The kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr.
Lake Tahoe, United States, 1963
This case is a work of fiction. The characters, names, places and events in the game do not portray real people. The account below is a factual summary, based on public sources, of the case that served as inspiration.
On the night of December 8, 1963, two weeks after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Frank Sinatra Jr., a 19-year-old singer and the son of Frank Sinatra, was resting with a friend at Harrah's Club Lodge in Lake Tahoe, on the California-Nevada border. Around 9 pm, Barry Keenan knocked at the door pretending to make a delivery; he and Joe Amsler, both 23, walked in, bound the friend with adhesive tape, blindfolded the young man and left through a side door. The friend freed himself and raised the alarm; the kidnappers were even stopped at a police roadblock, but bluffed their way through and went on to a hideout near Los Angeles.
A third accomplice, John Irwin, handled the contacts with the father, who paid a ransom of $240,000. The FBI photographed the bills and made the drop in the early hours of December 11, between two school buses in Sepulveda, California. While the other two went to collect the money, Irwin, nervous, released the hostage, who walked to Bel Air and was taken to his mother's house in the trunk of a guard's car, to avoid the press. Soon afterward, Irwin told everything to his brother, who called the FBI; Keenan and Amsler were arrested hours later, and almost all of the ransom was recovered.
Sources
In the game
Flowers in the Dressing Room
Crystal Bay, north shore of Lake Tahoe, Tuesday, December 10, 1963, 11 pm. In the management office of the Pinecrest Lodge, the phone never stops and nobody has the nerve to answer it.
At the trial, the defense claimed that Sinatra Jr. himself had staged the kidnapping as a publicity stunt, but the FBI had evidence to the contrary, including a confession letter Keenan had written beforehand and kept in a safe. All three were convicted. The game borrows the kidnapping from the dressing room of a lakeside hotel-casino, the friend tied up with tape, and the written proof kept in a safe. The inside accomplice, the characters and the outcome are fiction.
