253–54 “special guest”/“thrilled”/“on perfect behavior”/“What he”: Jacobs and Stadiem, 103, 3, 105. Sinatra’s lover Peggy Connelly, however, recalled that at one point Sinatra was avoiding Giancana’s phone calls. The explanation may lie in the fact that, as she also recalled, the mobster was pestering Sinatra’s secretary with unwelcome advances. Sinatra was helping fend him off (ints. Peggy Connelly); (El Rancho) “Frank Sinatra,” Feb. 10, 1961, FSFBI; (Giancana & Some Came Running) Las Vegas Review-Journal, Dec. 14, 1995, int. John Smith—the man who cooked was Joe Pignatello; (MacLaine incident) int. Shirley MacLaine, MacLaine, Lucky Stars, 62–, 69; (“command performance”) “Correlation Summary,” Jun. 8, 1964, and “Frank Sinatra,” Feb. 10, 1961, FSFBI, “Joseph Fischetti,” Sep. 27, 1960, FBI 92-3024-23; (Armory Lounge) “Samuel M. Giancana,” May 5, 1961, FBI 92-636-3, “Samuel M. Giancana,” Apr. 12, 1961, FBI 92-3171-185.
254 FS at wedding: Scatterday to Belmont, Mar. 30, 1960, FSFBI, AP, Aug. 31, 1963. An FBI report and a news clipping refer to Sinatra having been a guest at the wedding. Bonnie Giancana’s sister Antoinette has said he was invited but did not attend. She cannot be relied on as a source on this, however, since she herself was not present (Giancana and Renner, 194–).
254 “private party”: SAC Los Angeles to Director, Apr. 24, 1963, FBI 92-6667-1, Evans to Belmont, Apr. 17, 1964, FSFBI, “Samuel M. Giancana,” Sep. 12, 1960, FBI 92-3171-72. In a sworn affidavit, Sinatra later denied Giancana had been present. FBI agents did not believe him, to the extent that they considered prosecuting him for fraud (Evans to Belmont, Oct. 9, 1963, FBI 92-6667-7).
254–55 Giancana and Davis: Davis, Boyar, and Boyar, Why Me, 87, 100; (WorldwideActors) “Title: Samuel M. Giancana,” May 5, 1961, FBI 62-636-3; (distracted)William Roemer, Roemer: Man Against the Mob, New York: Donald Fine, 1989, 189, Roemer, Accardo, 189, Brashler, 146–; (“in heat”) Brashler, 147, Giancana and Renner, 246; (FS/Giancana & women) “Title: Samuel M. Giancana,” May 5, 1961, FBI 92-636-3, Brashler, 148; (Keely Smith & FS) int. Keely Smith by Jim Raposa, supplied to authors, Giancana and Renner, 232; (Smith and Giancana) Brashler, 149, “Samuel M. Giancana,” Jan. 28, 1964, FBI 92-3171-1322, and “Title: Samuel M. Giancana,” May 5, 1961, FBI 92-636-3; (cigar supply)M/G int. of Nick Sevano; (ring) int. and corr. Toni Shimon, “Taped Int. of Joe Shimon,” Jul. 26, 1977, Rec. No. 180-10095-10496, HSCA, JFK; (print of Eternity/“skinny little”) Penthouse, Mar. 1984; (“to further his own”) Giancana and Renner, 92; (“They’re all rats”) Penthouse, Mar. 1984.
