Frank Sinatra and the Mob
by J.D. Chandler
Frankie and the Boys 1976 -
Left to right: Paul Castellano, Gregory DePalma, Sinatra, Tommy Marson, Carlo
Gambino, Aladena Fratianno, Salvatore Spatola, Seated: Joseph Gambino, Richard
Fusco
Rumors
of mob connections hounded Frank Sinatra throughout his storied, tumultuous
life. His denials were as ready on his lips as his trademark song ''My Way''
became in his waning years. J. Edgar Hoover didn’t buy it. He thought Ol’ Blue Eyes was a murderer and a Mafioso with a golden voice.
Despite Hoover’s FBI amassing the largest file on Sinatra of any entertainer
in U.S. history, none of the damning information there ever made it to a grand
jury. Numerous times the government got close to indicting Sinatra, but it never
did. Sinatra had friends in the highest places, first President Kennedy and then
President Nixon and finally President Reagan. Each, in different ways and to
varying degrees, came to his aid when he most needed them, enabling him to front
for the mob with impunity.
Recently the FBI released on its web site all 1,275 pages of Sinatra’s FBI
file. His file may be viewed at http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/sinatra.htm.
Beginning more than a year ago, the FBI began posting files of scores of other
deceased celebrities it had maintained files on to the bureau’s web site.
There one can read about Charles A. Lindbergh (1,368 pages), Robert Kennedy
(1,263), Joseph Kennedy (1,011), President Kennedy (178), Henry Ford (376),
Abbie Hoffman (13,262), Martin Luther King Jr. (16,659), Malcolm X (11,674),
Nelson Rockefeller (1,472), Cardinal Francis Spellman (536), Marilyn Monroe
(80), Jackie Robinson (131), and, of course, the Mafiosi: Al Capone (2,397), Sam
Giancana (2,781), and Carlo Gambino (1,239) to name a few.
In the past 25 years, since Congress amended the Freedom of Information Act
and passed The Privacy Act, the FBI has grudgingly responded to more than
300,000 Freedom of Information Act requests to release its declassified files.
During that time, the FBI has turned over six million pages of FBI documents to
the public – mostly news organizations and researchers – in paper format. It
would send files to people who filed Freedom of Information requests in writing
and who were willing to pay the fees involved. Now, though, the bureau’s web
site is making posted files available to the public at no charge.
The files the FBI turns over are far from pristine. Some are illegible, some
are smeared and almost all have been heavily redacted by FBI agents who went
over the files prior to releasing them. The redactions are black marks through
names and passages of the file that the agent reviewing the file decides to keep
hidden based on various criteria within the bureau’s purview. The Freedom of
Information and the Privacy acts allow the agent to use any number of security
or privacy reasons to redact names and other information from the file. In the
case of Sinatra, for example, his name is probably never redacted but the names
of stool pigeons or FBI sources used to gather information about him are. Many
of the Chairman of the Board’s Rat Pack friends received no such kid-glove
treatment. Dean Martin, for example, is linked time and again to Sinatra
misdoings.
Reading an FBI file, particularly one as voluminous and replete with
redactions as Sinatra’s, is no easy task. It is largely a mumbo-jumbo of
dates, names and incidents, many of them half-baked, wild-goose chases the FBI
took in investigating Sinatra. You could easily get the impression that the FBI
did not mean to make reading its files an easy chore. (Click here to see a
chronological index of Sinatra’s file posted on my web site.)
FBI files are an uneven amalgam of fact, rumor, suspicion, allegation,
unvarnished gossip, false leads and trivia. Lots of trivia. This is particularly
the case in a file as large as Sinatra’s.
When the FBI was compiling Sinatra’s file it certainly had no intention of
ever exposing it to public view. Although there’s a dry professionalism to the
agents’ reports, an antipathy to the crooner permeates the file.
Because the reports in an FBI file were not written for public consumption or
scrutiny, they say in an unintended way as much or more about the internal
workings of the FBI as they do the famous and infamous subjects investigated. As
secret, internal documents the bureau compiles on citizens or groups it either
considers a threat to national security or, as in the case of Sinatra, involved
in organized crime, the reports in the file allow the agents writing them a
free-wheeling opportunity to report whatever they’ve come up with without the
threat of libel. Agents are under no compunction to be fair or even handed or to
get both sides of the story. An FBI file on a person does not tell the whole
story, nor, in fact, does the file itself form any type of narrative. Overall,
it tells a story but not in story form, just in bits and pieces as the reports
from the various agents pile up.
Agents use a host of sources in compiling a file. Wiretaps, stool pigeons,
personal surveillance, interviews of the subject’s acquaintances, neighbors
and known enemies, media accounts (gossip columns in particular) and tips
gathered from the FBI’s hotline. Among all these sources, wiretaps and direct
FBI surveillance often provide the most reliable and damning information about a
subject under FBI scrutiny. Because the company Sinatra kept included a large
number of high-profile mob figures, a veritable who’s who of the Mafia from
the 1940s on, Sinatra’s FBI file includes many references to him gathered in
wiretaps of those criminals.
In the 1960s most Americans became aware of Sinatra's friendship with Sam
Giancana, the Mafia boss of Chicago. Most people were unaware of the connections
of Sinatra's family and the help he received from mobsters in his career. His
FBI files definitively show that Sinatra was up to his ears in mob-related
schemes and activities throughout his entire adult life.
Sinatra’s connection with mobsters actually began at birth. His uncle, Babe
Gavarante, was a driver for a gang of armed robbers and may have been connected
to the organization Willie Moretti ran in Bergen County and northern New Jersey.
Gavarante, the brother of Sinatra's mother, was convicted of murder in 1921 in
connection with an armed robbery in which he had driven the get-away car. He was
sentenced to 15 years at hard labor.
One persistent rumor held that Sinatra was distantly related to Al Capone.
Whether he was a cousin of Big Al, or not, Sinatra did have a life-long
relationship with the infamous Fischetti brothers. Charles, Joseph and Rocco
Fischetti were cousins of Capone and well-know gangsters in their own right.
