Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake

Frank presents a vision of the world in which he was able to get away with scam after scam, picking up and shedding professions, sheerly by convincing people, through “personality…observation…[and] research,” that he was a doctor, lawyer, and pilot (Chapter 6). How did he benefit from these skills, and from various social attitudes and circumstances of the time? How did Frank’s successful conning affect his sense of his own identity? Keep in mind that Frank was just a young man when this happened; think about this story as one of his coming of age.

Teaching Suggestion: Frank very much benefited from pilots’ social standing and even from the civil rights movement, which had caused skepticism about the prison-industrial complex, so he was able to convince the guards that he was a prison inspector. Encourage students to think about this and wonder if he would still be able to get away with his crimes today.