

The VisionQuest wagon train program for troubled youths won the George Washington Honor Medal for "Community Program honors. The annual awards recognize individuals and organizations who support U.S. social, political and economic institutions and present solutions to contemporary problems. Joining Mrs. O'Connor as winners of Distinguished Awards were Beverly Sills, Pearl Bailey, Arthur Ashe, Rod McKuen, Roger Staubach, the Special Olympics and, posthumously, Anwar Sadat.

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