The Fischetti Brothers
Charles ''Trigger Happy'' Fischetti, called a notorious ''Chicago
gangster'' in the FBI files, was the mob’s political fixer in Chicago. He
and Sinatra were known to be close friends as early as the 1940s.While Charles
Fischetti was under FBI surveillance in 1946 he and Sinatra visited Fischetti's
mother in Brooklyn for three hours. Sinatra also helped Fischetti get tickets to
sports events several times. Sinatra helped Fischetti set up a string of auto
dealerships, by lending his name to the enterprise and doing commercials free of
charge. (Sinatra did receive at least two Thunderbirds that became the property
of Sinatra Enterprises.)
Joseph Fischetti, also known as a ''Chicago gangster,'' but better
known for his activities in Miami, especially in connection with the Fontainbleu
Hotel, was one of Sinatra's closest friends in the 1940s. FBI surveillance of
Fischetti shows that he and Sinatra kept in weekly telephone contact for an
extended period. They met in person several times in New York and Miami.
Sinatra was Joseph Fischetti's houseguest in Miami in February 1947 when they
traveled to Havana in the company of Joseph's brother, Rocco, who was in charge
of Chicago gambling and was a notorious woman-beater. On this infamous trip
Sinatra met with Charles ''Lucky'' Luciano. Rumors about this meeting
dogged Sinatra for the rest of his life.
Sinatra and Joseph Fischetti remained friends for years. Sinatra performed
many times at the Fontainbleu Hotel in Miami. Fischetti was deeply involved with
this hotel. As early as May 1947 Fischetti had bragged to an FBI informant about
his ''financial interest'' in Frank Sinatra. Fischetti worked as a sort
of agent for Sinatra in Miami and Chicago and got him several bookings in the
early 1950s when Sinatra’s career was nearly dead.
Fischetti's financial interest nearly came to light in 1963 when the IRS
investigated the so-called ''Fontainbleu Complex.'' This investigation
revealed that Sinatra performed ''without charge'' at the Fontainbleu
and that Joseph Fischetti, who was being paid more than $1,000 per month to
arrange Sinatra's performances, gave him expensive pieces of jewelry instead of
cash. This story came to light again during Nevada Gaming Commission hearings in
1981. Again the charges were never proved.
Willie Moretti
Family connections led to another major underworld link that was very
important to Sinatra's career. Nancy Barbato, Sinatra's first wife, was a cousin
of a ''key member of Willie Moretti's mob,'' as the FBI report put it.
Moretti controlled gambling and other rackets in Bergen County and northern New
Jersey and was a known associate of Frank Costello, the New York Mafia boss.
After Sinatra’s marriage to Nancy Barbato, Moretti (a.k.a. Willie Moore)
took an interest in the young singer’s career. He arranged several singing
engagements for Sinatra, giving his career a large boost. Moretti also set an
example for other mobsters who would later befriend Sinatra. Sinatra several
times denied that Moretti helped his career. Columnist Lee Mortimer’s
allegations concerning Moretti led to Sinatra assaulting Mortimer. Sinatra’s
private testimony to the Kefauver Committee, on March 1, 1951, tells the true
story, ''Well, Moore, I mean Moretti, made some band dates for me when I
first got started….''
In 1948 Moretti told undercover FBI agents that he had an
''association'' with Sinatra. Later that year an informant told the FBI
that both Sinatra and comedian Lou Costello ''kicked in'' to Moretti. In
1949, when Sinatra separated from his wife and was seen in public with Ava
Gardner, Moretti sent him a telegram urging him to return to his wife.
Moretti testified openly, maybe too openly, to the Kefauver Committee,
admitting that he was a gambler. Ten months later he was gunned down in Joe’s
ElbowRoom in Cliffside Park, N.J. Later, when Mario Puzo’s book, The
Godfather, came out it was widely rumored that one of the characters was
based on Sinatra and that Don Corleone was partly based on Willie Moretti.
Tommy Dorsey always denied that he had been threatened in order to release
Sinatra from his long-term contract; it is fairly certain that movie mogul Harry
Cohn never found a horse’s head in his bed. But Sinatra did sing at the
wedding of Moretti’s daughter in 1948, and he clearly had a great deal of
affection for his neighbor and benefactor, Willie Moretti. Moretti, in return,
took a great interest in Sinatra’s career and helped him wherever he could.
Sam Giancana
Sinatra’s most enduring, and well known, association with a mobster was
with Sam ''Momo'' Giancana. Giancana started out as a thief and killer
in Chicago in the 1920s. He was arrested for murder in 1926, but was not
prosecuted because the state’s case fell apart when Alexander Burba, a cab
driver and the main witness, was murdered. Giancana was rumored to be the driver
and a gunman at the 1929 St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. He spent a good part of
the 1920s and 1930s in prison for various crimes.
By the late 1940s Giancana was closely associated with Anthony ''Tony
Batters'' Accardo, an ex-bodyguard of Al Capone and rumored to be one of the
gunmen in the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. By the late ‘50s Giancana had
risen to the top of the heap in Chicago. There he controlled protection,
pinball, prostitution, numbers, narcotics, loan sharking, extortion,
counterfeiting and bookmaking. He was arrested over 70 times, three times for
murder.
In consolidating his power Giancana ordered the deaths of over 200 people,
some of whom were tortured to death. These killings brought him to the head of
an international crime empire, which included interests in the Riviera, Sands
and Desert Inn hotels in Las Vegas estimated by the FBI to generate over $2
billion in income annually. Some $40-$50 million of that went directly to
Giancana.
Giancana liked to be around entertainers and he had several of them for
friends including Joe E. Brown, Jimmy Durante, Dean Martin, Keeley Smith, and
Phyllis McGuire (of the McGuire Sisters). It was Frank Sinatra’s sapphire
friendship ring that Giancana wore every day, though. Giancana was often annoyed
by the attention Sinatra generated and thought he had a ''big mouth,''
but he was a regular at Sinatra’s legendary parties. Giancana often visited
Sinatra in his dressing room at the Sands Hotel and at the Fontainbleu in Miami.
According to FBI files, the autobiography of Antoinette Giancana and the
testimony of Johnny Roselli to the U.S. Senate Church Commission in 1975, it was
Giancana, along with a few other mobsters, who conspired with the CIA to
assassinate Fidel Castro in the early 1960s. Giancana also had the distinction
of sharing a mistress, Judith Campbell, with President John F. Kennedy. Sinatra
introduced her to both men. Giancana is often named as a suspect by people who
believe the Mafia assassinated President Kennedy. Giancana was murdered in 1975
after his role in the Castro plot came to light, but before he could testify at
congressional hearings investigating the CIA.
