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>\nFrank Sinatra\u2019s son Frank Sinatra Jr., was kidnapped in 1963. Arthur Pomerantz\/New York Post Archives<\/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 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
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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":154425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[195,236,7568,88,186,17934,94691,33227],"class_list":["post-154424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-auctions","tag-celebrities","tag-celebrity-children","tag-entertainment","tag-exclusive","tag-frank-sinatra","tag-kidnappings","tag-letters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}