The Sinatra Files (55 page)

“I don’t think the leopard will change his spots.”

In Sinatra’s case, the price of fame was not simply a surrender of privacy. In late 1963, the singer’s son, Frank Sinatra, Jr., then nineteen, was kidnapped and briefly held, unsuccessfully, for ransom. The incident brought the bureau and the senior Sinatra closer together—but only so close, and it appeared to harden the star.

If the FBI files did not show that Sinatra was a draft-dodger, Communist, or criminal, in the end they certainly showed that he was a man in a very bright spotlight.

    
Frank Sinatra, Jr., was kidnapped on December 8, 1963, two weeks after the assassination of John F. Kennedy
.

Attempting to launch his own singing career, the young Sinatra had been scheduled to perform in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. But as he and a bandmate ate dinner in his hotel room just after 9
P.M.,
somebody knocked on the door, announcing a delivery for Frankie Sinatra. When Sinatra opened the door, he faced a .38 revolver. Two men, both twenty-three, tied up the friend and spirited the teenager away to Los Angeles, where they held him for ransom with the help of a forty-two-year-old accomplice
.

Hoover and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, still mourning his brother’s recent assassination, made the case a top priority. A team of FBI agents quickly cracked the amateurish scheme. The perpetrators were arrested in Los Angeles three days after Sinatra Sr. and an FBI agent delivered $239,985 for the safe return of his son, not counting $15 spent by the FBI for a valise big enough to carry all that cash
.

During the kidnapper’s trial, defense attorneys infuriated the Sinatra family by suggesting that the whole thing was a hoax cooked up to gain publicity for the son’s fledgling singing career. The depth of the elder Sinatra’s anger was on display in this exchange of letters, prompted by a June 27, 1964, letter from a prison chaplain who counseled the two younger kidnappers after they were convicted
.

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
BUREAU OF PRISONS
MEDICAL CENTER FOR FEDERAL PRISONERS
SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI

Dear Mr. & Mrs. Sinatra,

As Catholic Chaplain of the United States Medical Center here in Springfield, I have become very well acquainted personally with Mr. Barry Keenan and Mr. Joe Amsler. I have spoken with both of these men on numerous occasions about the true Catholic approach to the crime of kidnapping your son. It is quite evident that both Barry and Joe are very much convinced both emotionally and intellectually that considering the event of the kidnapping from the
eyes of God, that it was truly a non-Christian act. As soon as Barry and Joe arrived at this institution, I suggested to them that they enroll in the Catholic Religion Classes which I was holding at this institution, and both of them complied with my wishes. The attitude that these two men expressed in these classes was quite amazing to me as well as other students in the class.

While I am not speaking officially in the name of this institution, it is quite evident from my very close contact with Barry and Joe that basically they are good men. At the present time one of their greatest concerns is the hardship that was brought upon both of you. Again, speaking as Catholic Chaplain of this institution, I am very much convinced that they will both try to make amends to you for this hardship. No doubt you did experience a great deal of suffering and emotional anxiety during the kidnapping as well as perhaps some embarrassment during the trial. This is very understandable and for having caused you this suffering and embarrassment, Barry and Joe have often expressed their sorrow and regret.

While I have never had the opportunity to meet either of you personally, it is commenting on the obvious to say that from various sources, various modes of communication, I have heard a great deal about you, and with this letter I too would wish to express to you my regret and sorrow for what the recent event has caused you.

We as Christians, we who have been taken into this body of Christ and have hence become other Christs, must also try to express in our attitudes, in our relationships with other people, the attitude of Christ himself. Christ, this son of God, was also kidnapped and you and I know very well that the motives, the reasons why Christ was kidnapped far exceed the evil that may have been involved in the motives, in the reasons, why your son was kidnapped. We should at all times, I think, see ourselves as we really are, other Christs, and as St. Paul tells us over and over again that we should live this life of a Christian, that we should put on Christ. Even though Christ was scourged, was spit upon, was crucified, yet some of his last words were, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

I am certain that both Barry and Joe, and again I speak from my rather close relationship with them as their Catholic Chaplain, have
learned a great deal from this tragic event and if they are treated correctly the event of the kidnapping and all that was entailed in it have caused, and will continue to cause a new resurgence of religious fervor both in Barry Keenan and Joe Amsler. We know that Christ works among us in rather mysterious ways. Things that bring people closer to him and to his Father sometimes mystify us poor ignorant human beings. I know that the event of the kidnapping has brought Barry and Joe much more closely to God and have brought about within them a deeper realization of what in this world is really of value.

I was convinced, Mr. and Mrs. Sinatra, that as their director in the area of religion that I am bound to write this letter to you for your own good and for the good of Barry and Joe, for whom I have a very great deal of respect and love. Both of them have been very regular in their attendance at all of our religious services, and both have expressed a great deal of interest in the area of religion. Since Barry has come to this institution he has been trained to be Commentator at Mass, a position which he fulfills very well.

Mr. and Mrs. Sinatra, I hope very sincerely that this letter finds you well and happy, and I ask that you say many prayers for us here at this institution. Many of the men here are not bad men, but they are persons who have made mistakes in life. Many of the sins, translating it into theological terminology, that men commit in the world far exceed the gravity of acts that have prompted the incarceration of so many of our brothers. We ask God to forgive us our sins but we ask him to forgive our sins as we forgive the sins of our brothers.