For a good part of his life Giancana was under constant FBI surveillance. At
one point Giancana got a court order to make his FBI tail stay two foursomes
behind him on the golf course. This surveillance extensively documents the
relationship between Giancana and Sinatra.
Sinatra told IRS investigators in 1959 that he met Giancana at the
Fontainbleu Hotel in March 1958. Sinatra always maintained that he and Giancana
were friendly, but not close, and that they had no business relationship. The
FBI surveillance shows this to be a lie.
Sinatra played a kind of court-jester role for Giancana, giving command
performances when asked. Sinatra also arranged command performances by other
entertainers for Giancana, especially at Giancana’s Wheeling, Ill., nightclub,
the Villa Venice Supper Club, a front for an illegal-gambling operation. Sinatra
arranged several shows there featuring himself, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and
Eddie Fisher. The performers at these shows worked gratis.
On at least one occasion, in October 1962, Eddie Fisher was coerced into
making an appearance at the Villa Venice. Fisher had just finished a successful
engagement in New York City and had planned a long run at the Desert Inn in Las
Vegas.
Giancana decided that he wanted Fisher for the re-opening of his club on
Halloween. Fisher, his agent and Moe Dalitz, the operator of the Desert Inn,
were against changing Fisher’s plans. Fisher and his agent thought it could
hurt his career. None of them, however, had the courage to turn down Giancana.
It was arranged for Fisher to split his engagement at the Desert Inn so he could
appear at the Villa Venice.
After the arrangements were made Giancana changed his mind and decided he
wanted Fisher for a three-week engagement. Fisher voiced his reluctance to
Sinatra, who said (according to an FBI report), ''Look, you’re going over
there for 18 days. Never mind about the Desert Inn, I already handled that. I
take care of that. They do what I tell them.'' The FBI estimated, based on
overheard conversations, that the Villa Venice reopening, and gambling at the
nearby Quonset Hut, grossed over $3 million.
As for the business relationship between Sinatra and Giancana, nothing was
ever clearly proven. The most consistent allegation is that Sinatra acted as a
front for Giancana’s ownership of the Cal-Neva Lodge in Lake Tahoe in the
early ‘60s. Giancana was included in Nevada’s ''Black Book'' that
listed the 11 men who were not allowed into any Nevada gambling establishment,
so his ownership of any gambling interests there had to be covered up.
In 1960 Giancana made arrangements to buy the Cal-Neva Lodge, located at the
north end of Lake Tahoe exactly on the California-Nevada border. The owners of
record would be Frank Sinatra, Hank Sanicola (an old friend and business partner
of Sinatra’s) and Dean Martin. At first Sinatra owned one-third of the hotel,
but within a couple of years his ownership had risen to over half and Dean
Martin had dropped out in favor of Sanford Waterman. Paul ''Skinny'' D’Amato,
one of Giancana’s lieutenants who had ''worked'' the West Virginia
primary for John Kennedy, took over day-to-day operation of the club.
The Cal-Neva Lodge, with its unique location half in California and half in
Nevada, was perfect for Giancana’s purposes. He visited the club regularly
(when he would admit visiting he claimed that he always stayed on the California
side) for trysts with his mistress, Phyllis McGuire, meetings with other
mobsters or Sinatra’s wild parties. Giancana’s visits made Hank Sanicola,
who had invested $300,000 of his own money, nervous because federal agents often
accompanied Giancana. Sinatra told Sanicola not to be a ''worrier''.
Giancana’s ownership of the hotel was confirmed by the FBI, which recorded
a conversation between Giancana and Johnny Roselli (his representative in Las
Vegas), in which Giancana said, ''I am going to get my money out of that
joint (Cal-Neva) and end up with half of it with no money.''
For Sinatra, the Cal-Neva Lodge was cursed. After a heated spat with Ava
Gardner there in 1951, Sinatra took an overdose of sleeping pills. He later
denied that he had tried to kill himself, but in 1985 George Jacobs, Sinatra’s
longtime valet, told Kitty Kelley: ''Thank God, I was there to save him.
Miss G was the love of his life, and if he couldn’t have her, he didn’t want
to live no more.'' Gardner would become Sinatra’s second of four wives; he
later would marry Mia Farrow and Barbara Marx. His three children, Nancy Jr.,
Frank Jr. and Tina were born to his first wife.
In 1962 Federal Agents investigated a prostitution ring that was run openly
through the registration desk. A few weeks later an attempt was made on the life
of one of the employees in front of the hotel. Shortly afterward Marilyn Monroe
took an overdose of sleeping pills there. She was saved, but died a few days
later in Los Angeles. That same summer ex-Deputy Sheriff Richard Anderson had a
fight with Sinatra at the Cal-Neva Lodge, a few days later Anderson died in a
mysterious car accident. Many people, including J. Edgar Hoover, suspected
Sinatra of having Anderson killed, but nothing was proved.
The next summer, during a singing engagement at the Cal-Neva by the McGuire
Sisters, Phyllis McGuire, Sam Giancana, Frank Sinatra and Victor LaCroix
Collins, road manager for the McGuire Sisters, became involved in a brawl in
Giancana’s bungalow. FBI agents witnessed the fight and informed the Nevada
State Gaming Commission. This was the last straw and in August 1963, Ed Olson,
chairman of the commission started an investigation with the goal of revoking
Sinatra’s gaming license.
Sinatra used all of his power and prestige to fight the charges against him.
When he addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations he made a joke
about his ''used casino.'' President Kennedy even interceded on his
behalf, asking Nevada Gov. Grant Sawyer during a Las Vegas motorcade why he was
''being so hard on Sinatra.'' In the end the case was too convincing
against Sinatra and he voluntarily gave up all his interests in Nevada casinos,
which included interests at the Sands and Desert Inn as well. He was still
allowed to perform in Nevada, but it was not until 1981 that he managed to
obtain a new gaming license.
