This is the story about a Christmas con artist pretending to be Santa Claus.

Brian Earl, the host of the Christmas Past podcast, joins me to tell a little-known true-crime holiday story.

The seventh season of Christmas Past is out. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Brian shares the fascinating backstories behind our favorite holiday traditions.

Looking for a last-minute gift idea? Buy the Christmas Past book.

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The Prank series inspired the new Netflix documentary series "Don't Pick Up the Phone." This docuseries follows the investigation into a hoax caller who talked managers into strip-searching employees at fast food businesses across the US.

Binge the entire series on Netflix starting December 14th:

https://www.netflix.com/title/81576846

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Larry Douglas Jones is not your typical fugitive. He had a wife and three kids. And to be honest, he's not a dangerous man. He became overwhelmed with life and decided to run away.

This is the first in a series of stories about fugitives. In season 4, we explore how abandoning your old identity leads to a whole set of complications. How do these criminals assume a new identity? What strategies do they use to avoid getting caught?

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This episode was 100% funded by you.

I was able to travel to Gulfport, MS for this story using funds raised on Patreon. So if you’d like to see me to take the show on the road, consider chipping in a buck or two on our Patreon page. Plus, you’ll get access to early episodes and bonus content. So, thank you so much for the support.

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Lies, lies, and more lies

A few seasons ago, I asked you to submit stories about lies. Either lies that you’ve told or lies that have impacted you personally. And boy, was the response crazy! I ended up making a whole episode dedicated to lies. I want to try it again. Email me a voice memo. Chances are your story could make it on the show.

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If you have a story to share, email Javier a voice memo or short written description at [email protected].

For more episodes like this, visit pretendradio.org.

To get early releases and bonus episodes, go to pretendradio.org/donate

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When I started this podcast, I reported on a secretive church in the foothills of western North Carolina called the Word of Faith Fellowship.

The church, accused of being a cult, separates families—forcing them to break ties with non-believers.

One teenager named Matthew Fenner pressed charges against five church ministers because he said they beat the gay demons out of him.

And that’s just the beginning. Several former members remember spending weeks and months in forced isolation. Some male congregants say they lived in a makeshift storage unit for over a year. Locals know them best for their signature style of prayer—blasting. As you can hear in this secret audio recording, blasting is a form of deliverance meant to cast out the devil.

The episode you’re about to listen to is my first 3 episodes rolled into one.

To listen to my 11-part series on the Word of Faith Fellowship, start here:

https://pretendradio.org/episode/who-is-jane-whaley-word-of-faith-fellowship/

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John Browning investigates real blood-sucking vampires—people who need human blood to survive. 

In today's episode, we will talk about real people who claim to be real vampires. 

Self-harm

You know, we bantered about tapping into veins and arteries from the vantage point of vampires feasting on blood. But if you remove the word vampire from our conversation, it starts sounding like a much more familiar crisis...self-harm.  

It's not uncommon for some of us with depression or anxiety to inflict pain on ourselves. The physical wounds hurt, but it's nowhere near as painful as the emotions inside our heads and hearts. So if you're listening to this, there are different places you can seek help. First, talk to a pro. You can use online counselors like BetterHelp, a real-life therapist, or even reach out to a friend. There are also crisis lines where you can text and talk to an actual human for free. Text HOME to 741741, Again text HOME to 741741. I'll have a list of numbers you can text for my international friends in the show notes. 

https://www.crisistextline.org/

Sophrpsyne

Music featured in this episode is from Sophrosyne. Check out their music on Spotify.

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Unlike the general public, who were spellbound by the myth surrounding Abagnale's life, Xavier University knew precisely who they were honoring that night. They can't claim ignorance because I wrote the University and told them they had the wrong guy. Frank Abagnale doesn't deserve an ethics award. He lied about his entire life story. Was Malala busy that week? She deserves an ethics award. But despite knowing the truth, Xavier University went along with their little ethics ceremony anyway. 

