Case Study

Frank William Abagnale Jr. was born on April 27, 1948 in Bronxville, New York. He is one of four children. His mother and his father separated when he was 12 years old and they divorced when he was 14. This situation was really difficult to him, because he had to choose one of his parents to live with. He decided to run away. In order to survive, he started to work in part-time jobs. Because he was really young, his employers didn’t pay him like a man. He couldn’t support himself with that amount of money. Therefore, he began to write some personal checks on his account. Even though he was a well-known con artist, he is a successful person, I see him like a role model, not because he was a criminal but because of all his accomplishments later in his life. He has an amazing intelligence, and could support himself as a 16-year old boy in New York City. He got rich by tricking people, but he didn’t hurt anybody. I don’t see him as a criminal, but as a boy who needed money to live.

Even after he stopped pursuing his education, Capone began to work to support his family and “always brought his entire paycheck home to his mother”. However, Al was steered towards a life of crime when he started spending time in Manhattan with his older brother, Ralph, who often did odd jobs for gangs. After some time, Al began to work for Johnny Torrio, a renowned mob boss in New York. From there, his penchant for a life of crime only grew. Capone became something of a protegee to Torrio. Eventually, Torrio realized his organization could become more profitable in Chicago, so he turned over his territory to Frankie Yale, for whom Al began to work. Soon, Capone had made enemies within a rival gang, so Yale suggested he move to Chicago to work for Torrio until New York was safer. Capone recognized the move as a step up, and so he continued his work in Chicago for the rest of his career. After an attempt on Torrio’s life, he retired, and put Capone in charge of his entire organization when he was just twenty-six years old. When Capone took over, the United States was mid-prohibition, so the large majority of his focus was on bootlegging. Before the end of the decade, Capone “controlled all 10,000 speakeasies in Chicago and was said to be ruling the entire bootlegging business from Canada to Florida”. Needless to say, Al Capone had become a powerful and influential figure in Chicago.

Frank Abagnale, Jr. worked as a doctor, a lawyer, and as a co-pilot for a major airline all before his 18th birthday. A master of deception, he was also a brilliant forger, whose skill gave him his first real claim to fame. At the age of 17, Frank Abagnale, Jr. became the most successful bank robber in the history of the U.S. FBI Agent Carl Hanratty makes it his prime mission to capture Frank and bring him to justice, but Frank is always one step ahead of him.

Frank’s need for stimulation could clearly be seen as an adolescent when he, after running away and surviving on cashing fraudulent checks, desired to partake in even more daring crimes as a result of the mere exposure effect in which the thrill of committing these crimes without any repercussion led to his increasing preference for them. In a way, the deceptive fraudulent checks that Frank created were directly representative of his deceptive nature since they could not easily be validated and had to travel weeks across the country. Frank’s desire to partake in increasing risky crimes during his merge led to the furthering development of his antisocial personality disorder as he took on greater impulsive acts of social deviance such as impersonating a Pan Am pilot and forging Pan Am payroll checks for over two million dollars. Utilizing his superficial charm, pathological lying, and lack of empathy Frank impressed and exploited people to feed his id-driven desire to commit more impulsive, daring crimes. The thrill of living on the edge of getting caught by the FBI, reached a turning point when Frank confidently impersonated the alias of a secret service agent and lied to avoid getting caught by Carl Hanratty, the lead investigator for his case. Realizing, he had just walked past the chief FBI

His elite group of democrats were important political figures, most of whom controlled New York City's finances. With their help, Tweed spent anywhere between 30 to 200 million on bribes and payoffs. In return, Tweed controlled the District Attorney, the entire police force, the courts and almost every newspaper. Tweed became the most powerful man in New York, and no one could stop him. Every political position in New York was filled with one of Tweed's men, so Tweed could basically do and pass whatever he wanted. In the late 1850s, people started to get suspicious. The New York Times did some creative investigating and soon uncovered Tweed's elaborate matrix of connections and bribes. General Samuel J. Tilden convicted tweed to 12 years of prison, but Tweed managed to get out in only one year. He soon fled to Cuba and eventually Spain. In the end, he was exported back to America and died in a New York jail

The movie ‘Catch Me If You Can’ is based on the true-life story of Frank Abagnale. He was the youngest person to ever be put onto the FBI’s most wanted list. The movie tells his story. Frank Abagnale impersonated many people and forged many documents (many to include paychecks) over the period of 5 years. He was said to be the world’s greatest liar. Some of the documents that he forged included, but were not limited to, false identification cards, birth certificates, and of course paychecks. He got into the forgery business by learning from his ‘conman’ father. Frank traveled around the world impersonating doctors, airline pilots, and even the assistant attorney general. The FBI was always on his trail, but seemed to be one step behind

Frank Morris was an inmate at the Federal Prison called Alcatraz. He was born on September 1, 1926. He was orphaned at the age of 11 at which time he stayed and lived in many foster homes. He spent a lot of time behind bars during his life.  He committed his first crime at the age of 13. He let narcotics possession and armed robbery get the best of him which landed him in prison. Frank was known as a very smart man. He ranked in the top 2% of the population for his intelligence. He was housed in Florida, Georgia and then Louisiana. He used his knowledge to break out the Louisiana State Penitentiary. He was then caught again and because of his past he found himself at “The Rock” in January 1960 as inmate number AZ1441.

