by Kitty Kelley
In an interview with Brad Dexter on June 12, 1985, Dexter related how Sinatra prevailed on his strong friendship with Harold Gibbons, Teamster vice-president, to get some carpeting for his Learjet removed from a ship during the 1964 longshoremen’s strike. The ship carrying the carpeting from Hong Kong was stalled in Los Angeles harbor, closed because of the strike. “Frank told me to call Gibbons in St. Louis to get his carpeting off that ship so he could outfit his Learjet. I called, and Gibbons said he would take care of it. An hour later, Frank’s carpeting was being removed from the ship and taken to the Air Research terminal in Santa Monica, where we picked it up.”
Articles in Variety, the New York Herald-Tribune, the New York Post, The Washington Post, the Sacramento Bee, and the Saturday Evening Post were also consulted.
The Washington Post also reported:
Another copy of the private investigator’s report disclosing Nixon’s visits to a New York psychiatrist that Sinatra had tried to surface in 1960 was leaked to Drew Pearson in the closing days of the 1968 campaign, when Hubert Humphrey was running against Nixon. The psychiatrist, Dr. Arnold Hutschnecker, initially confirmed treating Nixon in the 1950s but after a call from a Nixon aide he amended his statement so the columnist killed the story, saying later: “It is true as some have pointed out that if this had been published before the election the outcome might have been different.”
CHAPTER 21
Material in this chapter was derived from the author’s interviews with Brad Dexter, a woman who lived with Jimmy Van Heusen, Dave Powers, Mort Janklow on March 12, 1982, Joseph Shimon, Anthony Quinn on March 21, 1985, Robert F. Kennedy’s appointments secretary on February 4, 12, 1986, Judith Exner, Paul Chandler on April 11, 12, 20, 23, 24, 1984, Peter Lawford, a business associate of Sinatra’s who requested anonymity, and Richard Condon. In the interview with Dave Powers, he mentioned the gold plaque that Sinatra put on the bedroom door about Kennedy’s visit to his home. Powers said, “Jack never stayed with Sinatra when he was president. Never. He only stayed there as senator. Never as President or President-elect.” The author also examined documents in the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, Mass., as well as federal wiretaps from Justice Department files.
Numerous newspaper clips and books about Sam Giancana were also used.
CHAPTER 22
In this chapter the author relied on Justice Department files on Frank Sinatra, federal wiretaps, and numerous interviews, among them with G. Robert Blakey, Peter Lawford, Peter Maas on February 8, 1984 (Maas was in Attorney General Robert Kennedy’s office when Kennedy received a phone call from Sinatra), Chuck Moses on July 24, 1983, Elizabeth Greenschpoon (the former Mrs. Mickey Rudin) on March 20, 21, April 4, 29, 1984, Joe Hyams on July 8, 1983, William Reed Woodfield on July 9, 10, 19, 1983, Mike Shore on March 9 and April 9, 1984, Kris Kristofferson on July 21, 1983, a White House employee who requested anonymity, Edmund (Pat) Brown on April 17, 1984, Al Algiro, Frank Sinatra’s cousin Fred Tredy on May 21, 1983, Frank Garrick, and Sister Consilia on January 9, 20, 1983.
The author also interviewed a close friend of Sinatra’s who requested anonymity and who told the author, “Frank was seeing Giancana, and Sam did a lot to help Kennedy get elected President with all that Teamster money. He bought Cook County for Jack, and Frank could never understand why Jack Kennedy wouldn’t accept Giancana as a friend. Frank thought if politicians can take the money they need to get elected, why can’t they consent to take the friendship that goes along with the money. Frank never understood that.”
The author gained additional information from articles in The New York Times, New York World-Telegram and Sun, New York Post, Time, Variety, Herald-Tribune, London Daily Mail, Jersey Journal, and the Sacramento Bee.
The author also consulted G. Robert Blakey and Richard N. Billings’s book, The Plot to Kill the President, New York: Times Books, 1981, among others.
Following the dedication of the Frank Sinatra Youth House in Israel, Frank’s films and records were banned by one Arab League. He said, “I am deeply disappointed that statesmen anywhere should condemn anyone for aiding children of whatever faith or origin.”
