0 check throughout this whole time? >> he gave me three or four. >> keenan used the money to hire help with the kidnapping plan. the first call went to his mother's ex-boyfriend a 42-year-old house painter named john irwin. >> he had fallen on hard times when i was making a lot of money and i set him and his family up with housing and a car. >> so he owed you one? >> and i called that in. he reluctantly agreed to go along. >> keenan discovered that is sinatra, jr. was appearing at the arizona state fair. they flew to phoenix with the intention of snatching him there. realizing they made some key mistakes including leaving their fingerprints on a hotel phone they decided to abort their mission. >> so is arizona was out. >> arizona was out and we go home and john says forget about it. >> keenan didn't forget about it. hell bent on pulling it off he recruited another friend, a 23-year-old shellfish diver to help him with hesseman. he talked irwin into rejoining the team and they made plans to grab sinatra from the los angeles ambassador hotel. the day they picked? friday, november 22, 1963, the same day president john f. kennedy was assassinated in dallas. >> john was weeping and he was completely out of it and joe was devastated as well. and they were all done with the kidnapping. >> it wasn't long before keenan was thinking about his next move. >> you still needed your money. >> yes. so the hardest part was to get either joe or john to even answer my phone calls. but eventually i prevailed and i knew if i mentioned anything about the abduction that joe would walk off. so i said let's go to lake tahoe and look for jobs. >> in early december, keenan and ansler drove to lake tahoe which straddles nevada and california. but ansler got the sense he had been duped when the two drove past the club. >> and the marquise with the tommy dorsey orchestra. and joe almost hit me. i can't say on the interview the explete ives that he came out with but he was very upset and you didn't want to upset joe because he is a tough guy. i said don't worry about it, just a coincidence. eventually he calmed down and then we ran out of money and so we had to kidnap frank sinatra, jr. to get back to l.a. >> at 9:30 p.m. keenan and a nervous joe crept up to room 417 at harrah's' south lajeunesse. inside frank, jr. and the trumpeter had just finished dinner before that night's show. >> i raised my hand to knock on the door and joe yells no, barry, no! and i just looked at him and said, you know, that is why we're here and knocked on the door and frank sinatra said come in. >> he said he had a package for frank, jr. so he walked in and put the box down on the floor. and when straightened up took his glove off and he had a small revolver in his hand. >> i cocked it in front of his face and said nobody move and nobody will get h hurt. >> and at that point he made us go lie down on the floor. >> i tied up john foss and then said joe, would you take mr. sinatra down to the car and he did. >> he wanted to hit me over the head with his rifle. he wanted me to be out of commission. but ke keenan said he didn't wt to hurt anybody, you know, which i was grateful for. >> after hustling sinatra into the back seat of their car and blind folding him, they began the 450-mile drive back to los angeles in a blinding snow storm. >> i ran down stairs and banged on the door of the manager of the motel and i convince ised him that he needed to call the sheriff's office. and about five minutes they were there. >> the police quickly set up road blocks to try and ensnare the kidnappers. >> we did give him a sleeping pill and some whiskey. i knew that we would eventually run into a road block so i said to frank, jr. there may be a lot of unplay but if you do your part there is no reason for it and you will be sleeping off a drunk. >> and you made it through you road blocks that were set up specifically to find frank sinatra, jr. >> that's correct. we got back to l.a. and the rest is history. >> coming up. >> the whole thing was surreal and strange. this holiday, share everything.
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