The Sinatra Files (49 page)

In July, 1959, she attended a party given by FRANK SINATRA in Atlantic City, New Jersey, at the Claridge Hotel. SINATRA at that time was appearing at the 500 Club as the featured entertainer. The party referred to lasted approximately two weeks and normally started at about 8:00 PM and lasted until about 4:00 or 5:00 AM the following morning.
She mentioned other persons in attendance at this affair, in addition to the ones mentioned above, as actress NATALIE WOOD, actor ROBERT WAGNER, then the husband of NATALIE WOOD, ROCCO FISCHETTI, his brother, JOSEPH FISCHETTI, JOHN FOREMAN (true name JOHN FORMOSA) and PAUL “SKINNY” D’AMATO.

Also in connection with this matter, the Newark Division in October, 1959, by airtel dated 10/28/59, TOP HOODLUM PROGRAM, Chicago Division, AR., advised that
at the Claridge Hotel, had been assigned to the SINATRA party from 7/25-8/2/59 and had identified the photograph of SAM GIANCANA as closely resembling an individual visiting the SINATRA party on two or three occasions.

    
But in the end, Sinatra was let off the hook, according to this Novembe
4, 1963, memo
.

TO: Director, FBI
FROM: SAC, Los Angeles

RE: FRANCIS ALBERT SINATRA,
aka. ANTI-RACKETEERING

    Re Los Angeles airtel to Bureau dated 10/7/63 and Bureau airtel to Los Angeles dated 10/10/63.

The material relating to the possible violation of Title 18, Section 1001 was brought to the attention of Special Assistant to the Attorney General, THOMAS R. SHERIDAN at Los Angeles on 10/29/63 and Mr. SHERIDAN advised that in his opinion this was an apparent, though a minor violation of Title 18, Section 1001, and of itself, in his opinion, was not sufficient to warrant a prosecutive effort. He added that this, of course, could be added to other charges of a more substantial nature if and when such charges were ever developed in the future.

He advised that this matter is now known to DOUGALD MAC MILLAN of the Department and he concurs in this opinion.

    
Two and half weeks later, on November 22, 1963, the president was assassinated. Sinatra was told the news while filming a scene for
Robin and the Seven Hoods
in a Burbank cemetery, according to Nancy Sinatra’s biography. After a brief talk with a White House staffer, he told the crew, “Let’s shoot this thing, ’cause I don’t want to come back here anymore.” Roselli, meanwhile, went to Judith Campbell’s hotel room in Los Angeles to console her in the aftermath of the murder of her former lover
.

Ever since Jack Kennedy’s murder, there have been suspicions that the mob was behind the crime. Though no one has ever come close to substantiating such conjecture, some of the coincidences are extraordinary, as demonstrated by these excerpts from the FBI’s files on what the Warren Commission had to say about Sinatra. (Reprise Records was Sinatra’s record company, which employed Mike Shore.)

Volume 14 of The Report Of The President’s Commission On The Assassination of President Kennedy, contains the following information concerning Frank Sinatra:

On 4/14/64, Robert Carl Patterson, a musician and singer of Dallas, Texas, testified in the office of the US Attorney, Dallas, that in approximately November (year not stated) Jack Ruby was interested in promoting a “rock ‘n roll” record for Patterson. Ruby told Patterson that he had connections with Reprise, with which Sinatra had something to do, and that the record could be promoted by Reprise.

On 5/28/64, Mrs. Eva Grant, sister of Ruby, also testified before the US Attorney in Dallas, concerning the selection of attorneys to defend Ruby. She stated that her brother Earl Ruby made a trip (date not stated) to the West Coast to see Mike Shore (not identified), who knew Sinatra there, and “they” figured they would know somebody and that was how Melvin Belli came into the picture as a defense lawyer for Ruby.

This reference indicated that Ruby killed Lee Harvey Oswald, who allegedly killed President Kennedy.

    
There certainly is ample evidence in the files that the mob did bear a grudge against the Kennedy family
.

    
advised he had heard that LCN [La Cosa Nostra] members had allegedly planned to attack the characters of U.S. Senators Edward and Robert Kennedy, as well as their brother-in-law, Peter Lawford. This was to be accomplished through associates of Frank Sinatra, who were to get the victims in compromising situations with women.

    
In 1975, Giancana and Roselli both met violent deaths themselves, in the midst of the Senate investigation of the CIA plot to kill Castro. Giancana got a .22-caliber bullet in the back of the head while cooking up a midnight snack of sausages in June, just before he was to testify. In July, just after he testified, Roselli wound up asphyxiated in a 55-gallon drum floating off the coast of Key Biscayne, Florida
.

