Frank Sinatra’s Publicist Jim Mahoney Goes Inside the 1963 Kidnapping of the Singer’s Son and More

Late one winter night in 1963, a ringing phone woke up publicist Jim Mahoney. “Frank Sinatra’s attorney said, ‘You have to get up to Reno as fast as you can. Frankie, the kid, has been kidnapped.’”

The abduction and ransoming of Frank’s 19-year-old son was just one of the difficult situations the celebrity publicist navigated. Over his 60-year career, Jim, the author of the recent memoir Get Mahoney!, helped guide Frank, Judy Garland, Johnny Carson and more through fame’s media minefield.

The night of the kidnapping, Jim got busy fielding phone calls. “Frank was smoking so much, his voice didn’t sound like himself,” Jim exclusively tells Closer, explaining that friends like Judy Garland, Debbie Reynolds and Peter Lawford offered support. Jim also answered calls from the secretary of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and a mysterious man called Momo.

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“Frank said, ‘I’ll take Momo.’ Turns out that Momo was Sam Giancana, the biggest mobster in the country! The kidnappers didn’t realize they had the cops and the mob after them!” Jim explains.

Jim also managed the press, which camped out in front of Frank Jr.’s mother Nancy’s home in Bel Air as everyone awaited direction from the kidnappers. “I said, ‘We should feed them. We’re not giving any news, but they’ve been out there all night,” recalls Jim. “I said, ‘I’m going to call Chasen’s.’ It was the first time a kidnapping was catered!”

Three days later, Frank Sr. paid $240,000 in ransom. “Frank would have given them a million or really anything they wanted,” recalls Jim. The teenager was released unharmed later that day. Three amateur kidnappers were eventually arrested and convicted, and most of the ransom money was recovered.

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Jim began his career writing a Hollywood gossip column for the Los Angeles Herald-Express. “It was fun for a while,” Jim says. “I got to know a lot of people.”

Debbie Reynolds became a pal and invited Jim to visit her on a film set. Initially, Jim begged off because her costar Frank Sinatra never allowed press on his sets, but Debbie insisted.

“When I walked in, a hush fell over the room,” he says. “Debbie saw me and said, ‘Frank, this is my good friend Jim. I don’t want you to give him any [grief].’”

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Before long, Jim became Frank’s personal publicist. Over the years, he helped polish the images of other stars, too. “I worked with Bob Newhart, Jack Lemmon, George C. Scott, Lee Marvin, who was a real character,” he recalls. “But Judy Garland was the only client to ever hit me.”

The Wizard of Oz star got angry with Jim because she “wanted to hold a press conference to explain what an ass her husband was. I didn’t think it was the kind of exposure we needed.”

At 96, the still-sharp Hollywood insider looks back fondly at yesterday’s icons. “There are no Clark Gables or Errol Flynns or Spencer Tracys anymore,” he says. “Today’s up-and-coming actors and actresses just don’t have that same magic.”