60 YEARS AGO TODAY:
12/8/63 – Frank Sinatra, Jr. is kidnapped at Harah's Lake Tahoe (Room 417.) He is safely returned three days later after the ransom of $240,000 was paid. (This is the equivalent of approximately $2.3 million in today's money)
Frank, Sr. reportedly offered the kidnappers $1 million for the immediate safe return of his then 19 year old son but the kidnappers turned it down, sticking to the lesser amount. The three men involved (Barry Keenan, Johnny Irwin and Joe Amsler) were captured soon afterwards and convicted on kidnapping charges, for which they were each sentenced to long prison terms. (Keenan, the mastermind behind this entire plot, was later judged to have been legally insane at the time of the crime and therefore not legally responsible for his actions.)
Here's a bit of trivia for you:
The kidnappers demanded that all communication be conducted only by payphone. During these conversations, Frank, Sr. became concerned that he might not always have enough coins with him to carry out this requirement ... so he made it his personal policy from that point forward to ALWAYS carry ten dimes with him at all times ... FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE! Sources say that he was even buried with ten dimes in his pocket.
Also on 12/8, all 81 passengers on Pan Am Flight 214 are killed when their plane is struck by lightning at an altitude of 5000 feet.
