John Stamos is lending his voice to the story of Frank Sinatra Jr.’s kidnapping in a new true crime podcast for Wondery, Deadline reported Tuesday. The Fuller House star is a producer and narrator for The Grand Scheme: Snatching Sinatra, launching July 27 and examining the 1963 kidnapping of crooner Frank Sinatra’s son from Harrah’s Lake Tahoe.
The podcast will dive deep into the life of kidnapper Barry Keenan, reports Deadline, who was broke and unemployed, suffering from substance abuse issues and dealing with a dissolving family unit at home when he heard “the voice of God” come over his car radio telling him that kidnapping Sinatra Jr. would be the solution to all his problems. The kidnapping was one plagued with incompetence, and Keenan and his partners, Johnny Irwin and Joe Amsler, ended up being caught, convicted and incarcerated after initially getting $240,000 ransom from the “You Make Me Feel So Young” singer. Keenan was later declared legally insane.
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The Grand Scheme: Snatching Sinatra will reportedly feature exclusive excerpts from Keenan’s own recollection of the story, and Stamos will narrate the whole story, lending his talent for weaving a tale to the podcast. The General Hospital alum, a big fan of the Rat Pack and the Golden Age of Hollywood, will also use his insider access to get new details about the case that the podcast promises have never been heard.
Stamos is currently being praised for his role in the new Disney+ series, Big Shot, in which he portrays a temperamental and down on his luck college basketball coach whose latest outburst gets him demoted to a girls’ high school team. It was a difficult part to take on for Stamos, who admitted to Extra that he knew “nothing about sports” before taking the role. “It’s embarrassing,” he said. “I didn’t play sports. I don’t know about them.” He relied on some lessons from Los Angeles Lakers legend Jerry West when it came to how to portray a coach on screen. “I said, ‘Mr. West, thank you for letting me come to this rehearsal,’ and he said, ‘First of all, son, it’s practice, not rehearsal,’” Stamos recalled.
The Grand Scheme: Snatching Sinatra premieres July 27 on Wondery and is produced by Stamos and his production company St. Amos, along with Spoke Media, producers of The Left Ear with Dakota Johnson for Wondery. Consulting Producer is Pat Kudej, with Sam Dingman (Family Ghosts) as Showrunner and Writer.