Chapter 24: The Candidate and the Courtesan
254–56 FS and politics/JFK: (first met/“if it meant”) (LA) Mirror, Dec. 1, 1960, Shaw, Entertainer, 45. The 1955 dating is by Sinatra’s own account, but he and Kennedy may have met even earlier. According to Sinatra’s daughter Nancy, they met soon after Kennedy’s marriage in late 1953, while Tina Sinatra said they met through Lawford. Taken together, the daughters’ statements would date the first encounter as occurring before mid-1954, when the Sinatra-Lawford friendship was interrupted by the rift between the two men (Sinatra, My Father, 132, Sinatra with Coplon, 71); (registered Democrat) Tina Sinatra int. for Larry King Live, CNN, 1993, int. Larry King, Sinatra, My Father, 219; (campaigned FDR, Truman,Stevenson) Look, May 14, 1957, Human Events, May 4, 1963, Sinatra with Coplon, 71; (sang 1956) (NY) Daily Mirror, Aug. 6, Variety, Jul. 23, 1956; Jon Wiener, Professors, Politics and Pop, New York: Verso, 1991, 265–; (“the real hero”) Parmet, 382; (“enthusing”) Sinatra, My Father, 133; (Mayflower) Robert Parker with Richard Rashke, Capitol Hill in Black and White, New York: Dodd, Mead, 1986, 84–, Christopher Andersen, Jack and Jackie, New York: Morrow, 1996, 156; (JFK Palm Springs/“Does Shirley . . .”) Jacobs and Stadiem, 135–; (loved gossip) Kenneth O’Donnell and David Powers with Joe McCarthy, “Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye,” Boston: Little, Brown, 1972, 18; (“I know that”) Bragg, 310; (publicity) Parmet, 437–, Whalen, 446; (“Senator Kennedy”) Dwiggins, 142; (“It was a mutual”) Freedland, All the Way, 271.
257 Joe Kennedy effort for JFK: (visit FS) Jacobs and Stadiem, 117–, 128; (“We’re going to sell”) Whalen, 446; (magazines/limitless money) Parmet, 482–, 435, 441; (“I have just”) ibid., 439; (map) Whalen, 447; (“who the bosses”) Ronald Kessler, The Sins of the Father, New York: Warner, 1996, 374.
258 Joe sent intermediary/“Joe Kennedy had been”: In his 1999 book, Bill Bonanno named the Kennedy intermediary as “ ‘Skip’ O’Brien.” The authors have not been able to identify a Kennedy aide of that name (Bill Bonanno, 82, int. Bill Bonanno).
259 Joe Kennedy and mob: (attempts on Luciano) Gosch and Hammer, 387, 392–; (met in Sicily) Umberto Santino, Storia del movimento antimafia, Rome: Editori Riuniti, 2000, 205, Umberto Santino and Giovanni La Fiura, Behind Drugs, Turin, Italy: Edizioni Grouppo Abele, 1993, 140–, and see Bonanno with Lalli, 198–, Douglas Valentine, The Strength of the Wolf, New York: Verso, 2004, 165; (“I was instructed”) Bill Bonanno, 82–, int. Bill Bonanno; (both on Mafia Commission) Brashler, 187; (heart attack) Bonanno with Lalli, 222; (did not get along) ibid., 250, Brashler, 277.
258 “Joe came to me early”/“Back in ’59”: Anthony Summers interviewed Phil Regan in 1991, and he died in 1996. The authors did not interview Alo until 1997, and thus had no opportunity to ask Regan about the alleged meeting with Joe Kennedy. Alo was also interviewed in 1997 by Gus Russo for his book on the Chicago mob, The Outfit. We have here combined what Alo said about the Phil Regan approach in the two interviews. Brooklyn-born Regan was a singer and actor who had sung the national anthem at President Truman’s inauguration. He was close to East Coast mobsters Joe Stacher and Longy Zwillman and was involved in activities involving the mob and politicians as early as 1952 (Regan background—Louella Parsons column, Mar. 27, 1962, Variety, Jul. 10, 1963, Boston Globe, Jul. 19, 1988, Collier’s, Feb. 25, 1950, Paul Fay, The Pleasure of His Company, New York: Harper and Row, 1963, 44–, Peterson, The Mob, 288; Regan prison—NYT, Mar. 24, Aug. 30, 1973, Apr. 17, 1975, LAT, Jan. 6, 1983; Russo on Alo—Russo, 367–).
259 Giancana/Mafia/politics: (Luciano and Al Smith) Gosch and Hammer, 97–, 156–, Wolf with DiMona, 97–, Stuart, 92–, 159; (Llewella Humphreys/Truman/Eisenhower) There Was a Crooked Man, TV documentary, HTV Wales, supplied to authors by director Don Llewellyn; (Giancana “floater”/candidate shot) Brashler, 58–, Peterson, Barbarians, 142–; (Giancana and politicians end 1950s) ibid., 312, Brashler, 210, ASA (name withheld) Chicago to Director, Dec. 20, 1962, FBI 92-3171, Memo to file by Max Goldshein, “Organized Crime and Rackets in Chicago and Cook Co., Ill.,” Sep. 27, 1957, BN, NA, Mahoney, 49, and see Hearings, HSCA, 22–.