Sinatra’s relationship with Giancana, coupled with his own unruly temper,
gave him a reputation for being dangerous. On more than one occasion people who
had angered Sinatra received threatening phone calls saying that Giancana would
''teach them a lesson.'' The most blatant example of this came in 1966
when comedian Jackie Mason angered Sinatra by making jokes about his marriage to
Mia Farrow. Mason received phone calls threatening his life, but refused to
change his routine. Six days later three bullets were fired through the glass
door of Mason’s hotel room in Las Vegas. The Clark County Sheriff’s
Department investigated, but dropped the case because it said there was no
motive for the shooting.
Mason stopped making his jokes about Mia Farrow, but continued to make cracks
about Sinatra in his show. A few weeks later, at an appearance in Miami, Mason
quipped, ''I don’t know who it was that tried to shoot me…After the
shots were fired all I heard was someone singing: Doobie, doobie, do.''
Mason received four death threats that week with warnings that he should stop
talking about Sinatra.
On Feb. 13, 1967, while Mason was sitting in a car in front of an apartment
building in Miami, a man wearing brass knuckles yanked open his door and smashed
Mason in the face, breaking his nose and crushing his cheekbone. ''We warned
you to stop using the Sinatra material in your act,'' the attacker said
before leaving. Mason finally got the message and stopped using jokes about
Sinatra.
After Giancana’s semi-successful lawsuit against the FBI, in 1963, the
publicity around him began to seem dangerous to Tony Accardo and Paul Ricca, the
real Mafia powers in Chicago. When Giancana was jailed for contempt of court in
1965, that was the end of his power. After his release he was exiled in Mexico
for the rest of his life.
Benjamin ''Bugsy'' Siegel
Frank Sinatra was physically a small man. At his local draft board physical
in 1943, the 5’71/2''-teen idol weighed in at 119 pounds. (He flunked the
physical due to a perforated left eardrum.) Sinatra idolized the strong and the
tough. Since boyhood he always wanted to be around the strongest and the
toughest men he could find. This led to his strong attraction to both boxers and
gangsters. One FBI informant said it was well known that Sinatra had a
''hoodlum complex''.
According to Eddie Fisher, Sinatra once said, ''I would rather be a Mafia
don than president of the United States.'' According to Jo-Carroll Silvers,
wife of comedian Phil Silvers (a good friend of Sinatra’s), ''Phil and
Frank adored Bugsy (Ben) Siegel…They were like two children seeing Santa Claus…They
were so wide-eyed and impressed with this man…They would brag about Bugsy,
what he had done and how many people he had killed… I will always remember the
awe Frank had in his voice when he spoke about him (Siegel). He wanted to
emulate Bugsy.''
Benjamin ''Bugsy'' Siegel was the representative of Meyer Lansky and
Lucky Luciano in Los Angeles from 1934 until his death in 1947. He was known as
one of the original members of the legendary, and some say fictional, Murder
Inc. Siegel was also one of organized crime’s pioneers in Las Vegas, building
the Flamingo Hotel which opened on Christmas Eve 1946. Sinatra
and Siegel had a nodding acquaintance, but there is no evidence that there was
anything more than that.
Mickey Cohen
The relationship between Sinatra and Mickey Cohen is well documented. Cohen
was a Siegel lieutenant who made himself an underworld power after Siegel’s
death. Cohen, a Jew, was never a ''made guy'' (a member of La Cosa
Nostra), and he had constant battles with Jack Dragna, the official Mafia boss
of Los Angeles, but he remained a powerful crime figure all through the 1950s
and well into the 60s.
Cohen and Sinatra were fairly close friends. Sinatra visited him at his home
in 1948, even though Cohen warned him that he was under constant surveillance,
to ask him to have Johnny Stompanato, Cohen’s bodyguard, stay away from Ava
Gardner. Cohen told him that he never mixed in between men and their
''broads'' and that Sinatra should go back to his wife and kids. ''I
talked to him like a friend,'' Cohen stated later in his autobiography.
Cohen, like the other mobsters who knew Sinatra, used him for his star power.
On at least one occasion Cohen called Sinatra and asked him to meet with a
business associate from Ohio and his 14-year-old daughter. Sinatra didn’t rush
over to Cohen’s house, as Cohen wanted, but he did invite them to a radio
broadcast where all three were allowed to sit on the stage.
James Tarantino and Hollywood Nite Life
Through Cohen Sinatra got involved with James Tarantino and his
blackmail/scandal sheet, Hollywood Nite Life. Tarantino, an
ex-sportswriter who had known Sinatra from the New York boxing scene in the
early ‘40s, used the tabloid in a blackmail scheme. He would dig up dirt on
Hollywood celebrities and then threaten to publish his information if the stars
didn’t advertise with him.
Columnist Westbrook Pegler called Tarantino, who had been a member of The
Varsity (a group of Sinatra’s friends that was a forerunner of the later Clan
or Rat Pack), a protégé of Sinatra. According to Tarantino, who was later
convicted of extortion, he and Hank Sanicola started Hollywood Nite Life
in 1945. Sinatra, he said, had put up $15,000 to get the magazine started.
In his private testimony to the Kefauver Committee, in 1951, Sinatra gave a
different version of the story:
Q: We have information to the effect that you gave Tarantino quite a large
sum of money to keep him from writing a quite uncomplimentary story about you.
A: Well, you know how it is in Hollywood…Jimmy called up and said he had an
eyewitness account of a party that was supposed to have been held down in Las
Vegas in which some broads had been raped or something like that. I told Jimmy
that if he printed anything like that he would be in a lot of trouble.
Q: Did he ask you for money?
A: Well, I asked Hank Sanicola, my manager, to handle it and that was the
last I heard of it…
Q: Did Hank tell you he paid Tarantino?
A: Well, I understand Tarantino was indicted and I don’t know the rest of
the story, but the Hollywood Nite Life quit publishing this crap
afterward.
Another version of the story, retold in Kelley’s book
His Way, was
that Mickey Cohen asked Sinatra for $5,000, on three separate occasions for a
total of $15,000, to suppress articles in Hollywood Nite Life. Whether
Sinatra was blackmailed by his ''friend,'' Cohen, his
''protégé,'' Tarantino, or he voluntarily gave money to support the
magazine, he did advertise with Tarantino and he always got good publicity in Hollywood
Nite Life.
