The Sinatra Files (39 page)

A confidential source advised in June, 1958, that during the first part of that year when Sinatra was appearing at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, Sinatra was with Samuel M. Giancana, described as a notorious Chicago hoodlum, and accompanied him to the El Rancho Vegas, which is located in Las Vegas.

During a search of Giancana by Customs officers in Chicago,
Illinois, during June, 1958, the notation “Sinatra, Office 5-4977, Home Crestview 4-2368” was found among his effects. Crestview 4-2368 is the private number for Frank Sinatra in Los Angeles, California.

A confidential source advised in August, 1958, that Joseph Fischetti, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin were driven from the Ambassador East Hotel to the residence of Anthony Accardo, referred to as a notorious Chicago hoodlum, in River Forest, Illinois. At the Accardo residence, Martin and Sinatra gave a “command performance” for numerous Chicago hoodlums.

Based on information from a confidential informant that notorious hoodlums Vito Genovese, Thomas Lucchese and Samuel Giancana were at Atlantic City, New Jersey, as guests of Frank Sinatra, investigation was conducted in that city. It was ascertained that the Sinatra party rented the entire first floor of the Claridge Hotel in Atlantic City from July 25, 1959, to August 2, 1959. The presence of Genovese and Lucchese was not ascertainable but a hotel employee identified the photograph of Samuel Giancana as being in the hotel on several occasions as a visitor in connection with the Sinatra party. Notorious Chicago hoodlum Joseph Fischetti was also identified as being with Sinatra at the Claridge Hotel.

In July, 1959, it was reported Sinatra and singer Dean Martin flew to Miami, Florida, from the west coast to attend the wedding of the daughter of Chicago hoodlum Samuel M. Giancana. In November, 1959, an informant advised Giancana had taken over a theatrical booking and managing agency and that Sinatra was among the clientele of this agency.

advised during September, 1959, that in
she went to Frank Sinatra’s suite at the Hotel Fontainebleau, Miami Beach, Florida, in connection with efforts to sell him a painting. She said that among those present in the Sinatra suite was Joseph Fischetti and added that she assumed that it was common knowledge Fischetti and Frank Sinatra were close friends and that Sinatra had the “hoodlum complex.”

advised in January, 1960, that he had known
Mickey Cohen, Los Angeles, California, hoodlum figure, for several years and had met Frank Sinatra through Cohen.

In March, 1960, a confidential source reported that Sinatra’s company had contracted to hire Albert Maltz, one of the “Hollywood Ten,” who was convicted of Contempt of Congress, to write the film script for the movie “The Execution of Private Slovik.”

Files of the Identification Division of the FBI reveal that Frank Albert Sinatra, born December 12, 1915, or December 12, 1916, Hoboken, New Jersey, was arrested by the Sheriff at Hackensack, New Jersey, on November 26, 1938, and charged with seduction. This charge was dismissed on January 24, 1939.

Enclosed is a photograph which includes Sinatra which was found among the effects of James John Warjac, one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, at the time he was apprehended on July 22, 1960, at Los Angeles. The photograph shows Sinatra at a gambling table dealing “blackjack” in the Sands Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada. He is standing between Rudy Duran, a young movie actor, and Shearn Moody, Jr., a wealthy Texan, who are seated.

“He made a donation to the campaign … but was not getting his money’s worth.”

Not surprisingly, Robert Kennedy’s principal initiative as attorney general was a crackdown on mobsters. Building on Hoover’s “Top Hoodlum Program,” the initiative would lead to even more aggressive tactics against Sam Giancana and his Chicago syndicate. That, of course, didn’t sit well with the boss and his associates, who were over-heard on hidden FBI microphones bitterly complaining that Sinatra and the Kennedys had failed to show sufficient gratitude for their campaign support in West Virginia and in Illinois.

The Justice Department’s war on organized crime had one significant unintended consequence—Hoover’s discovery of evidence suggesting that the president was consorting with a lady friend of two of the attorney general’s principal targets.