He then proceeded to discover that many policemen who investigated him drank in speakeasies and so he offered them small lump sums to continually report back with nothing, this is how his business thrived. Another way that Capone and his goons made money was to go through a process of 'racketeering.' This was a process where people who represented

He made an honest living for a while but things changed after the death of his father. During this time, Johnnie Torrio invited Al to Chicago. Johnnie was making a living off gambling and prostitution. At this time business was skyrocketing for him until the 18th amendment was passed which prohibited the sale and consumption of alcohol in 1920. This played a big role in how Al Capone became the most notorious gangster of all time. He started off by helping Torrio become a bootlegger. They illegally sold alcohol together until 1925 when Torrio left the business to Al Capone and left back to Italy. Although for many years they lived a low profile life style, Al Capone felt as though this was his moment to shine. By 1929 he was the biggest known seller of illegal alcohol in Chicago and he made sure to take down anyone who was in his way. He not only just bottled and sold alcohol but he also ran underground bars where people were able to come and drink. Because this was a time where alcohol was ban, yet still very much favorable to citizens, it was hard to prosecute people like Al Capon for bootlegging. Many individuals who were juryman didn’t want to vote guilty again bootleggers because of the simple fact that these where their only reliable sources for receiving any type of

Donnie Brasco aka Joseph D. Pistone is a famous FBI agent for the infiltration of the Mafia family Bonanno. Getting his start by being transferred to new york to solve the truck hijacking problem that happened six times a week. The lead was that they thought it was tied to assorted mafia families. Joseph's undercover name was DOnnie Brasco, his cover a successful jewel thief.The operation was to get into the family earn their trust and arrest them red handed, the name for this operation was ¨sun apple¨. It was only supposed to last six months but due to circumstances it lasted for six years.Joseph or should I say Donnie waited in bars known to have mob members, and waited to talk to one. He eventually talked to man named Benjamin Ruggiero

People soon began catching on to him causing him to change his identity once again. This time becoming a doctor. This idea did not last too long either, Frank almost killed a child because of his lies, and he then gave up.

He struggled through many low-level jobs until he came up with a great idea. He wanted to use his knowledge about being a master con to the country's advantage. Frank was going to play on the right team and catch people like him, “Abagnale sought out his parole officer and broached a plan he had formulated in the lonely projection booth. “I think I have as much knowledge as any man alive concerning the mechanics of forgery, check swindling, counterfeiting and similar crimes,” Abagnale told the officer. “I have often felt since I was released from prison that if I directed this knowledge into the right channels, I think I could help certain people a great deal.

Capone had power over the city for so many years, but eventually the police were able to pin a petty crime on him: tax evasion. President Herbert Hoover started to focus his efforts on Capone. After he sent out an arrest order for Scarface, a government group was created called the Untouchables. Led by Eliot Ness, the Untouchables were dedicated to capturing Capone. They could not pin anything on him at all because of the various ways he evaded the police. Finally, one of the members of the Untouchables, Frank Wilson, an accountant who observed Capone’s expenses, discovered that he was not paying any taxes. He had an enormous house in Miami, had expensive clothing, shopped expensive clothes, and stayed in extremely fancy hotels. It was discovered that that there were about $100,000 taxable income between 1928-1929, but that was never payed. It is ironic how they could not arrest him for bootlegging or murder, but they could only arrest him for the money he earned doing so. He was sentenced to 11 years in the Atlanta Penitentiary and later became one of the first prisoners at Alcatraz. After

However, after his check is rejected, he turns instead to impersonating a Pan Am pilot after seeing one sign autographs to a small child outside the bank. After acquiring a uniform from the company by saying that he “lost” his, he forges his credentials and passports after he creates a fake, Pan Am Air salary check and successfully cashing it in. His need for money to survive on his own drives these decisions to act on these illegal activities, outweighing the cost he will end up paying for committing them. Part of the Rational Choice Theory is whatever techniques the criminal learns and perfects to avoid detection from authorities. Frank’s first run in with authority is when FBI Agent Carl Hanratty tracks him through his forged Pan Am bills to a hotel he was staying at. In Frank and Carl’s first meeting, Frank impersonates a Secret Service agent named Barry Allen (after The Flash) when confronted by Carl’s gun, convincing the agent long enough in order for him to escape. After his close call, he retires to Georgia, where he impulsively convinces the hospital and town that he is a Harvard medical doctor after meeting a new, young nurse named Brenda, whom he ends up falling in love with. The branch that Frank was assigned to was chief doctor of the pediatric ward, where they don’t do much work. The motivation behind this was to get closer to Brenda, whom he had an attraction to when he first met her. His growing love for

He had started his business with a loan of $200, but within months he had two offices in Boston with a staff of dozens of employees processing sales, and he bought a modest mansion for $35,000. Of course, there were no actual profits, Ponzi had not actually bought the IRCs, and he paid early investors with the funds derived from later investors. This only worked well for him because of the rapid payments made to investors. People saw what he could do and they wanted in, so he was selling the IRC’s quickly and convincing people to reinvest their funds, he was able to postpone his financial obligations even longer. By the time the scheme collapsed his income was estimated at $1M per week, and late coming investors were defrauded of between $7 - $15M. The downfall started from some investigative journalism, this led to the District attorney getting involved and Ponzi being charged. Most of Ponzi's gains were seized in an involuntary bankruptcy hearing, and what little remained was spent in his subsequent legal battles. Ponzi’s scheme was exposed by newspaper reports in 1920 and despite his claims of innocence, a federal audit confirmed his operation was bankrupt, owing almost $4 million or more to investors. After investigation, Ponzi was charged with 86 counts of mail fraud and sentenced to five years in federal prison, and while incarcerated on federal charges he