The Sinatra Files (47 page)

    
furnished information in
which reflected that SAM GIANCANA immediately upon cessation of FBI surveillance eluded a surveillance placed by the Cook County Sheriff’s Department and proceeded on two separate occasions in July of 1963, to Lake Tahoe, California area where he met with PHYLLIS MC GUIRE, and reportedly stayed at the Cal-Neva Lodge, of which FRANK SINATRA is a part-owner.

advised that during GIANCANA’s stay at the Cal-Neva Lodge, an incident occurred on one evening whereby GIANCANA became involved in a brawl with one VICTOR
COLLINS, who was at that time the road manager of the MC GUIRE sisters.

As word of GIANCANA’s appearance in Lake Tahoe spread, it came to the attention of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, who began an investigation based on the Board’s regulations, to the effect that persons whose names were contained in the “Nevada Black Book” were not allowed access to the gambling facilities in Nevada. According to the Nevada Gaming Control Board rules, if owners of gambling establishments in that state failed to accede to these regulations, they are liable to lose their gambling license.

During a subsequent investigation by the Gambling Control Board, it was determined that GIANCANA had in fact been at the Cal-Neva Lodge in the company of PHYLLIS MC GUIRE and upon further investigation by the Gaming Control Board Investigators, it was brought out that persons employed at the Cal-Neva Lodge attempted to bribe investigators of this organization. According to newspaper releases on the situation, EDWARD OLSON, Chairman of the Gaming Control Board, advised that SINATRA had used highly insulting language upon OLSON in connection with these hearings.

The Gaming Control Board gave SINATRA and his attorney, HARRY CLAIBORNE until October 7 in which to present evidence in refutation of the charges made.

On October 7, 1963, CLAIBORNE made a press release to the effect that SINATRA was divesting himself of all of his gambling interests in Nevada. The release continued that SINATRA claimed that he had several months previously instructed his attorney to dispose of these interests inasmuch as he intended to take control of the Warner Brothers Studio in Hollywood, California.

SINATRA failed to file any answer to the complaint filed by the Gaming Control Board. In that no answer was filed by midnight of October 7, the Nevada Gaming Commission automatically revoked SINATRA’s license at the Cal-Neva Lodge.

    
Another FBI memo picks up the story and provides a glimpse at the reaction of Giancana’s hometown newspaper
.

    
Information was received in October, 1963, from the Las Vegas Division that SINATRA had agreed to sell his interest in the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada to Sands, Inc. The arrangement was that SINATRA would resell his nine points at an agreed price of $43,500 per point. In this regard it is pointed out that information was received that SINATRA, when originally purchasing these points, had paid an estimated $5,000 per point. At this same time, it was learned that SINATRA was selling his interest in the Cal-Neva Lodge located at Lake Tahoe, Nevada. As noted previously, these sales were the direct result of an investigation conducted into SINATRA’s association with SAM GIANCANA. In this regard the following editorial concerning GIANCANA’s and SINATRA’s relationship appeared in the “Chicago Tribune” of October 24, 1963:

“THAT OLD GANG OF MINE”

“The narrow-minded, sanctimonious, and bigoted state Gaming commission of Nevada has dealt a cruel and unjust blow to Frank Sinatra, the warbler, by stripping him of his licenses to operate so-called games of chance for the visiting rubes. Frankie Boy has been held a peril to the high ethics of Nevada gambling because he provided a royal welcome at one of his joints to Momo Giancana, a Chicago gangster, who has a high rating in the hoodlum Cosa Nostra bluebook.

“Giancana was a guest at Sinatra’s Lake Tahoe lodge, and his mere presence was deemed, under the bluenose standards prevailing in Nevada, to be a contamination of all that is pure and virtuous in the gambling racket. So now the revered Leader of the Hollywood Rat Pack will have to divest himself of a 3½ million dollar interest in sucker traps at Tahoe and Las Vegas.

“Well, this is an hour when true friends will close ranks around Sinatra in his time of trouble, while phonies and fair weather fakers will suddenly remember they have dates elsewhere.

“Frankie has stood by Momo. Will Momo stand by Frankie? And will the Pack come running with the crying towel? When
the roll is called out yonder, will Sammy Davis be there? Will Peter Lawford, the brother-in-law of President John F. Kennedy, rally round the Leader? How about Dean Martin, another member of The Clan? Anybody seen him? Will Frankie Boy’s Hollywood tailor, Don Loper, who outfitted him for the J.F.K. inauguration, turn up to renew his fealty or will he retire to the cutting room with a mouthful of pins?