259–60 Compromising officials: An example of sexual entrapment is the ordeal of George Ratterman, who in 1961 was the reform candidate for sheriff in Newport, Kentucky. Mobsters rendered him semiconscious by spiking his drink, then put him in bed with a cooperative stripper and called the police. The plot backfired. Ratterman was able to prove his innocence and went on to win the election (Ratterman File, FBI 44-17593, Messick, 201–, 207, Messick, Syndicate Abroad, London: Macmillan, 1969, 232); (Lansky’s widow) 60 Minutes, CBS News, Jun. 25, 1989, Lacey, Little Man, 340; (“Throw him a broad”) Bill Bonnano, 83–.
260 Korshak: (Bea and Lawfords) Vanity Fair, Apr. 1997; (background) NYT, Jun. 27, 1976; (close to Giancana) NYT, Jun. 28, 1976, “Samuel M. Giancana,” May 5, 1961, FBI 92-636-3, SAC Las Vegas to Director, May 21, 1963, FBI 92-5053-4, Scheim, 338n.
260 Korshak close to FS: The Korshaks were close to Sinatra by late 1959. Bea Korshak, a former Paramount starlet, had stayed at Sinatra’s rented villa in Acapulco the previous year. She would still be a trusted friend decades later, when she acted as matron-of-honor at Sinatra’s wedding to his fourth wife and helped refurbish his Palm Springs house. At one point, Frank was said to be a Korshak client (close by 1959—Jacobs and Stadiem, 107; starlet—Vanity Fair, Apr. 1997; at wedding— Sinatra with Coplon, 158; refurbishment—Architectural Digest, Dec. 1998; client?—“File Review & Su
mmary Checks,” Mar. 26, 1970, FBI LA 100-41413); (confronting Kefauver) NYT, Jun. 27, 1976, Russo, 258–, Vanity Fair, Apr. 1997.
260 FS/JFK and sex: (“Jack’s pimp”) Kelley, 269; (“indiscreet parties”) Scatterday to Belmont, Mar. 30, 1960, and “Correlation Summary,” Jun. 8, 1964, FSFBI, “File Review & Summary Check,” Sep. 19, 1960, FBI LA 100-41413-121; (“the most startling”) Dallas Morning News, Jun. 15, 1977.
260 JFK Palm Springs 1959: (“music filled”) Kelley, 267; (“Kennedy Room”) Architectural Digest, Dec. 1998, Look, Nov. 30, 1965.
260 plaque/“We had a great”: Kelley, 286, 531; the plaque commemorating Kennedy’s stay was dated “November 6th and 7th 1960,” but that cannot be right. Kennedy was moving around the country at a frantic rate on those days—the election took place on the 8th—but not in California. The senator was on a tour of the West Coast in early November 1959, but was in Oregon, not California, on the 6th and 7th. He was in Southern California, however, between October 30 and November 5, 1959, and press reports indicate that he had the opportunity to stay with Sinatra on the 3rd and 4th. Powers’s reference to a stay at Sinatra’s home that month remains the only evidence the authors found for such a visit, but can be considered reliable. Staff at the John F. Kennedy Library were unable to throw further light on the matter (JFK travel—Theodore White, The Making of the President, 1960, New York: Atheneum, 1962, 338–; West Coast swing —LAT, Nov. 1, 2, 4, 7, NYT, 8, WP, 2, 3, 10, 13, Oregon Journal, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 1959; JFK Library—Sharon Kelly, reference librarian, to authors, Feb. 5, 2003, and see Kelley, 267, 531).
260 dined Puccini’s/Campbell: int. Nick Sevano. Sevano had recently rejoined Sinatra’s team. Campbell never mentioned having met Kennedy as early as November 1959—she would claim they first met on February 7, 1960. Yet Sevano told the authors he was quite sure Kennedy was present at Puccini’s. Press coverage shows Kennedy was in Los Angeles on November 1 and 2, and in Beverly Hills specifically on the 1st. Sevano’s account, if accurate, would establish that the candidate’s attention was first drawn to Campbell three months earlier than she claimed (Sevano rejoined—Shaw, Sinatra, 262; JFK Nov. 1–2—LAT, Nov. 2, 4, WP, Nov. 2, 3, NYT, Nov. 8, 1959).
