Sinatra Kidnapping
The Sinatra Kidnapping refers to the abduction of Frank Sinatra, Jr., the son of the famous singer Frank Sinatra, on December 8, 1963. While preparing for a performance at Harrah's Club in Lake Tahoe, Sinatra, along with his trumpet player, was taken hostage by armed kidnappers who forced their way into his motel room. After a two-day search involving California and Nevada police, a ransom demand of $240,000 was made to his father, who complied by leaving the money at a designated location. Sinatra managed to outsmart one of his captors and was released unharmed on the San Diego freeway. The FBI arrested three men involved in the kidnapping, leading to their conviction in 1964. Despite the trauma of the incident, Frank Sinatra, Jr. continued his career in music and acting, though he later chose not to publicly discuss the kidnapping. The event garnered significant media attention, with some suggesting it could have been a publicity stunt, a claim strongly denied by Frank Sinatra, Sr.
Sinatra Kidnapping
Date: December 8, 1963
The kidnapping of Frank Sinatra, Jr., the son of the well-known singer. Media coverage of the kidnapping and subsequent trial made front-page news, but rumor and innuendo persisted about the younger Sinatra’s possible involvement in the crime.
Origins and History
Frank Sinatra, Jr., was the second child born to the famous singer. He entered the University of Southern California as a music major but dropped out in 1962 to pursue a singing career. After performing at Disneyland and making several television appearances, Sinatra was offered a job by the Tommy Dorsey Band. Comparisons to his father’s singing style were numerous, but Sinatra received good notices and reviews for shows at the Flamingo in Las Vegas, the Americana Hotel in New York, and the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles.
The Kidnapping
Just before a performance at Harrah’s Club in Lake Tahoe on December 8, 1963, Sinatra and his trumpet player, John Foss, were having dinner in his motel room when someone knocked on the door. A male voice stated that he had a package to deliver. When Sinatra opened the door, the man pointed a gun at him and pushed his way into the room. The kidnapper ordered Sinatra and Foss to lie face down on the floor, blindfolded them, and taped their hands while another individual stood watch in the hallway. The men then took Sinatra and fled in their car to Los Angeles. At one point, the getaway car met a roadblock near Carson City. The kidnappers took Sinatra out of the trunk, made him crouch in the back seat, covered him with a blanket, and told him to remain quiet. The men passed through the checkpoint without incident after explaining that they had stopped in order to remove snow chains from the tires. In the meantime, Foss managed to free himself and called the authorities. California and Nevadapolice launched a massive, two-day search.
Sinatra’s father was at home in Palm Springs when he received the news. He immediately took a plane to Reno where he and several Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents awaited the kidnappers’ ransom demands. On December 10, he received a telephone call demanding $240,000 in small used bills. The kidnappers wanted him to drop off the money between two parked school buses at a Los Angeles gas station. The famous singer left the ransom money at the designated point and waited to see if the men would release his son unharmed.
The kidnappers held the young Sinatra captive in a small house in Canoga Park, California. On December 11, two of the abductors left to pick up the ransom money while a third accomplice guarded Sinatra. Sinatra seized the opportunity; he persuaded the kidnapper that the others would run off with the money. The ploy worked, and the man decided to release Sinatra on the San Diego freeway near the Mulholland Drive exit. Sinatra flagged down a Bel Air patrol car and identified himself. One of the officers, George C. Jones, tried to take the young man home, but reporters surrounded Sinatra’s mother’s residence a few miles away. Jones eventually put Sinatra in the trunk of his car and drove him to safety, just one day short of his father’s forty-eighth birthday.
The FBI arrested three men, John Irwin, Barry Keenan, and Joseph Amsler, for the crime and recovered $233,855 of the ransom money. The men were charged with conspiracy to kidnap and went to trial in early February, 1964. The trial lasted one month, and the federal grand jury returned guilty verdicts. Amsler and Keenan received life sentences, and Irwin, who provided information to the FBI, got seventy-five years. The sentences for Amsler and Keenan were later reduced to twenty-five years. In 1967, Irwin pleaded guilty to reduced charges in a U.S. Court of Appeals rather than face a new trial, and he was put on five year’s probation.
Impact
During the trial, defense counsel Gladys Root and George Forde suggested that the young Sinatra had arranged the abduction as a publicity stunt. Members of the media jumped at the suggestion. One British television show, That Was the Week That Was, satirized the kidnapping as a hoax. Sinatra’s father vehemently denied the charge and sued Independent TV for damages. He won and donated his share of the money to the Sunshine Home for Blind Babies.
Subsequent Events
The kidnapping failed to slow down the young Sinatra’s singing career; he made his film debut in A Man Called Adam in 1966. However, he refused to answer questions about the incident, stating he wanted to put the past behind him.
Additional Information
Information about the kidnapping can be found in Nancy Sinatra’s book, Frank Sinatra: My Father (1985), and in various issues of The New York Times from 1963 through 1964.