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Marietta man sees Tom Hanks portray him on big screen

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Posted 2:22PM on Friday 8th November 2002 ( 22 years ago )
MARIETTA - Former FBI agent and current Marietta resident Joseph Shea soon will have the thrill of seeing part of his life portrayed on the big screen, with Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks playing him. <br> <br> But that&#39;s about all Shea gets out of it. Since Hanks&#39; character in ``Catch Me if You Can&#39;&#39; goes by a different name, Shea won&#39;t get any royalties or other payments. <br> <br> At 83, he&#39;s unsure if he&#39;ll even attend the premiere in Los Angeles. <br> <br> Steven Spielberg directed ``Catch Me if You Can,&#39;&#39; a movie about the search and capture of con man Frank Abagnale, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. In the late 1960s, Abagnale was tracked down at a motel in the Atlanta suburb of Smyrna and arrested by Shea, then the senior resident agent in the Marietta FBI office. <br> <br> Abagnale was placed in the Cobb County jail but later escaped during a work detail. He was arrested again and spent five years in a federal prison for his crimes, which included impersonating doctors, lawyers and pilots all over the country. <br> <br> Shea told the Marietta Daily Journal, ``He was not a violent type of criminal -- no guns, no knives, never hurt anybody. That wasn&#39;t his style. He used his brains and his bravado to pass himself off as what he was impersonating.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Abagnale was pretty good at it, too. <br> <br> Shea said, ``I don&#39;t know anybody that rates con men, but if there was a rating system, he&#39;d be right up there with the best.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> ``Catch Me if You Can&#39;&#39; is based on a book by Abagnale, now 54 and married with three sons. He owns Abagnale and Associates, a secure document consulting company, and he&#39;s restricted from talking freely about his life after selling the rights to his book.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/11/187923

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