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Show The Salt Lake Tribune NATION Sunday, December26, 1999 Should Crime Pay When CriminalSells His Story? Kidnapper wants to sell Sinatra saga to movies BY RENE SANCHEZ THE WASHINGTONPOST LOS ANGELES— It was oneof the most bizarre and bumbling kidnappings of the 1960s: Three young men of promise abduct Frank Sinatra Jr. from a motel at gunpoint, get a $240,000 ransom from his legendary father, then blew the whole schemebygetting caughtjust daysafter they let him go. paying his former kidnapper. importantone, too.” Keenan has challenged that ling and California's: law in state courts for the past Q year, to no avail. Now, backed by the Southern California chapterof the American Civil Liberties Union, he has goneto California’s Supreme Court, which has de- cided to review thecase. Someconstitutional scholars say resolving the case won't be easy because of its complex First Amendmentimplications. “This is a close and difficult case,” said Stephen Barnett, a law professorat the University of California at Berkeley. “A lot of these laws have not been tested, so it could be a very high court's decision, most states have narrowed thescope of their Keenan shouldn't be subject to the vamped its own a few years ago, “This law could do grave damage to the fundamental rights we all cherish,” said Dilan Esper, an Son of Sam laws. California re- The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on the issue once. In a 1991 case involving a mobster’s memoir, it struck down the nation’s first Son of Sam law in New York on the grounds that it was so broad it could suppress free speech. A publishing house was applying it only to convicted felons and works that focus on, not Keenan’s allies say the law is still unconstitutional. By its stan- attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. But so far, California courts erature such as Henry David Tho- problems that the one in New York did. Somelegal analysts also just mention, a particular crime. dards, they say, money earned even from landmark worksoflit- allowed to pay profits to the mob reau's Civil Disobedience or The anyone accused of a Autobiography of Malcolm X possibly could have been kept from their authors. They contend that ire from his book. The New York law covered crime, not just convicts, and it subjected even passing references to the crime in someone's bookorfilm to its requirements. But since the law because it was created so long after his crime. crime victims or their families have other routes through the courts to seize or limit criminals’ assets. They also argue that havesaid the law posesnoneof the say that in its rejection of New York’s law, the Supreme Court madea point of noting that it wasn't questioning the constitutionality of every statute with a similar purpose. In court papers, Sinatra’s camp contends that while Keenan and ———————— “You cannot marginalize his speech just because he was a criminalmany years ago.” Stephen Rohde Barry Keenan attorney — others have an absolute right to speech,no matter how offensiveit may be, the government has a compelling interest to stop criminals from reaping rewards from their unlawful actions. “You shouldn't be able to put : gun to someone’s ear and ee Specter said, “then ‘cash Sound like a movie? It will be sgon, and Barry Keenan,the ringleader who spent four years in prison for his crime, stands to collect a handsomeprofit from the Hollywood deal he struck for the rights to make a film about the caper.But the California Supreme Court maynotlet him have a cent. Andtherein lies anotherstory, an unresolved tale about the competing rights of convicted criminals andtheir victims and whether, in essence, crime should ever pay. Atissueis a California statute forbidding felons from profiting financially whenstories of their wrongdoing are told or sold. It's pepularly known as a “Son of Sam” law, a reference to New York serial killer David Berkow- itz and his groundbreaking attempt. in thelate 1970s to explain hfscrimes for money. Moststates hate similar measures, but the new challenge to California’s statufe is emerging as the most imPortant national test in nearly a decadeof whether such a law violates speech. Keenan, now successful real estate developer in his late 50s, insists that it does. In court papers, he contendsthat he has paid his debt to society and has a constitutional right to sell his story. “This is an important First Amendmentcase,”said his attor- ney, Stephen Rohde. “You cannot marginalize his speech just because he was a criminal many years ago.” Butthe junior Sinatra has been working zealously through the courts to prevent Keenan from getting paid for the upcoming film. Sinatra's legal advisers liken the money he could receive to a “second ransom.” Neither man is publicly discussing thecase. “This does not limit free speech,”said Sinatra attorney Richard Specter.“This only impacts paid speech.If this law is struck ZCMI Fine Jewelry MUST LIQUIDATE our entire $17,000,000 Fine Jewelry inventory at /5‘off down,victims across the country will lose, and criminals will win.” Pius an extra 10%off Movie companies and publishing houses have the receipts to prove how popular true crime stories are. Even the teenagers re- sponsible for this year’s massacre at Columbine High School bragged, on just-released tapes, that “directors will be fighting over this story.” But as that en- tertainment market grows, so too is the influence that victims’ rights groups have in state legislatures. Qa Until recently, the slapstick saga of the junior Sinatra’s brief kidnapping in December 1963, then a national sensation, had beenlargely forgotten. But twoyears ago, writer Peter Choose from ourentirebrilliant array of exciting newly-styled holiday collection of diamond rings, necklaces, pendants, bracelets and earrings-manyset with precious rubies, sapphires and emeralds. Ourentire inventory includeslustrous cultured pearl strands and jewelry, as well as gleaming 14k and 18k gold and colorful gemstone jewelry. Nothing is withheld except brandname watches.Every jewel must be sold to make room for the newly expanded Fine Jewelry Department. Gilstrap interviewed Keenan and published his strange story of the crime, which took place in the re- Nowis your opportunity to make your best buy of the year, from what is ZCMI’s greatest Fine Jewelry collection. sort town of Lake Tahoe, Nev., and unraveled soon afterward all over Los Angeles, in the local weekly New Times. In that account, Keenan details how,as a down-on-his-luck young businessman, broke and dazed by an addiction to painkillers for a cone TAKE UP TO TWO YEARSTO PAY* an elabo- rate plot to squeeze cash from Frank Sinatra by capturing his son. It wasn't a random choice; Keenan had been a friend of Sinatra’s daughter, Nancy, when oa attended high school to- in Los Angeles.At the time, Keenan said, he figuredit “morally wrong” to wouldn’ give the singer some grief because he “always got his way.” : and a friend snatched 1¢year-old Frank Jr. from a mo< hid in Los Angeles for a fdw days, and collected the ran: e a band leader and mad Boone, swiftly sued and won acourt: that prevents Columbia hon (not at Cache Valley or Red Cliffs locations). “Use the Time Pay Plan on your ZCMI Charge Account on your minimum purchase of $150, and you can take up to 24 months to pay. A finance charge will be assessed at a periodic rate of 1.75%.This corresponds to an Annual Percentage Rate of 21%. 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