With regard to Sinatra’s relationship with Ed Sullivan, in 1947, when Frank slugged Lee Mortimer, Sullivan defended Frank. “Basically, Sinatra is a warmhearted, decent person, and I think it’s about time they stopped kicking him around,” he wrote in his column. Frank was so grateful for the public support that he sent Sullivan a gold watch that was inscribed: “Ed, You can have my last drop of blood. Frankie.” After Sinatra attacked Sullivan in 1955, protesting “newspaper personalities on TV” who use movie celebrities “without paying for their services,” Sullivan bought a full-page ad in The Hollywood Reporter ridiculing Frank’s television ratings. “P.S. Aside to Frankie Boy. Never mind that tremulous 1947 offer. … I don’t wear wristwatches … furthermore, it’s on its way back.” The two men made up four months later when Sullivan was almost killed in a car accident. Robert Weitman of CBS-TV, the former manager of the Paramount, suggested to Frank that he call Ed to wish him well. Frank agreed. “I love Ed and I know he loves me,” he said as reported in the New York Post. He then appeared on Sullivan’s television show without payment.
On April 20, 1968, the Fontainebleau Hotel dropped its $10 million libel suit against the Miami Herald in which Sinatra was under threat of contempt for ignoring a subpoena. The Herald published a joint statement with the hotel in which the newspaper said its investigation had indicated that an insurance company was titleholder of record of the hotel land on Miami Beach and that Ben Novak was sole owner of the operating company. The Herald had challenged the hotel’s ownership and had repeatedly subpoenaed Sinatra to testify after the hotel filed suit.
CHAPTER 23
The author obtained material on Sam Giancana and the Cal-Neva Lodge from the transcripts of federal wiretaps in FBI files, Edward A. Olsen’s Oral History on file at the University of Nevada in Reno, and from Justice Department files, some of which were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. In addition, she conducted extensive interviews with, among others, Chuck Moses; a business associate of Hank Sanicola; Peter Lawford; Herb Caen; Bethel Van Tassel on August 28, 29, September 6, and October 4, 1984, and April 5, 1985; Louise Anderson on August 29, 1984, and April 5, 1985; Phyllis McGuire on July 8, 1985; Victor LaCroix Collins; Jacqueline Park on May 20, 1983; Ben Barton; Nick Sevano; Joe Shimon; and law enforcement officials. She gained additional information from the newspaper files of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, The Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Sun-Times, the New York Post, and the Nevada State Journal. Several books were also consulted.
CHAPTER 24
The kidnapping of Frank Sinatra, Jr., has been well documented in The New York Times, Los Angeles Herald Examiner, New York Post, Herald-Tribune, and Daily News. In addition, the author interviewed Frank Sinatra, Jr. on January 15, 1983, Peter Lawford, Ed Pucci on April 13, 1984, one of the federal agents who worked on the case and requested anonymity, Nelson Riddle, and Robert Carl Cohen on March 17, 1984, and also read the record of the trial of the kidnappers. Robert Carl Cohen wrote a screenplay about the episode entitled I Kidnapped Frank Sinatra, Jr.: The Full Confession by the Perpetrator of One of the Century’s Most Controversial Crimes, a copy of which he allowed the author to read.
Other information in this chapter was obtained from interviews with Patricia Bosworth on December 15, 1983, Corinne Entratter, Chuck Moses, Brad Dexter on April 8, 9, 13, 25, May 25, June 28, 29, September 9, 21, December 11, 1984, and February 10, 1985.
In his autobiography, An Open Book, New York: Knopf, 1980, John Huston wrote: “Later, when I was editing a picture in Rome, I heard that [George C.] Scott broke into Ava’s suite at the Savoy, which caused a scandal. When she came back to the United States, I think Frankie Sinatra commissioned a couple of his lads to go around with her.” At the same time, Frank was quoted in Photoplay, April 1965: “If there’s one guy I don’t tolerate, it’s a guy who mistreats women.
They are the real bullies in life and what they need is a real working over by a man their own size.” Stories circulated that after beating up on Ava, Scott returned to his hotel room and found that all of his shirts and sweaters and suits had been cut off at the shoulders.
Among his friends, Frank was renowned for sending telegrams. On the day Lady Adele Beatty, one of his former lovers, married Stanley Donen, Frank sent her an unsigned wire, saying: HOW COULD YOU?