Xavier University's mission is built on moral and ethical responsibility- that's what it says on its website. And out of all the people in the world making a difference, they chose to honor a guy who ripped off his girlfriend and is accused of feeling up college girls pretending to be a doctor-slash pilot recruiter. But, seriously, did they even read this guy's Wikipedia page?

Picture a room full of business students, professors, lawyers, accountants, and even current members of the FBI eagerly awaiting Frank Abagnale's Heroes in Ethics acceptance speech. Little does Frank Abagnale know that Jim Grinstead, host of the Scams and Cons podcast, was in the audience. Jim planned to confront Frank Abagnale during the Q&A portion of the ceremony.

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What if I told you that Frank Abagnale wasn't the only con artist in his family? His older brother used multiple aliases, faked his career as a therapist, and was even accused of kidnapping a 7-year-old girl.

This episode reveals the dark and puzzling secrets of Frank Abagnale's family history.

Correction: In the episode, I mention that Susan was married to Roy Abagnale from 1970 to 1978 - but it was actually 1978 to 1992.

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Sleepover with Leo:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/sleepover-with-71435815?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator

Pernilla busted the Tinder Swindler. Hear her thoughts on Frank Abagnale

https://www.patreon.com/posts/pernilla-busted-72501591?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator

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Help me start a trending sound. Use this sound of Frank Abagnale denying writing his book, movie, and Broadway play: 

https://www.tiktok.com/@pretendpod/video/7145467873979338030?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

Here are some examples:

https://www.tiktok.com/@pretendpod/video/7145483295080385835?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

https://www.tiktok.com/@pretendpod/video/7145536351801462062?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

https://www.tiktok.com/@pretendpod/video/7145816794819841326?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

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This series is not just a story about a con man who lied about his past experiences. No, it's much bigger than that. This series is about correcting history. For decades, we've celebrated Frank Abagnale's life. He's invaded our living rooms in countless tv interviews. He's had Leonardo DiCaprio play him in a movie. John Williams even scored his superhero theme song. And his life has even been turned into a musical that one reviewer wrote: "is an amazing true story with a happy ending we all need."

But it turns out that America's favorite con man is really just another petty criminal who's never really repaid all the money he stole. But if we zoom out, this is the story of the spread of misinformation. Where politicians and other grifters have taken a page out of Abagnale's book and learned that if they repeat multiple lies over and over, most people won't question it. And they can get away with it.

Frank claims he evaded the FBI for five years. They couldn't catch him even if they tried. Sure, he admits he finally got arrested, but in his version of the story, he's the hero working undercover for the FBI.

I may not believe his account, but I think he won in the end. The guy is in his mid-70s, lives in a multi-million-dollar island home, and makes a pre-school teacher's annual salary every time he takes the stage. He made it! And besides his alleged victims, no one seems to question his success. He fooled us all.

And he would have gotten away with too, if it weren't for this meddling kid and his scrappy friend from Belfast. (The Irish guy is Alan Logan, the author of The Greatest Hoax on Earth.) We're on a mission to set the record straight. So that when you ask someone if they know who Frank Abagnale is, Instead of it being based on a true story, they'll tell you that he made it all up.

Abagnale may have been on the run for the last 50 to 40 years, getting away with his biggest lie. But guess what?

We caught him.

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I confronted Frank Abagnale in Las Vegas, NV. He claims he posed as a pilot, a lawyer, a doctor, and a professor from the age of sixteen to twenty-one years old. But how is that possible if he was sitting in prison most of that time? You won't believe his response.

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Watch the Abagnale saga unfold:

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We've spent the last three episodes debunking the infamous Frank Abagnale myth. If he wasn't posing as a doctor, a lawyer, or a professor, then what the heck was Frank Abagnale up to? This is the story Abagnale never talks about.

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Part 5 will be available soon on Patreon.

https://pretendradio.org/donate/

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Fact-checking for this episode by Kate Gallagher.

Special thanks to Alan Logan, author of The Greatest Hoax on Earth: Catching Truth, While We Can

Learn more: https://www.amazon.com/dp/173619741X/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_5EAWP7S0XC5J1WJQF2D5

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