What happened to Frank Sinatra’s missing kidnap ransom cash?
The life and career of Frank Sinatra is packed with odd tales and dodgy dealings. Ol’ Blue Eyes was one of the world’s most beloved voices, known for crooning the kind of songs that parents and grandparents alike would love. But behind the scenes, Sinatra was a tough guy who was well-connected in some questionable circles, brushing shoulders and shaking hands with the kind of gangsters no one would want to come across. That’s partly why one of his life stories has remained at the centre of conspiracy theories as in 1963, the singer’s son was kidnapped, and yet, really, there was no consequence beyond a mysterious missing sum of cash.
It was December 8th, 1963, and a 19-year-old Frank Sinatra Jr was kidnapped at a hotel in Lake Tahoe. According to his roommate, who was left bound and gagged, the singer’s son was taken at gunpoint by three men: Joe Amsley, Johnny Erwin and mastermind Barry Keenan.
Once they had his son, the criminals contacted Sinatra Sr demanding a sum of $240,000 as ransom, which would be equivalent to $2,390,000 in 2023. The singer, wanting his son home and safe, obviously obliged. But here’s the first eyebrow-raising detail. Sinatra apparently offered a larger sum of $1 million, which the kidnappers strangely declined. Why, if you’re kidnapping a rich man’s son for money, would you turn money down?
Sinatra sent the money and his son was released safe, but after the money was wired, the details were traced to find the three men involved. All three were arrested but only two thirds of the money was ever accounted for. The police found $168,000 but $72,000 remained missing and still, to this day, was never found.
But really, for a man as rich as Sinatra, the money was no real problem. The money is also the least suspicious thing about this case as it’s the question of purpose and blame that has become an interest to true crime theorists.
All three of the criminals, despite getting lengthy sentences, only served a few years. Barry Keenan was said to have been legally insane at the time, believing that his plan had been told to him by God, so despite masterminding the entire plan, he only served three years of his 75-year sentence.
However, to some conspiracy theorists, the God that told Keenan his plan might just have been Sinatra. There are several details in this case that make people suspect that the singer himself plotted the whole thing as some kind of twisted publicity stunt. First, there is the fact that the criminals all said that in court, claiming they were following the singer’s orders. There is also the detail of the men rejecting the higher sum, with Keenan later explaining that they initially intended to earn back the ransom over the following years and pay it back to Sinatra as if some kind of payment plan was set up.
There is also suspicion around the fact that all three of the men got away from this unscathed. Even after serving tiny sentences, they were released and were fine. Sinatra was a man with close ties to the Mafia who was never shy about threatening his enemies, so why would he allow three men who harmed his son to walk free?
So, what about the money?
And then there is the question of the missing money. Some believe that this, again, is proof of a wider conspiracy. After kidnapping Sinatra Jr, the three kidnappers with the son in tow somehow managed to drive directly through a police block, managing to talk their way out of it despite the police already knowing the kid was missing and knowing what he looked like. Many have speculated that, in some outlandish scheme, the police were somehow involved. Was it the authorities who took the $72,000 as a bribe or hush money for their involvement? In truth, that’s all hearsay.
Or could that money have been Keenan’s actual payment, which he simply hid when he got out of prison? After the whole ordeal, the man lived an easy life, somehow having the money to invest and climb the ladder of the real estate business, perhaps bolstered by the lump sum he kept squirrelled away for his return.
So what happened to Frank Sinatra’s missing kidnap ransom cash? The fact is that the world will never know. This case will remain one of those mysterious, unsolved questions that really only add to Sinatra’s fascinating backstory. It did, however, lead to another fact about the singer. When Sinatra died, he was buried along with ten dimes, which he forever carried in his pocket just in case. That all comes back to this case when the singer, waiting to hear details about the ransom and his son’s safety, was worried about running out of cash for the payphones he was told to use, so he began always carrying spare change, just in case.
