Joe Amsler, 65, Helped Kidnap Frank Sinatra Jr.
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Joe Amsler, one of three men who kidnapped Frank Sinatra Jr. in 1963, died May 6 in Salem, Va., from liver failure. He was 65.
Amsler was 23 when, along with lifelong friend Barry Keenan and Keenan’s mother’s boyfriend, John Irwin, he abducted the 19-year-old Sinatra Jr. at gunpoint from a Lake Tahoe hotel. They released him three days later unharmed after payment of a $240,000 ransom.
The three were soon arrested and sentenced to life in prison, although all were released in under five years.
“He felt very guilt-ridden about being involved,” said Mr. Keenan, who remained friends with Amsler.
Amsler, who served in the U.S. Navy in the late 1950s, worked as a stunt double and bodyguard for Ryan O’Neal in movies like “The Thief Who Came to Dinner” and “What’s Up, Doc?” He left Hollywood to work construction jobs and later as a handyman.
