{"id":22447,"date":"2025-09-14T20:33:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T20:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/22447\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T20:33:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T20:33:12","slug":"frank-sinatras-1964-letter-on-sons-kidnapping-that-shows-rare-vulnerability-is-up-for-auction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/22447\/","title":{"rendered":"Frank Sinatra\u2019s 1964 letter on son\u2019s kidnapping that shows \u2018rare vulnerability\u2019 is up for auction"},"content":{"rendered":"

All eyes are on a never-before-seen side of \u201cOl\u2019 Blue Eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 1964 letter\u00a0Frank\u00a0Sinatra\u00a0penned on the kidnapping of his son is being offered at Bonhams\u2019\u00a0Unplugged & Unforgettable Music Auction<\/a>,\u00a0which starts Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The six-page letter<\/a> to a prison chaplain, regarding the infamous 1963 kidnapping of then-19-year-old Frank Jr., is estimated\u00a0to fetch up to $30,000.<\/p>\n

\"Frank<\/p>\n

Frank Sinatra\u2019s son Frank Sinatra Jr., was kidnapped in 1963. Arthur Pomerantz\/New York Post Archives<\/p>\n

\"Bonhams<\/p>\n

Bonhams is auctioning a six-page letter that Frank Sinatra wrote about the kidnapping of his son. Courtesy of Bonhams<\/p>\n

\u201cThe raw emotion portrayed in this letter reflects a man speaking openly, with less concern for the confines of public scrutiny. It\u2019s this rare vulnerability that makes us especially excited to offer a glimpse into another side of a legend like Frank Sinatra,\u201d Katie Allen, associate specialist for Bonhams pop culture in Los Angeles, told The Post.<\/p>\n

In 1963, two amateur criminals, Barry Keenan and Joe Amsler, kidnapped Frank Jr., Sinatra\u2019s son he had with his first wife, Nancy Barbato.<\/p>\n

With the help of the FBI, the crooner paid a $240,000 ransom to have him returned safely.<\/p>\n

Sinatra sent the note to\u00a0Father Roger Schmit, the chaplain at the prison where Keenan was serving time, in response to the priest asking him to forgive his son\u2019s kidnappers.<\/p>\n

At the time, the kidnappers\u2019 attorneys claimed Frank Jr. \u2014 a singer-songwriter who died in 2016 at 72 \u2014 staged his own kidnapping to gain fame.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir conduct in permitting this claim of \u2018hoax\u2019 was, in my opinion, another crime against society,\u201d Sinatra wrote, adding that \u201cthe cloud of suspicion which hangs over [Frank Jr.\u2019s] head will continue to affect adversely his life and his career.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The lengthy letter could fetch as much as $30,000. Courtesy of Bonhams<\/p>\n

The seller is the son of a man who was incarcerated in the same prison at which Schmit worked.<\/p>\n

His father worked for Schmit and the chaplain gifted him the letter, which has been in his family since 1964.<\/p>\n

Allen has her predictions on the type of \u201cChairman of the Board\u201d fans who will bid on the letter.<\/p>\n

\u201cMemorabilia like this is perfect for a collector interested in who the man Sinatra was outside of the entertainment industry. It is a peek behind the curtain, so to speak, and opens itself to someone really trying to understand Sinatra as a family man.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All eyes are on a never-before-seen side of \u201cOl\u2019 Blue Eyes.\u201d A 1964 letter\u00a0Frank\u00a0Sinatra\u00a0penned on the kidnapping of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[23341,23345,156,23346,23342,23339,23340,23343,157,111,139,69,23344],"class_list":{"0":"post-22447","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-barry-keenan","9":"tag-bonhams","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-father-roger-schmit","12":"tag-frank-jr","13":"tag-frank-sinatra","14":"tag-frank-sinatra-jr","15":"tag-katie-allen","16":"tag-music","17":"tag-new-zealand","18":"tag-newzealand","19":"tag-nz","20":"tag-prison-chaplain"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}