Charles ''Lucky'' Luciano
Charles ''Lucky'' Luciano was one of the most powerful and
influential Mafia bosses in American history. He is considered by some to be the
real winner of the Castellammarese War of 1930, which led to the formation of
New York’s Five Families. After his brief war with Sal Maranzano in 1931, in
which he earned his ''Lucky'' nickname, Luciano consolidated his power
by forming the Commission.
The Commission was a group of heads of Mafia families that met regularly to
work out inter-family problems. The Commission was designed to save the mob from
autocratic rule by dictatorial bosses and internecine warfare. It worked for a
while, but its main effect was to increase Luciano’s power. Luciano became so
powerful, in fact, that he was the main target of New York D.A. Thomas Dewey,
who built his political reputation by prosecuting top mobsters.
In 1936 Dewey successfully convicted Luciano of controlling prostitution in
New York. At the end of World War II, Luciano was released from prison and
deported to Italy.
In 1946 Luciano traveled to Cuba in an effort to reassert his power over the
American mob. All of the most prominent underworld leaders traveled to pay their
respects to Luciano at the famed ''Havana Conference.'' It looked as if
Luciano would be able to hang onto his position and rule the mob from Havana.
Sinatra made at least two trips to Havana to meet Luciano. One trip was over
Christmas 1946. Sinatra performed on Christmas Eve at a party held in his honor
by Luciano. This party came during a break in a meeting that decided the fate of
Siegel, who was killed a few months later. The second trip, over a four-day
weekend in February 1947 is documented in Sinatra’s FBI file. He traveled to
Havana with Joseph and Rocco Fischetti. They stayed at the Hotel Nacional and
all three met with Luciano on more than one occasion.
This trip was widely reported in the media and it caused Sinatra problems the
rest of his life – both with the public and the underworld. That trip would
later lead to allegations that Sinatra delivered $2 million in cash to Luciano.
Joseph ''Doc'' Stacher, who ran Meyer Lansky’s operation in New
Jersey at the time and later ran the Sand’s Hotel, remembered the Havana
meeting years later in an interview quoted in Kitty Kelley’s His Way:
''The Italians among us were all very proud of Frank. They always told me
they had spent a lot of money helping him in his career ever since he was in
Tommy Dorsey’s band. Lucky Luciano was very fond of Frank’s singing. Frankie
flew into Havana with the Fischettis, with whom he was very friendly, but of
course, our meeting had nothing to do with hearing him croon…Everyone brought
envelopes of money for Luciano …But more important, they came to pay
allegiance to him.''
It is likely that Sinatra also gave an envelope of cash to Luciano, but it is
far-fetched that he carried $2 million in his briefcase for him, as it was later
charged. As Sinatra said in his 1981 NSGC hearing, ''Show me a briefcase
that will hold $2 million in cash and I’ll give you the money.''
Shortly after the February meeting Robert Ruark, a New York columnist, wrote
an article about Sinatra’s visit to Luciano. The U.S. government put pressure
on Cuba to deport Luciano to Italy. Many mobsters thought that it was Sinatra’s
bragging about meeting Luciano that led to his deportation. This led to Sinatra’s
reputation as a ''big mouth''.
Luciano knew better. According to organized-crime historian and writer Allan
May, Luciano believed that Vito Genovese had informed on him by telling Harry
Anslinger of the Narcotics Bureau that Luciano was in Havana. (See ''Havana
Conference - 1946'', by Allan May.) Sinatra and Hank
Sanicola later visited Luciano in Naples, Italy, where Sinatra presented him
with a gold cigarette case engraved: ''To my dear pal Charlie, from his
friend Frank.'' The cigarette case and a piece of paper bearing Sinatra’s
unlisted telephone number were found on Luciano when Italian police searched him
in 1949.
Frank Costello
Frank Costello was acting boss of what later became known as the Genovese
family during Luciano’s incarceration and exile. In 1947 he became the boss,
but spent the next 10 years feuding with Vito Genovese for control of Luciano’s
empire. In 1957 he was shot and wounded by Vincent ''Chin'' Gigante.
Costello subsequently retired in favor of Genovese.
Many rumors and reports of Sinatra’s connection with Costello exist, but
there is very little evidence to back them up. Sinatra and his sycophant group,
The Varsity, spent a great deal of time at boxing matches at Madison Square
Garden in the early 1940s. Frank Costello was known to hang out there as well,
so it is very likely that they met.
Costello was known to be the padrino of Willie Moretti so it is
possible that he also took an interest in Sinatra’s career. Costello owned the
Copacabana nightclub in New York and always attended Sinatra’s engagements
there. Costello was believed to be the true owner of the Sands Hotel in Las
Vegas, in which Sinatra also had a part ownership. The San Francisco police also
believed Costello to be the true owner of Hollywood Nite Life.
Columnist John Miller is quoted, in Kitty Kelley’s biography of Sinatra, as
saying, ''Sinatra and Frank C. were great pals. I know because I used to sit
with Frank C. at the Copa and Sinatra would join us all the time. He was always
asking favors of the old man, and whenever Sinatra had a problem he went to
Frank C. to solve it.'' Miller was making the point that Costello secured
the role of Maggio in From Here to Eternity for Sinatra. While it is
highly likely that Sinatra asked for Costello’s help in this, and Harry Cohn,
of Columbia Pictures, had as many mob ties as Sinatra, it is also clear that it
was Sinatra's own efforts, with an assist from Ava Gardner, that got him that
role.
There are several rumors in Sinatra’s FBI file that Sinatra was
''brought up'' by Costello and that Costello put pressure on Willie
Moretti to help Sinatra. Again there is no proof behind these rumors and,
knowing Sinatra’s connection to Moretti, it is more likely that Moretti gave
Sinatra an ''in'' with Costello, than the other way around.
Las Vegas
No performer was more associated with Las Vegas than Frank Sinatra. His
affiliation with several hotels in Las Vegas brought him into contact with a
wide variety of mobsters.
The Sands Hotel
In 1954 Sinatra obtained a Nevada gaming license and bought a 2 percent
interest in the Sands Hotel. Later Vicente ''Jimmy Blue Eyes'' Alo gave
him a gift of an additional 7 percent of the hotel. Sinatra remained associated
with the Sands until 1967, although he gave up his ownership in 1963 in the
Cal-Neva/Warner Bros. deal, eventually rising to vice president of the
corporation and earning $100,000 per night when he performed. Among the perks he
received at the hotel was free no-limit gambling in the casino.