260–61 Campbell and FS: (Campbell background) ints. Judith Exner, 1991, Judith Exner (Exner was Campbell’s later married name) as told to Ovid Demaris, My Story, New York: Grove Press, 1977, 15–, testimony of Judith Exner, Sep. 20, 1975, Hearings, Select Committee to Study Government Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, U.S. Senate, vol. 1, Report of Proceedings; (“at parties”) int. of Campbell by Barry Farrell, courtesy of Tony Cook, Exner as told to Demaris, 49.
261 Senate committee: The Campbell episode was first probed by a Senate committee, formally titled the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. Its interim report, issued on November 20, 1975, is often referred to as the Church Report, after the committee’s chairman, Senator Frank Church. Alternatively, it is called the Intelligence Committee; (Campbell on Puccini’s/FS followed up/“idyllic”) Exner as told to Demaris, 49–.
261 Hawaii trip/“massage”: According to Campbell, Sinatra’s guests in Hawaii included Dr. Leon Krohn, a gynecologist, and City National Bank president Al Hart. Earlier in his career, Hart had worked for a mob-controlled liquor company in Chicago. Another former vacationer, Karen Dynan, corroborated the fact that Campbell was in Hawaii. She recalled encountering the Sinatra group, and said that it included Hart and a doctor (Krohn/Hart guests—Exner as told to Demaris, 50–; Hart banker—ibid., “File Review & Summary Check,” Mar. 9, 1962, FBI LA 100-41413-148; Peter Dale Scott, The Dallas Conspiracy, unpub. ms., Reid, Reapers, 180; corroboration—int. Karen Dynan); (“We were having”) int. Karen Dynan; (gossip columnist) Harrison Carroll in LAHE, Nov. 17, 1959; (saw FS again/Entratter/Formosa) Exner as told to Demaris, 61–; (Formosa/Giancana)“Samuel M. Giancana,” Mar. 7, 1961, FBI 92-3171-146, Giancana and Renner, 107, Brashler, 212; (“I’ll bet even”) Exner as told to Demaris, 64.
262 “High Hopes”: Rednour, 37, Sayers and O’Brien, 83; (new version) Jan. 28, 1960, entry, Where or When?; (“I’m Jack Kennedy”): Reeves, 160; (“Frank, what can we count”) Rolling Stone, Mar. 19, 1981; (JFK and Caroline) O’Donnell and Powers with McCarthy, 150, Parmet, 512.
262–63 JFK at “Summit”: (JFK flew in/relax) NYT, Feb. 8, 9, 1960. As well as taking a break, Kennedy addressed the local Democratic Committee while in Las Vegas. This was on Monday, February 8, a day—his schedule indicates—that had been planned as a “day off.” He apparently canceled a plan to fly to San Francisco (Las Vegas Sun, Feb. 9, 1960, corr. archivist Sharon Kelly, John F. Kennedy Library); (“There was no goddamn”/“We all figured”) Martin, 199, David Heymann, A Woman Named Jackie, London: Heinemann, 1989, 230; (“Ladies & gentlemen”/“The next president”) JFK at Sands, videotape in authors’ collection, int. Bullets Durgom, 1986, int. Sonny King; (“What did you say”) Wilson, Show Business, 15; (“trophy”/“It’s perfectly”) Pearl, 66–, Davis, Suitcase, 83; (reboarded Caroline) NYT, Feb. 10, 11, 1960; (sat up talking) Davis, Suitcase, 83; (FBI informant) “File Review & Summary Check,” Sep. 19, 1960, FBI 100- 41413-121. Given the information in the FBI report and the authors’ knowledge of the informant’s background, he was almost certainly Los Angeles private investigator Fred Otash. The owner of El Rancho was Beldon Katleman, the “campaign manager” probably Larry O’Brien.
