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
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
frank sinatra, jr. remained in the hideout. he was blind folded almost entirely they had him. was he mistreated. not mistreated, no. both john and joe assured frank sinatra, jr. as long as he cooperated they would protect him from the higher ups. we had these mythical higher ups. during that time they became close, all three of them. 22 hours after his son was kidnapped, frank sinatra got his first call from the kidnappers who only told him that junior was safe and to expect more calls. the next morning at 11:00 a.m. they called again and sinatra was instructed to go to a pay phone and await yet another call. dean drove out to the gas station with sinatra. i kept telling him that once we got them on the phone i want you to keep them on the phone
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
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