Dec. 9, 1963 - Frank Sinatra Jr., 19-year-old son of the famed entertainer, was kidnapped at gunpoint from his Nevada motel last night shortly before he was scheduled to make a singing appearance at Harrah’s Club, a Lake Tahoe casino. Gene Evans, spokesman for Harrah’s Club, reported the kidnapping to highway patrol headquarters in both Nevada and California. Roadblocks were established immediately throughout the area. Sheriff Ernest Carlson reported that John Foss, a 24-year-old trumpeter in the club’s band, said he was with young Sinatra in the singer’s room at Harrah’s Lodge last night about 9 p.m. when someone knocked at the door, saying he had a package to deliver to Sinatra. When the door was opened, Foss said, two gunmen entered the room. One of them pulled a blue steel revolver and demanded: “Where’s the money?” Sinatra and Foss said they didn’t have any money with them. At that, they bound Foss with adhesive tape and held the gun on Sinatra. They told Foss they were taking Sinatra with them and warned him not to try to call police for at least 10 minutes. “They seemed to mean business,” Foss told officers later. One of the kidnappers was about 25 years old, 5 feet 10 inches tall, and weighed about 165. He was wearing a light brown parka-type jacket and gray trousers. The other was about 6 feet tall and was wearing a plaid mackinaw. Both were white men. They and Sinatra got into a car and drove off into a blinding snowfall. Sheriff Carlson reported that deputies had found tracks at the scene that trailed off toward Nevada. Frank Sr., who had been in Palm Springs for the weekend, departed immediately for Lake Tahoe by plane after learning of the kidnapping. Young Sinatra’s mother, Nancy, said she was waiting by the phone of her Hollywood home for some word of her son. She and the elder Sinatra divorced in 1951. Young Sinatra has been following in his father’s professional footsteps in trouping with the Tommy Dorsey Band, now directed by bandleader Sam Donahue. Sinatra Sr. got his start singing with the original Dorsey band. Sinatra Jr. dropped out of UCLA last year to go into show business.