She was the same woman the New Orleans FBI office had mentioned several weeks after Jack Kennedy had met her in 1960, as re-counted early in
chapter 5
. Frank Sinatra had introduced Jack Kennedy to his former girlfriend, Judith Campbell (later Judith Exner), during a Rat Pack show at the Sands in Las Vegas on February 7, 1960. A while later, Sinatra also introduced Campbell to Giancana. She was also friendly with Johnny Roselli, Giancana’s man in Hollywood and in Las Vegas.

All these players—the two alleged mobsters, the Kennedy broth
ers, Campbell, Sinatra, and Hoover—soon were entangled in increasingly bizarre plot lines. First, Campbell and Kennedy became lovers. Then, the CIA enlisted Giancana and Roselli to assassinate Fidel Castro. By 1962, Hoover had learned something was up between the president and Campbell and made sure the Kennedys knew what he knew.

Ever his brother’s keeper, Robert Kennedy moved to limit the damage.

    
Hoover thought it best to keep his boss apprised of the relationship between the president’s friend Sinatra and Giancana. Hoover sent this memo to RFK two days after a hidden FBI mike picked up some hoodlums discussing how Giancana and Sinatra “almost got into a firstfight” over who was going to buy the drinks one night
.

SUBJECT: SAMUEL M. GIANCANA
ANTI-RACKETEERING

    Information was confidentially received November 23, 1961, concerning the close association between Chicago hoodlum Samuel M. Giancana and entertainers Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett on occasions when Sinatra and Bennett visit Chicago.

During such visits, according to our information, Giancana and his associates, John Mattassa, a former Chicago Police Department Detective, and Dominic “Butch” Blasi, accompany Sinatra and Bennett on their rounds of various night clubs reported to be hangouts and possible enterprises of Giancana. On some past visits, Sinatra and Giancana have held contests to determine who could spend the most money buying drinks and trinkets for the party.

Giancana is one of the individuals selected as a target for early prosecution. Reports containing the results of our inquiries into his activities have been furnished to the Criminal Division.

    
On December 6, 1961, a Giancana underling named Johnny—either Roselli or Johnny Formosa—was overhead in Chicago telling his boss about a talk he’d had recently with Sinatra about trying to get the attorney general to lay off Giancana. (The transcript, obtained from the National Archives, has been edited here for clarity.)

    JOHNNY: I said, “Frankie, can I ask one question?” He says, “Johnny, I took Sam’s [Giancana’s] name and wrote it down and told Bobby Kennedy, ‘This is my buddy. This is my buddy. This is what I want you to know, Bob.’ ” … Between you and I, Frank saw Joe
Kennedy three different times. He called him three times, Joe Kennedy, the father.

GIANCANA: He better make it, because after this administration goes out, he’ll have a headache.

JOHNNY: He says, “Johnny, I have to protect myself.”

GIANCANA: He’ll protect himself.

JOHNNY: I say he’s [Kennedy’s] a one-termer. He [Sinatra] says, “I got to watch myself.” He says he’s got an idea that you’re mad at him. I says that I wouldn’t know. “I must ask you this question,” I said.

GIANCANA: He must have a guilty conscience. I never said nothing…. If he [President Kennedy] starts campaigning, I’m not giving him one penny…. That [expletive] better not think of taking this [expletive] state.

GIANCANA: Well, I don’t know who the [expletive] he’s [Sinatra’s] talking to, but … after all, if I’m taking somebody’s money, I’m gonna make sure that this money is going to do something. Like, “Do you want it or don’t you want it?” If the money is accepted, maybe one of these days, the guy will do me a favor.

JOHNNY: That’s right. He says he wrote your name down.

GIANCANA: Well, one minute he tells me this and then he tells me that. And then the last time I talked to him was at the hotel in Florida, a month before he left, and he said, “Don’t worry about it, if I can’t talk to the old man [Joe Kennedy], I’m going to talk to
the
man [President Kennedy].” One minute he says he talked to Robert, and the next minute he says he hasn’t talked to him. So he never did talk to him. It’s a lot of [expletive]. Either he did or he didn’t. Forget about it. Why lie to me? I haven’t got that coming.