you can t give it back to us. after writing this letter to fbi director j edgar hoover ellison was allowed to keep the watch. the day after sinatra s birthday the case was cracked wide open when irwin confessed his involvement to his brother within hours keenan and ansler were also in custody. three men were arrested including barry keenan a 23-year-old unemployed sales rep. most of the money small bills was recovered. besides giving money for the not teen torrance was never charged. when their trial began in 1964 the defense took the strategy of blaming the victim to dizzyying new heights. it was keenan who defied their defense. every time i talked to a lawyer it was are you sure this wasn t a publicity stunt?
sinatras. you can t give it back to us. after writing this letter to fbi director jay edgar hoover, elson was allowed to keep the watch. the day after sinatra s birthday the case was cracked wide open when john irwin con phelpsed involvement to his brother who alerted the fbi. within hours keenan and ansler were also in custody. three men were arrested including barry keenan a 23-year-old unemployed salesman. most of the money all in small bills was recovered. despite having given keenan money for the plat, dean torrance was never charged. when the trial began in february of 1964 the defense took the strategy of blaming the victims to dizzying new heights. it was keenan who devised their defense. every time i talked to a lawyer it was are you sure this is not a publicity stunt. everybody was sure it was a
little, no realization how much grief it would cause frank, jr. it was really violating. it was like it was the nearest thing to rape. it was very bad. but the jury didn t buy it. it after six week trial we were found guilty. joe and i were sentenced to life plus 75 years. and john who was not in the physical kidnapping was sentenced to 16 years and 8 months. but none of those sentences were actually served out. no. the story takes another strange twist when a series of evaluations and appeals got the sentences drastically cut so that they were all back on the street by 1968. barry would go on to become a very successful and sober real estate developer. how did that happen? dean torrance comes back into the picture when i got out of prison he threw a fundraiser party for me and i used that money to get back into the real estate business. in the 90s, keenan tried to
significantly. i got addicted to pain medication. i was already an alcoholic. and so my thinking was not very clear. barry keenan may have been down and out but his good friend dean torrens was flush with cash. he and his friend had a hit with their song surf city. he approached torrens with his new business plan. i told him not to say anything until i had finished my presentation. it was here underneath the statue of tommy trojan on the campus of the university of southern, california where dean torrens was a student studying graphics where they would meet to discuss the bizarre plan to make some fast cash. we had done business deals together and this was in my mind another are opportunity. did he tell you he thought you were crazy? yes. and what did you say? i said i m crazy but why don t you you loan me $500 and i won t bother you and let you get back to it your class.
cash in again with the making of a movie about the kidnapping. sinatra sued. the fact that you might think of barry keenan and his revictimmizing frank sinatra, jr., that is when the first amendment is most important. keenan s lawyer took the case all the way to the california supreme court which overturned the law in 2002. there are times when the speech is unpopular but under the first amendment we are going to defend free speech. almost five decades later, frank sinatra, jr. who declined our request for an interview is still performing at age 68. john erwin and joe ansler are deceased and barry keenan is 72 years. you are not the same barry as you were then. may be a little crazy but i m not insane and it was