“Don’t go overboard in praise.”

Politically, Frank Sinatra changed with his times, but what didn’t change was his desire to be close to people in power. Early on, he was a prominent supporter of left-leaning causes. He sipped tea in the White House with FDR and named his son after the president—Franklin—rather than Francis, his own given name.

In the 1950s and early ’60s, when Sinatra and Hugh Hefner were the defining American male ideals of sophisticated virility, the swinging singer had cultivated a kinship with the suave Jack Kennedy. Later Sinatra campaigned for Hubert Humphrey, shunning the slain president’s brother Robert, whose anti-mob crusade had targeted Giancana and other Sinatra associates. But once the Republican Richard M. Nixon won the White House, Sinatra drew close to Vice President Spiro Agnew and supported the Republican ticket’s reelection.

Sinatra’s rightward shift reflected the political climate of the times and the increasingly conservative views of some other Hollywood Democrats who switched to the GOP, notably Ronald Reagan. Not surprisingly, Sinatra stumped for Reagan’s reelection as California’s governor in 1970. In 1981, the transformation was completed when Sinatra produced the gala for Reagan’s presidential inauguration.

But the mellowed entertainer had little opportunity to come to terms with the ultraconservative Hoover, who died in 1972. In any case, the FBI was still watching—and warning each successive politician who befriended Sinatra that he was trouble.

    
After President Kennedy’s death, the Johnson White House requested the lowdown on a number of celebrities, including Sinatra. Hoover’s reply was sent to President Lyndon B. Johnson’s assistant, Bill Moyers (who would later become a noted broadcast journalist). The reason for the request isn’t clear, for Sinatra wasn’t all that close to Johnson and didn’t become friendly with Vice President Hubert Humphrey until later
.

THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON

November 16, 1964

Memo to Mildred Stegall
From Barbara Keehn

    At Mrs. Carpenter’s request—I would like to have FBI reports on the following entertainers—as quickly as possible.

    Carol Channing (Mrs. Charles Lowe)—NYC

Frank Sinatra—9229 Sunset Boulevard, L.A., Calif.

Lena Horne—NYC

Debbie Reynolds—Beverly Hills, Calif.

Carol Burnett—NYC

Dame Margot Fonteyn

Rudolf Nureyev

Peter Gennaro—NYC

Danny Kaye—1103 San Ysidro, Beverly Hills, Calif.

Mike Nichols

Elaine May

November 20, 1964               

BY SPECIAL MESSENGER

Honorable Bill D. Moyers
Special Assistant to the President
The White House
Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. Moyers:

    Reference is made to the memorandum dated November 16, 1964, from Mrs. Barbara Keehn to Mrs. Mildred Stegall requesting name checks concerning Carol Channing and ten other individuals who were described as entertainers.

The FBI has not investigated the following individuals and our files contain no derogatory information identifiable with them.

There are enclosed two memoranda setting forth information concerning Frank Sinatra and Dame Margot Fonteyn.

With reference to Lena Horne, our files reveal that a summary of information available concerning Lena Horne was furnished the Honorable P. Kenneth O’Donnell by letter dated January 5, 1962. In addition to the information contained in that summary, our files reveal that the “Los Angeles Times” for November 1, 1963, contained an article which indicated that the radio stations in Los Angeles, California, banned the playing of a recording sung by Lena Horne entitled “Now,” describing it as containing a “biting, angry integration message.” The article further described the record as voicing a “strong racial freedom message” and the lyrics called for action now strengthening, according to the newspaper, the racial unrest in the United States.

We have not investigated Rudolf Nureyev; however, our files reveal that he has been publicly identified as a Soviet ballet artist who defected from the Leningrad Ballet in Paris, France, in June,
1961. Representatives of this Bureau have interviewed Mr. Nureyev and he has furnished limited information to the FBI. He was contacted by a Russian intelligence service shortly after his defection, but he stated he refused to cooperate with them. Since his defection he has danced with the British Royal Ballet in the United States and elsewhere.

Our files reveal that summaries of information in our files concerning Danny Kaye have been furnished the White House on January 12, 1962, May 10, 1962, and October 19, 1964. We have no additional information identifiable with Danny Kaye.

Sincerely yours,

    J. Edgar Hoover

    
Hoover enclosed a summary report on Sinatra. It included the usual stuff about the draft and Communists, as well as some more recent information about his alleged association with mobsters
.

November 20, 1964

FRANK SINATRA