CHAPTER 25
Sinatra’s relationship with Mia Farrow has been widely discussed in, among other places, the Ladies’ Home Journal, New York Post, Life, Photoplay, Seventeen, Los Angeles Herald Examiner, and the New York Journal-American. The New York Post reported that when Robert Vaughn was on the $10,000 Pyramid television game show, he wanted to give his partner a clue to the word “Sinatra.” In the excitement he said, “Mia Farrow’s father.” His partner said, “Oh, sure, Frank Sinatra” and won!
Regarding Sinatra’s physical fights with others, Richard Condon said, “Frank once told me that the only way to negotiate a dispute figuratively was to kick the disputant in the ankle and as he hopped on one foot, holding the injured foot, to belt him soundly across the chops.”
Other material in this chapter was derived from, among other sources, interviews with Brad Dexter, Franklin Fox on April 18, 1984, Corinne Entratter, George Jacobs, Laurence Eisenberg on October 24 and November 1, 1983, Edith Mayer Goetz, and a member of Frederic Weisman’s family who requested anonymity.
In an interview with Alan Horowitz on April 5, 1984, Horowitz told the author:
“Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen originally wrote that song [‘September of My Years’] that way for Frank but they got scared and changed it to “September of His Years” because the other way sounded like Frank was getting old. When Sammy went to play it for Sinatra, he changed it back.”
Various other newspapers, magazines, files, and books were also consulted.
CHAPTER 26
Material in this chapter was obtained from interviews with a number of people, including Brad Dexter, a woman who lived with Jimmy Van Heusen, Jim Mahoney on June 22, 1983, Jackie Mason on December 20, 1983, Edmund (Pat) Brown, Sandi Grant Bennett on June 7 and July 7, 1983, Shecky Greene, David Susskind on February 2 and April 5, 1984, William Hundley on October 28, 1985, Joseph Shimon, and George Franklin on June 30, 1983.
The author also examined the Las Vegas Sheriffs office records and reports, Justice Department files on Joe Fischetti, and numerous newspaper articles and books.
Sinatra put his friends in the movie Tony Rome. In addition to Shecky Greene, he put his lawyer, Mickey Rudin, in as a pawnbroker, Jilly Rizzo played a bartender, and Mike Romanoff was listed as assistant to the producer. Girlfriends like Jill St. John, Deana Lund, and Tiffany Boiling were also given roles.
When Nancy Sinatra was writing a book about her father, she sent letters to her father’s friends and associates seeking quotes and loving anecdotes “from all those who have had close contact” with him. Unamused by the letter, Ava Gardner refused to respond. “Close contact?” she snapped. “Doesn’t she remember I married him?” (Ladies’ Home Journal, July 1972.) Still steaming about the letter, Ava mentioned it to Michael Thornton in 1982. “Did you know that [she] wrote to me recently to say she was writing a book about Frank and that maybe I could help her with recollections as somebody once associated with him. As if I didn’t have a rather closer relationship than that! I told her sorry, but no thank you.” (Thornton’s interview with Gardner, November 1982.) Nancy, in turn, exploded when Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis refused to contribute. “My father escorted, campaigned—he helped JFK in every way—and this is how Mrs. Onassis handles it,” she said. “The late John Kennedy was a very big part of my father’s life. How dare she be that cruel!” (Los Angeles Times, June 4, 1972.) Nancy’s book, which was started in 1966, was not completed until 1985.
CHAPTER 27
In gathering information for Chapter 27, the author interviewed Norman Sherman on February 15, 1984, William Connell on December 14, 1984, Al Algiro, Michael Viner on September 8, 1981, Nancy Seidman on December 14, 1983, Mrs. Ted Allen on August 5, 1983, George Jacobs and Joseph L. Nellis. The author also examined documents in the Hubert Humphrey Archives at the University of Minnesota.
The author consulted articles in McCall’s, Cosmopolitan, The Star, Time, Photoplay, Miami Beach Sun, Ladies’ Home Journal, and numerous newspaper clips. In the Bedside Book of Celebrity Gossip, New York: Celebrity Research Group, 1984, Ruth Gordon was quoted:
“Did you ever try to tell a story to Frank Sinatra? If you do, he’s apt to interrupt: ‘Is this going to take long?’ ”
The New York Times reported on August 15, 1978, in an article headlined “Sinatra, Now a GOP Insider” that
“knowledgeable sources said here that at one point in 1968, a member of Mr. Humphrey’s staff asked the Department of Justice, ‘Are we going to be embarrassed by Sinatra if he participates in our campaign?’ The answer was affirmative.”