“Yea, these are the times when the sheep are separated from the goats, and the trueblue Rat Packers from the finks.

“We put it flatly: Will Frankie’s principal patron stand up and be counted? We refer, of course, to J.F.K., who has been entertained by the disbarred gambler at Las Vegas and who permitted Frankie and Pack to take over provision of the entertainment at the Kennedy inauguration ball in Washington. There, in Mr. Loper’s finery, Frankie cut such a resplendent figure that Joe E. Lewis wired, ‘May I have the first dance?’

“The least we should expect of Mr. Kennedy is to rush word by ZIP code that, tho they may have padlocked Frankie’s Nevada joints, the latchstring at the White House is out. Perhaps, by way of compensation, Frankie could be awarded the gaming concession at the state department, with a bank of one-armed bandits, dice tables, wheels, and fare boxes, the whole to be known, in memory of Nevada days, as ‘The New Frontier,’ which we find infinitely more tasteful than, say, ‘The Last Chance Saloon.’

“Bobby Baker, the get-rich-quick operator, has little to occupy him since his resignation as secretary of the Democratic Senate majority because of a flyer in vending machines. He might be made an honorary member of the Rat Pack and allowed to team up with Frankie long enough to restore the Sinatra fortunes.”

    
One of RFK’s top mob prosecutors, Dougald D. MacMillan, arrived in Los Angeles in 1963 to mount the feds’ most serious effort to nail Sinatra. He had a high-profile plan to interview well-known celebrities close to Sinatra
,
but it struck other law enforcement types as ill-considered. Hoover was told of their doubts in a memo
.

SUBJECT: FRANK SINATRA AR
[Anti-Racketeering]

    On 8/27/63, Departmental Attorney DOUGALD MACMILLAN, Organized Crime Section, arrived in Los Angeles and immediately contacted THOMAS R. SHERIDAN, Chief, Criminal Division, U. S. Attorney’s Office at Los Angeles. Mr. SHERIDAN said MACMILLAN was here to discuss data which the Department has available on FRANK SINATRA and a number of his associates. SHERIDAN requested Bureau Agents to be present.

On 8/28/63 Mr. MACMILLAN advised that he, over a long period of time, has been building up a file from excerpts taken from reports of the FBI and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and other agencies concerning SINATRA. He advised that it appears there is some connection existing between the Fontainebleau Hotel, JOSEPH FISCHETTI and SINATRA and The Villa Venice, SAM GIANCANA and SINATRA and the purpose of his inquiry in this area was to solicit suggestions and organize a starting point in the possible interviewing of persons close to SINATRA. Such persons include DEAN MARTIN, SAMMY DAVIS, JR., DINAH SHORE and EDDIE FISHER and also the interviewing of RED SKELTON in connection with moneys that SKELTON allegedly lost while flying in a commercial aircraft last year
Las Vegas.

Mr. MACMILLAN said he did not have authority to conduct any interviews directly with SINATRA or with persons directly connected with SINATRA in any of SINATRA’s enterprises, such as SINATRA’s attorney, accountants, or immediate staff. He did say he had authority to interview the others mentioned in the preceding paragraph.

Mr. SHERIDAN advised MACMILLAN that the proper starting
point for this type of investigation would be to secure all documentary evidence such as the contracts existing between SINATRA and others who appeared at the Fontainebleau Hotel, allegedly at the request of JOE FISCHETTI. The purpose of securing the documents would be that the person interviewing any of those named above would be in a position to intelligently discuss specific instances without being referred to booking agents, managers or attorneys.

Mr. MACMILLAN also observed that he was sure that in compiling his file he had missed many references concerning SINATRA and was considering the possibility of making inquiry of the Bureau of Washington, D.C., for a complete run down on SINATRA. No commitments were made by Bureau representatives present.

For a portion of the time, representatives of IRS were present and Mr. MACMILLAN repeated essentially the same material that appears above. ROBERT LUND, Chief of the Intelligence Division of IRS, told MACMILLAN that as far as he knew, IRS was not conducting any investigation of SINATRA other than the usual audit of returns of persons in high revenue brackets.