Frank Sinatra, Jr., the son of singer and actor Frank Sinatra and his first wife, Nancy, was kidnapped on December 8, 1963, when he was 19 years old and embarking on a singing career of his own. At the time of the kidnapping, he was sitting with a friend in his dressing room at Harrah’s Club Lounge in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, where he had a gig. Two men, Barry Keenan and Joe Amsler, entered the room, claiming they had a delivery for Frank, Jr. They tied up his friend and blindfolded Sinatra before driving him to Canoga Park, a suburb of Los Angeles. Their accomplice, John Irwin, then called the elder Sinatra and demanded $240,000 in ransom money, which Frank, Sr., agreed to pay.
On December 11 the FBI took the ransom money to the drop-off point—between two school buses beside a gas station in Sepulveda, California. While Keenan and Amsler went to pick up the money, Irwin became nervous and freed Frank, Jr., who walked several miles before being picked up by police in Bel Air and taken to his mother’s home. Two days later Irwin confessed his involvement in the crime to his brother, who contacted the FBI.
All three kidnappers were captured, and most of the ransom money was recovered. The kidnappers’ defense attempted to frame the crime as a publicity stunt concocted by Frank, Jr. But Keenan, Amsler, and Irwin were convicted and sentenced to prison.