In a January 15, 1983, interview with Frank Sinatra, Jr., Sinatra, Jr., claimed to know what happened to Jimmy Hoffa. Jimmy Hoffa was pardoned by President Richard Nixon in 1971. Four years later, on July 31, 1975, Hoffa was abducted in Detroit and never seen again. Law enforcement officials assumed a Mafia murder to keep Hoffa from running against Frank E. Fitzsimmons for the presidency of the Teamsters Union in 1976. To date, the case has never been solved, although there are several theories. Yet Frank Sinatra, Jr., said:
“I know what happened to Jimmy Hoffa. I know people—certain people … and they know me.… No, I can’t tell you, but I do know what happened.”
CHAPTER 28
The author interviewed Sister Consilia, Al Algiro, Nancy Siracusa, Peter Lawford, George Franklin, Ralph Salerno on December 16, 20, 1983, Steve Allen on March 22, 1984, and an IRS undercover agent who requested anonymity.
Sinatra was eager to keep his New Jersey State Crime Commission testimony confidential. Before he started testifying, he presented the commissioners with a piece of paper, saying:
I want you to just familiarize yourself with it as your attorneys have. And very loosely paraphrasing it, it means what goes on in this room with respect to testimony or evidence is to remain in this room, as it’s an executive session.
The next year Frank was negotiating with Tommy Thompson of Life magazine to photograph the Joe Frazier-Muhammad AH fight in March. In an interview with Denny Walsh on March 7, 1984, Walsh told the author that after signing the Life contract, Sinatra heard that Walsh, also with Life at the time, and one of America’s premier investigative reporters, was in New Jersey working on a story. Sinatra was convinced that the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist was trying to get hold of the transcript of his secret testimony before the New Jersey State Crime Commission. He threatened to cancel his contract with Life unless the magazine “called off Walsh. Tommy Thompson was beside himself and began trying to locate Walsh, calling him every hour until three in the morning. “When I told him I wasn’t working on a Sinatra story, I never saw a man so relieved in all my life,” said Denny Walsh.
Modern Screen, August 1969, reported this story as related by Dino Martin, Jr., who was dating Tina Sinatra:
“He’s quite a guy, that Frank,” said Dino. “Tina and I have gone down to Palm Springs and stayed at Frank’s house several times. The last time he flew us down on his own private jet, and he was aboard, too. Frank apparently learned there was a guy waiting for him at the airport terminal with a subpoena for his arrest. So we swerved around the landing strip and instead of heading into the terminal, we headed across the desert, on the ground. The airplane stopped and the three of us got into a waiting helicopter and flew to his house. As we were landing on the heliport at Frank’s house, the guy with the subpoena was still waiting to catch him at the airport.”
In his biography, Eddie: My Life and Loves New York: Harper & Row, 1981, Eddie Fisher tells of this incident:
Frank wo
re his emotions on his sleeve, and I always thought his cocky tough-guy attitude was probably just a way of protecting himself from being hurt. He seemed to prefer respect to love and when he thought he had been insulted he was like a wild man. I saw his quick temper flare while we were together in London. All his friends used to hang out in his suite at Claridge’s, and one morning I walked in and saw a young woman with a scarf around her head. I had no idea who she was and I said to Frank. “Good morning, Your Highness.” “She” was the Highness, Princess Alexandra, and we all sat around and had a nice chat. But somehow the newspapers found out about her visit, and Frank blew his stack. He swore he was going to get the guy who told reporters, and one by one, he buttonholed his friends, including me, demanding to know who had betrayed him.
The night before he was to leave London, we all wound up in his suite again for drinks and a healthy dose of Sinatra tapes, a usual feature at his parties. “I’ve narrowed it down to two people,” Frank announced, still playing detective, “the assistant manager of the hotel and the elevator operator, and I want everybody here tomorrow morning at 10:00.”
“Frank,” I said, “these things happen. Forget it. You’ve just come off this marvelous world tour, don’t blow it now.” I was worried about Sinatra’s image.
“Who the fuck asked you?” he snarled.
I don’t know what Frank thought he was going to do, but he left London the next morning without doing anything. Typical, I thought, a lot of energy and anger wasted.