The Sands Hotel was a joint enterprise run by the Genovese family and the
Chicago Outfit. Many mobsters were associated with the hotel including:
- Joseph ''Doc'' Stacher – the No. 1 man who ran the hotel and who
was closely associated with Meyer Lansky. Stacher had a long police record that
included arrests for assault and battery, robbery, larceny, bootlegging,
hijacking and murder. He was also a very close friend of Sinatra.
- Charles ''Babe'' Baron – the official greeter at the hotel, he
had previously been a suspect in a murder.
- Joe Fusco – of the old Capone mob.
- Meyer Lansky – The highest ranking non-Italian member of ''The
Syndicate.'' Lansky had been closely associated with Charles
''Lucky'' Luciano, and, since his teen years, had partnered with
Benjamin ''Bugsy'' Siegel.
- Abner ''Longy'' Zwillman – an early member of Irving ''Waxy
Gordon'' Wexler’s bootlegging operation in New Jersey. He later was a
partner with Willie Moretti and was closely associated with Meyer Lansky.
- Anthony ''Tony Batters'' Accardo – former bodyguard of Al Capone
and power behind the Chicago throne from 1943 until his death in 1992.
- Gerardo Catena – acting boss of the Genovese family.
- Abraham Teitelbaum – former attorney of Al Capone.
- John Roselli – Giancana’s representative in Las Vegas. He had been
involved in the early ‘60s plots against Fidel Castro. In 1963 Sinatra
sponsored Rosselli for membership in the Friar’s Club, where Roselli was later
charged with running a gambling operation. Roselli moved to Miami after Giancana’s
removal from Chicago. In 1975 Roselli testified to the U.S. Senate’s Church
Commission about links between the Mafia and the CIA. Shortly after his
testimony his dismembered body was found in an oil drum floating in Biscayne
Bay.
In 1967 Howard Hughes purchased The Sands Hotel. Frank Sinatra negotiated a
new contract with the mob-owned Caesar’s Palace and broke his contract with
the Sands. The breaking of The Sands’ contract was a memorable Sinatra tantrum
in which he trashed the lobby and pool before having two teeth knocked out by
casino manager Carl Cohen.
Desert Inn
Sinatra appeared at the Desert Inn many times from the early 1950s until
Howard Hughes purchased it in 1967. A group of mobsters, mostly from Cleveland,
owned the Desert Inn. Meyer Lansky and Sam Giancana also had interests in the
hotel. Moe Dalitz, a close friend of Sinatra, ran it. Dalitz helped keep Sinatra
employed when his career hit a low point after 1949.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Dalitz was a bootlegger from Cleveland, aligned with
the Italian Mayfield Road Mob.
At the Desert Inn Sinatra was known to hang out with people such as Benny
Macri, who was suspected of being the killer of a union organizer in New York.
Macri was not convicted of this crime, although he had a reputation as a killer
in the underworld. He was also pals with Aladena ''Jimmy the Weasel''
Fratianno, an enforcer and executioner for Jack Dragna in Los Angeles. Later
Fratianno would be acting-boss of the LA crime family and he was involved in the
Westchester Premier Theater scam with Sinatra, detailed later. Fratianno
eventually became a celebrated informer for the FBI.
Caesar’s Palace
The origin and ownership of Caesar’s Palace in the 1960s is shadowy, but,
like the other Las Vegas casinos that Sinatra was associated with, Caesar’s
employed several people with ties to organized crime. Two in particular were
Eugene Cimorelli, the casino’s official greeter. He was an associate of
Chicago gangster Anthony ''Tony the Ant'' Spilotro and golf partner of
Anthony ''Tony Batters'' Accardo, the behind-the-scenes boss of Chicago.
The other was Sanford Waterman, who had previously been one of Sinatra and
Giancana’s partners in the Cal-Neva Lodge. Waterman was later convicted of
racketeering.
In 1970 the IRS began an investigation of operations at Caesar’s Palace.
During the investigation it became evident to investigators that Sinatra was
scamming cash from the casino by cashing in chips that he had received for free.
When Waterman, the casino manager, was informed of this he confronted Sinatra
inside the casino. Typically, Sinatra reacted violently. The men exchanged
ethnic slurs. When Sinatra became violent Waterman pulled a gun and pointed it
at Sinatra’s head, ending the fight. Assault charges were dropped against
Waterman because there were visible marks on his throat where Sinatra had been
holding him.
After the fight with Waterman, Sinatra vowed never to set foot in Nevada
again. He returned in 1973, after Waterman was arrested on racketeering charges
and Caesar’s Palace offered him $400,000 per week (a record for Las Vegas
performers at the time) and a free bodyguard.
In 1980 Sinatra forced Caesar’s Palace to list him as a key employee so he
could apply for a new Gaming License. He said that he wanted to clear his name
from charges that led to his license being pulled in 1963. Sinatra paid $500,000
for an investigation of his past and used all of his connections and power
(including the support of President Ronald Reagan) to influence the outcome of
the NSGC hearings.
At the hearings, that took place over several months in 1981, Sinatra lied
repeatedly about his activities and relationships with criminals and mobsters.
In the end he was granted a Nevada Gaming License once again. ''We got that
junk behind us. We cleared the air,'' he said.
Carlo Gambino
Carlo Gambino was a member of the New York crime family that was headed by
Albert Anastasia and later became known as the Gambino family. He was involved
in the 1957 plot, with Vito Genovese and Thomas Lucchese, that brought Genovese
and Gambino to power in their respective families.
Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese fought an on-and-off war with Joseph Bonnano,
the head of the Bonnano crime family. Bonnano steadily lost ground as he lost
allies: Albert Anastasia was murdered in 1957 and Joe Profaci died in 1962. Men
whose allegiance was to Gambino replaced each. By 1967, when Vito Genovese died,
Gambino was left as a near boss-of-bosses. Gambino is known for running one of
the most profitable crime families in history and for never having gone to jail.
He remained in control of his family, with help from Paul Castellano, until his
death in 1976.
It is not clear when Sinatra first became associated with Gambino. Sinatra
was involved in at least two business deals with Gambino in the 1970s. Gambino
also appeared in the famous photograph taken in 1976 at the Westchester Premier
Theater (one of their joint enterprises) along with Paul Castellano, Gregory De
Palma, Thomas Marson, Aladena Fratianno, Salvatore Spatola, Joseph Gambino and
Richard Fusco.
