{"id":2019100,"date":"2025-09-13T12:07:58","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T12:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2019100"},"modified":"2025-09-13T12:07:58","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T12:07:58","slug":"frank-sinatras-1964-letter-breaking-his-silence-on-the-kidnapping-of-frank-jr-is-being-auctioned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/frank-sinatras-1964-letter-breaking-his-silence-on-the-kidnapping-of-frank-jr-is-being-auctioned\/","title":{"rendered":"Frank\u00a0Sinatra&#8217;s 1964 letter breaking his silence on the kidnapping of Frank Jr., is being auctioned"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2025%2F09%2F111170936.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>All eyes are on a never-before-seen side of \u201cOl\u2019 Blue Eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A 1964 letter\u00a0Frank\u00a0Sinatra\u00a0penned on the kidnapping of his son is being offered at Bonhams\u2019\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/urldefense.com\/v3\/__https:\/\/www.bonhams.com\/auction\/31505\/unplugged-and-unforgettable-music-auction\/__;!!F0Stn7g!GZkh56kX2dM9Nf-9PAfgqd_ctz_q2swjXkEuCWf1o2Y7gPvs1UjL7m7HyicW8NuP09B13YP-baj-ZWIJGJN3$\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Unplugged &amp; Unforgettable Music Auction<\/a>,\u00a0which starts Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bonhams.com\/auction\/31505\/lot\/3\/frank-sinatra-an-autographed-letter-from-frank-sinatra-addressing-the-kidnapping-of-his-son-frank-sinatra-jr-july-27-1964\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">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>\n<p>\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<p>In 1963, two amateur criminals, Barry Keenan and Joe Amsler, kidnapped Frank Jr., Sinatra\u2019s son he had with his first wife, Nancy Barbato. With the help of the FBI, the crooner paid a $240,000 ransom to have him returned safely.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Bonhams is auctioning a six-page letter that Frank Sinatra wrote about the kidnapping of his son. <span class=\"credit\">Courtesy of Bonhams<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>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<p>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<p>\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<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Frank Sinatra\u2019s son Frank Sinatra Jr., was kidnapped in 1963. <span class=\"credit\">Arthur Pomerantz\/celebrity.land Archives<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The seller is the son of a man who was incarcerated in the same prison at which Schmit worked. His father worked for Schmit and the chaplain gifted him the letter, which has been in his family since 1964.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>The lengthy letter could fetch as much as $30,000. <span class=\"credit\">Courtesy of Bonhams<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Allen has her predictions on the type of \u201cChairman of the Board\u201d fans who will bid on the letter.<\/p>\n<p>\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<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source celebrity.land \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 his son is being offered at Bonhams\u2019\u00a0Unplugged &amp; Unforgettable Music Auction,\u00a0which starts Tuesday. The six-page letter to a prison chaplain, regarding the infamous 1963 kidnapping of then-19-year-old Frank Jr., is estimated\u00a0to fetch up to $30,000. \u201cThe raw [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2019101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25174],"tags":[357554,30058,21741,25404,305355,370735,370736],"class_list":["post-2019100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gossip","tag-auctions","tag-celebrity-children","tag-entertainment","tag-exclusive","tag-frank-sinatra","tag-kidnappings","tag-letters"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Frank-Sinatras-1964-letter-breaking-his-silence-on-the-kidnapping-of.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2019100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2019100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2019100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2019101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2019100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2019100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2019100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}