An FBI report written soon after the Kennedy visit to the Sands included a specific allegation. “Senator Kennedy,” an informant claimed, “had been compromised with a woman in Las Vegas.” Other sources indicate that investigators for a scandal magazine succeeded in bugging Sinatra’s suite and obtaining tapes of “Kennedy and a hooker.” Months after the Vegas visit, according to press reports, there was a frantic effort to locate and destroy photographs taken of Kennedy in local nightspots. According to an unpublished manuscript by the author Ladislas Farago, who had interviewed senior FBI officials, J. Edgar Hoover obtained the tapes and passed them on to Kennedy when he became president (Kennedy compromised—New Orleans to Director, Mar. 23, 1960, FBI 94-37314-2; frantic effort—“Correlation Summary,” Jun. 8, 1964, FSFBI, Shaw, Sinatra, 274; Hoover—Farago Collection, Mugar Library, Boston University).
263 Campbell and JFK at Sands: (Blair classmate/“bimbos”/“because we sensed”) Hersh, 224, Heymann, 231, Martin, 199; (“sampled the goodies”) int. John Daley, 1983; (JFK and cocaine) corr. Ed Walters, and see earlier reference to drug use, chapter 23, p. 247.
264 “I was at a table”: int. Milt Ebbins. Ebbins told author Anthony Summers as early as 1983 that he “introduced” Campbell, in an interview that focused not on Campbell but on information for Summers’s biography of Marilyn Monroe. Ebbins said virtually the same as here reported in the text to Laurence Leamer, author of the book The Kennedy Women (Laurence Leamer, The Kennedy Women, New York: Bantam, 1994, 489); (three such women) int. Count Guido Deiro; (“looked so handsome”) Exner as told to Demaris, 86–; (JFK phoned/sex at Plaza/“a long”) ibid., 98–; (FS urging) Exner as told to Demaris, 99–; (Fontainebleau performances) corr. Ric Ross, Miami Herald, Mar. 27, 1960; (introduced to Fischetti) ibid., 107–; (“Come here, Judy”/“Flood’s eyes”) ibid., 116–; (next to Giancana) ibid., 120–.
265 Giancana paid bill: Campbell claimed that she objected to Giancana settling the bill, and paid him back. Confirmation that Giancana was in Miami at the time comes from Gloria Cahn, who was there with her husband. In her interview for this book, Cahn recalled an incident involving the mobster and Frank’s nineteen-year-old daughter Nancy. “Little Nancy was there,” Cahn recalled. “She wasn’t comfortable because her father had made arrangements for Giancana to take her to the airport. She said ‘Daddy, I’d really rather go with Gloria and Sammy.’ As we pulled away in the car with her she was very relieved.” Nancy had been in Miami for the taping of an ABC show featuring Sinatra and Elvis Presley (paid money back—Exner as told to Demaris, 12
3; ABC show—Where or When? the taping was on Mar. 26, 1960, for showing in May, and see Sinatra, Legend, 147).
265 Campbell claimed used as courier: Campbell said in 1988 that Kennedy and Sam Giancana had prolonged contact with each other, and used her as a courier and go-between. Press agent and reporter Johnny Grant, who had known Campbell as a teenager, has said Campbell told him the gist of this in 1963. A Chicago political operative who worked on the Kennedy campaign in 1960, Martin Underwood, was quoted in 1997 as saying that he stayed close to Campbell when she carried covert campaign funds to Giancana for Kennedy—on instructions from Kennedy aide Kenneth O’Donnell. Though Underwood later disowned the quote, his interviewer Gus Russo insisted in 2004 that Underwood told him and investigative reporter Seymour Hersh exactly that (1988 claims—People, Feb. 29, 1988; Grant—Hersh, 325; Underwood quoted—ibid., 304–; disowned—chapter 7, Final Report of Assassination Records Review Board, 1998; Russo—conv. with authors, 2004).
265 “The only Campbell”: Newsweek, Dec. 29, 1975. Both former Kennedy aide Dave Powers and Kenneth O’Donnell denied all knowledge of Campbell. Powers insisted, moreover, that logs held at the Kennedy Library made no mention of the visits to the White House claimed by Campbell. The president’s secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, claimed in the 1970s that Campbell had been just “a campaign worker.” Not seen by outsiders until the 1990s, and first made public by the authors, were multiple Secret Service logs proving that Powers had lied. White House telephone logs, moreover, show that Campbell called Kennedy’s office seventy-five times. Lincoln, for her part, admitted in a 1992 interview that she had in fact been aware of Campbell phone contacts with the president.
Sinatra Page 65