    
But Sinatra rebuffed the priest with a six-page letter in which his anger over the kidnapper’s hoax defense was clearly palpable. The letter is truncated here
.

Frank Sinatra

July 27, 1964

Dear Father Schmit:

    Since you have had no prior relationship to the Sinatra family, we assume that it was not the purpose of your letter to give us religious guidance. Accordingly, there could only be two possible purposes for your letter: (1) a request that we forgive Keenan and Amsler, and/or (2) that we take some action to express our forgiveness in order to alleviate the punishment the court has imposed upon them.

At the outset, I feel I must tell you that in my opinion it is presumptuous for you to ask us to forgive them.

Up to this time I have remained silent on the subject of the manner in which the trial was conducted and the harm done to my son by the claim of “hoax,” but your letter, written in the name of God, has caused me to break that silence.

    Very truly yours,

    FRANK SINATRA

    
Then Sinatra forwarded to Hoover the exchange of letters with the priest. In a surprisingly cordial “Dear Edgar” letter, Sinatra thanked Hoover for his son’s safe return, and said he thought Hoover would find the exchange with the chaplain “interesting, particularly insofar as it reflects my own attitude with respect to what has happened.” Hoover’s reply below is equally cordial—if you disregard the internal note added to the copy in the FBI files. In his letter to the singer, Hoover suggests that he shares Sinatra’s harsh attitude toward mercy
.

August 4, 1964

Mr. Frank Sinatra
9229 Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles 69, California
Dear Frank:

    I have received your letter of July 30th enclosing a copy of the letter Mrs. Sinatra and you received from Father Roger Schmit and your reply.

I can certainly understand your concern in this matter and appreciate your interest in sending me this correspondence. I also want to thank you for your very kind comments regarding our participation in the investigation relating to your son’s kidnaping.

As for my feelings in matters such as these, I think you would be interested in my introduction to the April, 1964, issue of the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin wherein it was stated, “In 1924, a New York City judge stated, ‘The demand of the hour in America is for jurors with conscience, judges with courage and prisons which are neither country clubs or health resorts. It is not the criminals, actual or potential, that need a neuropathic hospital,’ the judge added, ‘it is the people who slobber over them in an effort to find excuses for their crime.’ ”

    Sincerely,

    J. Edgar Hoover

    NOTE: Bufiles reflect Father Roger Schmit, a 29-year-old Catholic priest, was a Departmental applicant in 1963 at which time no derogatory information was developed concerning him. The Director is well aware of the background of Sinatra. Address per previous correspondence.

    
Years later, Nancy Sinatra wrote to Hoover concerning a book she was writing about her father. She wanted to include the director’s recollections
about her father. Hoover was less than verbose in his response. (She later included much of his reply in two affectionate biographies of her father.)

November 26, 1969

Miss Nancy Sinatra
9000 Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles, California
90069 Dear Miss Sinatra:

    I have received your letter of November 20th and appreciate your interest in communicating with me in connection with the book you are writing about your father.

In response to your request, I remember, in particular, a telephone conversation I had with your father in connection with the kidnapping of Frank, Jr. This took place on December 11, 1963, and I told your father how pleased I was that Frank, Jr., had been safely returned. I recall pointing out to him that although he would now be besieged by inquiries from the news media, we still had numerous productive leads to pursue and would be able to do so only if the case received a minimum of publicity. Your father, of course, cooperated in every possible way. Within a short time, our investigation was completed and early on the morning of December 14th, I had the pleasure of telephoning your father again to inform him that the kidnappers were in custody.

Please feel free to use the foregoing in the manner you indicated, and I do hope that your book will enjoy every possible success.

    Sincerely yours,

    J. Edgar Hoover

    NOTE: Bufiles contain no derogatory information regarding Nancy Sinatra.

    
Frank Sinatra, Sr., developed a close relationship with agents on the kid-napping case, especially the special agent in charge for Las Vegas, Dean Elson. In this memo, Courtney Evans, the FBI’s liaison to the Justice Department, tells a colleague, Alan Belmont, that Elson wants to capitalize on his budding friendship with the celebrity, who at the time was about to start filming
None But the Brave
in Hawaii
.

SUBJECT: FRANK SINATRA

    In view of the long association which Frank Sinatra, the well-known entertainer, has had with prominent hoodlums and racketeers, I discussed this situation personally with SAC Elson of Las Vegas on Saturday, April 11, after the conclusion of the Organized Crime and Criminal Intelligence Conference held at Los Angeles.

SAC Elson has a close personal relationship with Frank Sinatra, his attorney and close business associates as a result of Elson’s handling these individuals during the kidnapping case in which Sinatra’s son was the victim. As evidence of the high regard in which Elson is held by Sinatra, it is noted Elson and his wife have been invited by Sinatra to attend social affairs being given by Sinatra at his home in Palm Springs. Sinatra even offered to send his private airplane to Las Vegas and transport the Elsons to California. SAC Elson said he graciously declined these social invitations and that he had written the Director about them sometime ago. I told Elson that in the absence of contrary instructions from the Bureau it seemed most proper not to accept social invitations extended because of Elson’s handling his FBI duties.

We did discuss, however, Sinatra’s background, including his long and close association with several major hoodlums and racketeers. It seems obvious that Sinatra could supply extremely valuable information about these individuals and their activities. SAC Elson
believes his relationship with Sinatra is so close that he might be able to induce Sinatra to cooperate with us.