South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Stamos narrates tale of kidnapping
John Stamos is narrator of “The Grand Scheme: Snatching Sinatra,” a 14-episode series now available on Wondery and all podcast platforms.
With it, Stamos brings to fruition the story of Barry Keenan, one of the men who kidnapped Frank Sinatra Jr. in 1963 when the son of legendary singer Frank Sinatra was 19.
It’s a tale that Stamos got access to in an only-in-Hollywood kind of way. And he has been sitting on it for decades.
The former “Full House” star said he was in his mid-20s and about to play an encore with the Beach Boys at the Orange County Fair when he was approached by Dean Torrence of the 1960s surfrock duo Jan and Dean. Torrence asked Stamos if he ever produced anything. “I didn’t,” Stamos, now 57, said, “but I told him yes.”
“He said, ‘Well, my friend, my best friend, kidnapped Frank Sinatra Jr. in the ’60s, and I have this manuscript that he wrote in jail.’ ”
Torrence had apparently loaned Keenan some money over the years, and to pay him back, Keenan gave him what he had written while in prison, detailing the kidnapping that put him behind bars. Keenan masterminded the whole thing along with Joe Amsler and John Irwin. All three were convicted.
Stamos took the document and “just threw it in a box,” he said, because at the time he didn’t know how to proceed.
Stamos said of the kidnapping story, “I always say it’s like the Marx Brothers meet the Coen Brothers, where it was wacky, but the truth was, this was a mentally ill man who — this was not funny.
“I mean, I have a son. The idea of someone kidnapping him is not funny,” he said. “So I wanted to dig into his psyche and figure out why.”
Stamos is genuinely intrigued by Keenan’s story, which includes bizarre twists and turns, is complicated and weird, and has that trendy true-crime element. Although Keenan, now 81, was sentenced to life plus 75 years behind bars for the kidnapping, he was released after 4 ½ years after it was determined he hadn’t been legally sane at the time of the crime.
“To be brutally honest, I’ve been trying on all fronts to get the story out,” Stamos said, “and I’m still going at it, and I’m gonna get it done.”
He’s done it already, of course, through the podcast. But that’s not enough for the entertainment veteran, who has been pitching it as a limited series as well.
“The thing that was appealing to this was that this story, it takes a lot — you can’t do it in a movie, you know,” he said.
Making “The Grand Scheme,” which was produced by Spoke Media in collaboration with Wondery, used “a different muscle” for Stamos, who has done series TV for decades as well as acting in multiple shows on Broadway.
“It’s not like acting,” he said. “I really had to have people trust me to take them on this long journey.”
Aug. 8 birthdays: Actor Nita Talbot is 91. Actor Dustin Hoffman is 84. Actor Larry Wilcox is 74. Actor Donny Most is 68. Journalist Deborah Norville is 63. Guitarist The Edge is 60. Rapper Kool Moe Dee is 59. Actor Countess Vaughn is 43. Actor Jackie Cruz is 35. Singer Shawn Mendes is 23. Actor Bebe Wood is 20.