The business deals that Gambino and Sinatra were involved in together were:
Computer Fields Expressway – In 1970 Jack Pourtney, a stock broker
at the 1st Williams Street Corporation in New York City, approached
Richard Alpert about investing money in a company called Computer Fields
Expressway. Alpert went to an acquaintance known to him as Joe Paris, real name
Joseph Guarnera, to help him raise money to invest.
Paris, who claimed to be a relative of Carlo Gambino, raised $100,000
allegedly from Gambino, Sinatra and Jilly Rizzo (a long-time friend and
occasional bodyguard of Sinatra). The stock price for CFE dropped from $12 per
share to $.75 per share. According to the FBI file the drop in the stock price
was because Pourtney was stealing assets from the underwriting company, 1st
Williams St. Corp.
The FBI became involved, at the request of the U.S. attorney in New York,
when Alpert charged that his life was threatened if he didn’t return the
$100,000. By this time the Securities and Exchange Commission had become
involved with the investigation and Pourtney cooperated with them.
In February 1971, Alpert was subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand
jury. He took the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer any questions. In March
1971, FBI agents questioned Alpert. He denied that his life had been threatened.
He also denied that Frank Sinatra or Carlo Gambino had ever invested money in
CFE.
Based on other deals that Sinatra was involved in it is likely that he
invested money with Gambino in CFE. Whether Sinatra or Gambino invested the
money in CFE, it is probable that Sinatra had no knowledge of or participation
in the threats or the attempts to extort money from Alpert.
Westchester Premier Theater – The Westchester Premier Theater in
Tarrytown, N.Y., began as a scheme by Gregory De Palma and Richard Fusco,
members of the Gambino family. First there was an inflated stock scam, where
stock was sold to ''big names'' such as Alan King, Steve Lawrence and
Eydie Gorme for pennies on the dollar. The stock never drew much interest and
there were several phony purchases and corporate purchases with kickbacks to
executives. As a result the stock dropped to around $1 per share.
The theater was built, with huge construction cost overruns, on a landfill
owned by De Palma and Fusco in 1974. De Palma and Fusco, needing more money to
keep their scheme afloat, convinced Carlo Gambino to invest $100,000. He did so
only on the condition that Frank Sinatra be brought in on the deal. The theater
opened in 1975 with a performance by Diana Ross who was paid $235,000. Fusco and
De Palma ran the theater as if it were a Las Vegas casino, skimming huge amounts
from concessions and t-shirt sales and selling tickets for seats that didn’t
exist.
The theater was huge and very well appointed. The biggest acts in show
business were booked there and the gross for the first year was estimated at
$5.3 million. But by December 1976 the theater was near bankruptcy. Only a run
of performances by Sinatra and Dean Martin in May 1977 delayed the closing of
the theater.
Federal agents, investigating another matter, tapped the phone of Tom Marson,
a friend and Palm Springs neighbor of Sinatra. They recorded a conversation
between Marson and De Palma in which they discussed skimming cash from the
upcoming Sinatra appearance at the Westchester Premier Theater. The result of
this conversation was 10 indictments handed down by a New York Grand Jury in
June 1978. During the investigation it came out that Sinatra was paid $50,000
''under the table'' for his first appearance there. Sinatra was never
indicted.
Raymond Patriarca
Raymond Patriarca was the crime boss of Providence, R.I. In the early 1950s
he moved in on organized crime in Boston and by 1954 had control of all of New
England. There are many rumors about Patriarca’s connection with both Joseph
P. Kennedy and Frank Sinatra. One rumor that is stated more than once in the FBI
files is that Patriarca introduced Sinatra to organized crime figures in New
York. From Sinatra’s history with Willie Moretti, Frank Costello and others it
is clear that this rumor is absurd.
In 1963 Sinatra invested $55,000 in the Berkshire Downs Racetrack in western
Massachusetts. He and Dean Martin were named directors of the track. Rumors
abounded, and were often repeated in the FBI files, that Sinatra was a front for
the real owners of the racetrack: Raymond Patriarca and Gaetano
''Three-finger Brown'' Lucchese. The track went bankrupt in 1965, but
the deal came back to haunt Sinatra years later.
In 1972 the House Select Committee on Crime prepared a subpoena for Sinatra
to question him about the Berkshire Downs Racetrack. A phone call from Sen. John
Tunney of California, for whom Sinatra had raised $160,000 during his
re-election campaign, stopped the subpoena. Tunney informed the committee, after
talking with Mickey Rudin, Sinatra’s lawyer, that Sinatra would be glad to
appear before them if he were invited.
The committee obligingly invited Sinatra to appear on June 4, 1972. Instead
Sinatra flew to England. Incensed the committee prepared a second subpoena and
ordered U.S. marshals to stand by at all ports of entry to issue the subpoena as
soon as Sinatra re-entered the United States. Sinatra called in some favors and
after telephone calls from Vice President Spiro Agnew, a close friend of Sinatra,
the second subpoena was cancelled and a new invitation was issued for July 18.
In addition the committee agreed to limit their questions to the Berkshire Downs
Racetrack.
Sinatra took a belligerent attitude with the committee when he appeared. He
also apparently lied several times. For example:
Q: Tell us about the first contact you had with anyone in relation to
Berkshire Downs?
A: The first and only contact I had was with a man named Sal Rizzo.
Q: How did you know Mr. Rizzo?
A: I met him.
Q: How?
A: I can’t remember where or how, but I met him and we got to talking about
it and I liked his idea for the investment.
Later Charles Carson, the racetrack controller, would testify that Rizzo and
Sinatra were childhood friends. Rizzo had told him that, ''I have known
Sinatra since New Jersey. I was a neighbor of his and I knew the whole
family.''
When Rizzo appeared in front of the committee he took the Fifth Amendment on
34 of the 46 questions he was asked, refusing to say anything about his
relationship with Sinatra, or even if he had lived in New Jersey. Testimony
Rizzo had given to the Florida Beverage Control Commission (FBCC) in 1968 was
read into the record in which Rizzo testified that Sinatra had received money
from Berkshire Downs and that Rizzo had known Sinatra for ''fifteen to
twenty years.''
