The Sinatra Files (48 page)

It would appear that Mr. MACMILLAN, at the present time, does not have any organized plan of approach nor is he quite certain as to the goal he is attempting to achieve with the information which he has accumulated.

    
Days later, somebody scrawled on a related FBI memo, “MacMillan is a boy on a man’s errand.” On September 4, 1963, Hoover undercut MacMillan with a memo to the special agent in charge of Los Angeles, and MacMillan went home to formulate a “more productive” plan
.

TO: SAC, Los Angeles
FROM: Director, FBI

SUBJECT: FRANK SINATRA AR
[Anti-Racketeering]

    Los Angeles should take no action whatever which could be interpreted as investigation of Frank Sinatra. Any requests for investigation should be brought immediately to the Bureau’s attention and no action taken in the absence of specific authorization from the Bureau.

Keep the Bureau closely advised of any information coming to your attention relating to any inquiry being conducted concerning Sinatra.

    Re Los Angeles airtel dated 8/28/63 and Bureau airtel dated 9/4/63.

For the information of the Bureau, it was ascertained on a confidential basis from THOMAS R. SHERIDAN, Chief, Criminal Division, United States Attorney’s Office, Los Angeles, California, that DOUGALD MAC MILLAN, Departmental Attorney, who was in the Los Angeles area regarding certain aspects of FRANK SINATRA, has now returned to the Department of Justice following the Labor Day Weekend.

According to SHERIDAN, MAC MILLAN, who originally had come to Los Angeles with an idea of interviewing certain prominent personalities, did not conduct any interviews and has returned to the Washington area to further study the material he has on hand in order to formulate some plan of action that might be more productive than the one that he originally proposed, that is interviewing persons such as DEAN MARTIN, SAMMY DAVIS,
Jr., DINAH SHORE, and EDDIE FISHER regarding the association of FRANK SINATRA with persons such as SAMUEL M. GIANCANA and JOSEPH FISCHETTI.

The Bureau will be kept advised of any information coming to the attention of this division regarding Mr. MAC MILLAN.

    
After MacMillan backed off, a further review by FBI agents of the old Sinatra files he had compiled turned up the possibly false statement that Sinatra had made in his interview with the IRS in 1959 (see
chapter 4
). In the memos excerpted below, the authorities considered whether to prosecute and detailed the evidence, the most significant of which was the recollections of a dancer and another witness who apparently had seen Giancana at the party in question
.

SUBJECT: FRANK SINATRA
ANTI-RACKETEERING

    Based on information which we have supplied the Department concerning Sinatra’s connection with the underworld, the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of the Department assigned Departmental Attorney Dougald D. MacMillan to review all available information on Sinatra to determine whether prosecution could be initiated against Sinatra.

MacMillan has been in contact with Thomas R. Sheridan, Chief of the Criminal Division, United States Attorney’s Office, Los Angeles, and also a special assistant to the Attorney General. MacMillan left his file on Sinatra with Sheridan in which he had apparently compiled all available data on Sinatra from FBI, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and Federal Bureau of Narcotics reports. Sheridan, on an extremely confidential basis, made this file available to our Los Angeles Office for reviewing, indicating that he did not desire that the Department or MacMillan become aware of this.

In reviewing this file, Los Angeles noted a possible Fraud Against
the Government violation in connection with apparently false statements made by Sinatra in an affidavit given to IRS, Los Angeles, in 1959. In this statement Sinatra denied the presence of Sam Giancana at a party in the Claridge Hotel, Atlantic City, New Jersey, in July, 1959. However, in our investigation of Sam Giancana we interviewed a professional dancer who advised that she was present at this party
She also identified several other hoodlums in attendance including Rocco and Joseph Fischetti.

RECOMMENDATION OF SAC, LOS ANGELES

SAC, Los Angeles recommends that this possible violation be brought to the attention of Mr. Sheridan and his opinion as to prosecution secured. SAC, Los Angeles points out if investigation is warranted a grand jury could possibly be convened at Los Angeles and Giancana, Joseph Fischetti and other personalities present at the 1959 meeting could be brought before the grand jury.

ACTION

Los Angeles is being authorized to bring this possible violation to the attention of the United States Attorney’s Office at Los Angeles but to point out that any request for investigation should be channeled through the Department.

To substantiate the information of the violation are the following excerpts from FBI reports:

Pages 89-90 of September 12, 1960, FBI report entitled “Samuel M. Giancana” prepared by SA [Special Agent]
reflected that
advised on September 16, 1959 that he had recently been to the Claridge Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in order to see Frank Sinatra and was told SINATRA had reserved the entire first floor of the hotel. The informant stated when they got off the elevator on the first floor they were approached by
two “tough looking men” and asked for identification and purpose of their visit. The informant stated one individual in SINATRA’s suite at this hotel was identified to him as JOSEPH FISCHETTI, described as the “well known hoodlum from Miami.”

Of July 13, 1962, FBI report entitled “Samuel M. Giancana” prepared by SA [Special Agent]
Chicago Office, reported that
She stated that at the age of approximately eighteen she became employed as a professional dancer, appearing in chorus lines at various hotels, night clubs and casinos around the country.
she became acquainted with FRANK SINATRA during approximately 1958. During this period she traveled throughout the country and worked for some time at the Tropicana and Riviera Hotels in Las Vegas.