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Papers > People > Frank Sinatra and the Mafia
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Frank Sinatra and the Mafia |
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Frank Sinatra and the Mafia ;On February 10, 1961, FBI Director J. ... Kennedy, regarding singer Frank Sinatra’s extensive connections to organized crime figures. ... Information had always been Hoover’s best weapon, and in Sinatra’s case the director had stockpiled plenty of ammunition. ... In fact, Sinatra had been an avid supporter of John F. ... In the memo Hoover gave a précis of Sinatra’s alleged criminal background prior to his Mafia involvement. Hoover wrote that in 1944, according to “an anonymous complaint,” Sinatra had paid $40,000 to get out of the draft. The FBI director went on to point out that Sinatra had “reportedly been associated with or lent his name to sixteen organizations which have been cited or described as communist fronts” even though the bureau’s investigation never uncovered sufficient evidence to prove that Sinatra was ever a Communist Party member himself. Hoover then ticked off Sinatra’s criminal associates, including Joseph and Rocco Fischetti, who were cousins of Al Capone; New Jersey crime boss Willie Moretti; James Tarantino who was himself an associate of gangster Bugsy Siegel; Mickey Cohen of Los Angeles; and reigning Chicago boss Sam Giancana. According to Hoover, when Giancana had been arrested in 1958, the police found Sinatra’s private telephone number in Giancana’s wallet. Hoover described a command performance by Sinatra and singer Dean Martin at the home of “notorious Chicago hoodlum” Anthony “Joe Batters” Accardo. According to Hoover, in the summer of 1959, Sinatra allegedly hosted a nine-day, round-the-clock party at the Claridge Hotel in Atlantic City where Chicago wiseguys rubbed elbows with top East Coast mobsters, including Vito Genovese and Tommy Lucchese. Hoover even quoted a female informant who had met Sinatra and Joe Fischetti at the Hotel Fontainebleau in Miami and believed that the singer had “’a hoodlum complex.’” ;Charges like these plagued Frank Sinatra throughout his life, and he repeatedly and vehemently denied having any formal association with the Mafia. ... Even if Sinatra wasn’t a criminal himself, he certainly knew plenty of criminals and considered many of them good friends. Despite his denials, year after year, evidence piled up indicating that Sinatra enjoyed a very special relationship with the Mafia. When police in Naples, Italy, searched Lucky Luciano’s home several years after the Havana getaway, they found a gold cigarette case with the inscription, “To my dear pal Lucky, from his friend, Frank Sinatra.” Chicago boss Sam Giancana was known to wear a star-sapphire pinkie ring that was a gift from Sinatra. The press had published damning photographs of Sinatra posing with known Mafia members. In conversations secretly taped by the government, gangsters mentioned Sinatra’s name frequently, and not only with regard to his singing and acting talents. ... ” But the record shows that Sinatra’s relationships with known mob figures were often more than just casual meetings with fans. He performed in clubs and theaters controlled by the Mafia. ... He apparently valued their company as much as they valued his, and if he publicly chafed at being tarred with the Mafia brush, he often used his gangland veneer to instill fear and respect on his late-night romps in the “wee small hours of the morning.” ;But what exactly was Frank Sinatra’s relationship with the Mafia? ... Was Sinatra a Mafia groupie, taken in by the aura of power and invincibility, intoxicated by the association? ... ;Like the fictional character Johnny Fontane in Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, young Frank Sinatra found a paternalistic Mafia godfather in New Jersey gangster Willie Moretti, a. ... Besides contract murders, extortion schemes and illegal gambling, Moretti was heavily involved with narcotics trafficking, and he often worked in cooperation with New York mobsters Lucky Luciano, Joe Adonis and Moretti’s childhood pal, Frank Costello. ... Moretti had heard the young crooner from Hoboken, and he was impressed with Sinatra’s talent. Sinatra had already appeared on the popular NBC radio show Major Bowes and His Original Amateur Hour with a singing group called the Hoboken Four in 1935, but now he was trying to make it as a solo singer. ... Sinatra soon became a regular at the Rustic Cabin in nearly Englewood Cliffs where a local radio station broadcast his live performances. ;Sinatra’s popularity grew, and in 1939 he signed on with trumpeter Harry James to front his big band. Sinatra was unique in his ability to “talk” a lyric and make listeners feel as if he were speaking directly to them. ... Nationally known band leader, Tommy Dorsey, who was admired for the mellow tones of his trombone, saw Sinatra’s remarkable drawing power and asked the young man if he’d like to join his band as a featured singer. It was an offer Sinatra couldn’t refuse, and James graciously let Sinatra out of his contract so that he could have his shot at the big time. Just twenty-four years old, Sinatra was giddy with his newfound success, which is why he agreed to the onerous terms of Dorsey’s contract. To join the Dorsey band, Sinatra would have to pay Dorsey one-third of his earnings for life and an additional 10 percent to Dorsey’s agent. By the terms of the contract, 43 percent of Frank Sinatra would belong to Tommy Dorsey and his agent forever. Sinatra had several smash hit records in the early ‘40s, including “All or Nothing At All” (which he had recorded with the Harry James Band) and “I’ll Never Smile Again. ... Sinatra’s popularity seemed to have no limits, and he soon came to resent his contract. Naturally Sinatra wanted to be his own gold mine, not Tommy Dorsey’s. In 1943, Sinatra’s representatives tried to get him out of the contract, offering Dorsey $60,000 to rip it up. ... By some accounts, hard negotiation eventually convinced the bandleader to take the offer, but other accounts say that Sinatra’s godfather, Willie Moretti, convinced Dorsey to see the light. Sinatra himself consistently denied that Moretti had anything to do with it, but Moretti bragged in private that he and a few associates paid an unannounced visit to Dorsey in Los Angeles. Moretti allegedly jammed the barrel of a gun into the trombonist’s mouth and got him to release Sinatra from his obligations in exchange for one dollar. In 1951 Dorsey talked about the incident to a reporter from American Mercury magazine, describing his meeting with three men who, according to Sinatra biographer J. ... ’” It should be noted that the widely held belief that Sinatra’s godfather leaned on Harry Cohn, the head of Columbia Pictures, to force him to cast Sinatra in the wartime drama From Here to Eternity is untrue. ... In reality, Sinatra lobbied hard to earn the role. ... Sinatra fit the bill perfectly. ... It was Sinatra’s 29-inch waistline and his natural acting talent rather than mob strong-arm tactics that landed him the role for which he earned an Academy Award in 1954. ;Moretti kept an eye out for Sinatra through the 1940s and on at least one occasion scolded the singer for stepping out of bounds in his family life. When Sinatra fell head-over-heels in love with sultry actress Ava Gardner, it was widely rumored in the press that he would soon be leaving his first wife Nancy to marry Gardner. When Moretti got wind of it, he shot off a telegram to Sinatra: “I AM VERY MUCH SURPRISED WHAT I HAVE BEEN READING IN THE NEWSPAPERS BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR DARLING WIFE. ... Some wanted him rubbed out, but his old friend Frank Costello arranged to have him moved to a secluded spot on the West Coast where his ramblings presumably wouldn’t do any harm. ... “I opened the envelope and saw a picture of Sinatra with his arm around Lucky Luciano on the balcony of the Hotel Nacional in Havana. |
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