Commenting on Sinatra and Rizzo’s testimony, the committee counsel said,
''It appears … that Mr. Sinatra’s testimony … was false, or the
testimony of Mr. Rizzo before the [FBCC] was false. In either case one of the
gentleman has committed perjury.''
Raymond Patriarca was brought before the committee from the Atlanta Federal
Penitentiary, where he was serving 10 years for murder conspiracy. Asked if he
knew Sinatra, the boss of New England organized crime said:
A: I never met Sinatra personally. I seen him on television and at the moving
pictures.
Q: Did you ever have any business dealings with him?
A: No, sir.
Q: Did you ever purchase stock from him?
A: No, sir.
Q: Anybody on your behalf do it?
A: I claim my Fifth Amendment privilege.
Q: Do you have any knowledge that anyone associated with you had any business
dealings with Sinatra?
A: I claim my Fifth Amendment privilege.
It may be true that Sinatra never met Patriarca personally, but Mickey Rudin,
Sinatra’s attorney, had earlier acknowledged his client’s friendship with
Gaetano Lucchese, and Patriarca’s testimony left the question of his role in
Berkshire Downs in question.
The committee members, apparently intimidated by Sinatra, virtually
apologized to him before they were through. Representative Charles Rangel, of
New York, who was a beneficiary of Sinatra’s fundraising, told him, ''You’re
still Chairman of the Board.''
Sinatra kept up his attack on the committee after his 95-minute appearance.
Shortly afterward he sent the committee a bill for $18,750 in expenses. It was
never paid, but in July The New York Times published a commentary bearing
Sinatra’s byline wherein Sinatra claimed that the committee had invaded his
privacy in order to gain publicity during an election year. The committee backed
down and no further action in the Berkshire Downs case was taken.
President Nixon, happy over the embarrassment of the
congressional committee,
made a personal phone call of congratulations to Sinatra. This personal contact
from the President, and Sinatra’s friendship with Vice-President Agnew, led to
Sinatra’s support of Nixon’s re-election in 1972.
Sinatra’s changing political parties helped him strengthen his political
influence in the next two decades. It also led to his most blatant illegal
actions in support of his organized-crime friends.
The Pardon of Angelo ''Gyp'' DeCarlo
Angelo ''Gyp'' DeCarlo was a caporegime, or captain, of New
York’s Genovese family. DeCarlo was called ''a methodical gangland
executioner'' in FBI files. This assessment was upheld by the 1970 release
of transcripts of the electronic surveillance of Sam ''The Plumber''
Decavalcante and by the testimony of mob defector Gerald Zelmanowitz.
In September 1968, according to Zelmanowitz’ testimony, Zelmanowitz had
visited DeCarlo’s office only to find Louis Saperstein ''lying on the
floor, purple, bloody, tongue hanging out, spit all over him.'' Saperstein
owed $400,000 to the Genovese family and was having problems paying the $5000
per week interest.
According to Zelmanowitz’ testimony, ''I thought he [Saperstein] was
dead. He was being kicked by Mr. Polverino and Mr. Cecere. He was lifted up off
the floor, placed in a chair, hit again, knocked off the chair, picked up and
hit again.'' DeCarlo ordered his men to stop the beating and told Saperstein
to repay the loan by December 13 or he would ''be dead.''
Saperstein died on November 26, 1968, of what was called ''gastric
upset.'' Before his death he had written to the FBI telling them of the
threats that had been made by DeCarlo. This letter prompted an autopsy that
found a large amount of arsenic in Saperstein’s body.
In March 1970, DeCarlo was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, based
partly on the testimony of Zelmanowitz, and sentenced to 12 years in a federal
penitentiary. According to the FBI file, in 1972 while DeCarlo was incarcerated
in Atlanta, Frankie Valli and ''The Four Seasons'' performed for the
prisoners. DeCarlo asked Valli to get in touch with his [DeCarlo’s] old
friend, Frank Sinatra, and ask him for help.
By this time Sinatra was very close to both President Nixon and
Vice-President Agnew. Nixon, of course, was in need of money for his re-election
campaign. According to the FBI files, Sinatra made a $100,000 cash contribution
to Maurice Stans. Peter Malatesta, a member of Agnew’s staff and a close
friend of Sinatra, contacted John Dean and asked for a presidential pardon for
DeCarlo.
Sinatra made another payment of $50,000 in December 1972, and two days later
DeCarlo was pardoned. The grounds for the pardon were that DeCarlo was
terminally ill, but according to Newsweek and the FBI file, DeCarlo was
soon ''back at his old rackets, boasting that his connections with Sinatra
freed him.'' He died the following year of cancer.
The FBI dismissed the allegations against Sinatra, but Senator Henry Jackson
of Washington, chair of the Senate Permanent Committee on Investigations,
charged that the pardon ''bypassed normal procedures and safeguards.''
Jackson’s investigation led to serious charges against President Nixon, the
U.S. Marshall Service and the IRS, but action was pre-empted by Agnew’s
resignation and the Watergate scandal. No charges were ever brought against
Sinatra.
In the late 1960s Sinatra took on the role of an organized-crime icon. The
top hoodlums of whatever city he appeared in heavily attended his concerts.
Among the people who attended his performances regularly were Santos Traficante
Jr., boss of Florida, Carlos Marcello, boss of New Orleans, Frank Piccolo,
Gambino family capo in Connecticut, Frank Balistieri, boss of Milwaukee,
as well as a host of lesser mobsters.
In 1964, Sinatra’s connections to the mob were so well known to the FBI
that Special Agent Elison, of the Las Vegas division, attempted to develop
Sinatra as an informant. Elison and Sinatra had become friendly during the
investigation into the kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr. FBI director J. Edgar
Hoover and Clyde Tolson discouraged this plan and it was dropped.
Sinatra was often used by the mob for his fame and his connections in
politics and entertainment. Sometimes he was the victim of their schemes and by
the late ‘60s skimming the proceeds from Sinatra performances was a favorite
activity of mobsters. Sinatra, for his part, gained prestige and self-esteem
from his association with mobsters. He also gained a great deal of wealth. He
died May 15, 1998 in Los Angeles of heart attack at age 82. He wasn’t a
''made'' Mafioso, but the Mafia made him.
