His Way_ The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra - Kitty Kelley [177]
“That’s the only way that film ever got made,” said Richard Condon. “It took Frank going directly to Jack Kennedy.”
On matters involving his Mafia friends, Frank was not so successful. Shortly after his September visit to the White House and his stay in Hyannisport, Sam Giancana was talking to his West Coast operative, Johnny Roselli, who had been Frank’s house guest in Palm Springs. On federal wire taps of December 6, 1961, the two gangsters talked about Frank’s promise to intercede with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, whose Justice Department had stepped up its investigation of Giancana.
ROSELLI: … He [Frank Sinatra] was real nice to me.… He says: “Johnny, I took Sam’s name, and wrote it down, and told Bobby Kennedy, ‘This is my buddy, this is what I want you to know, Bob.’ ” Between you and I, Frank saw Joe Kennedy three different times—Joe Kennedy, the father. He called him three times. … He [Frank] says he’s got an idea that you’re mad at him. I says: “That, I wouldn’t know.”
GIANCANA: He must have a guilty conscience. I never said nothing.… Well, I don’t know who the fuck he’s [Frank’s] talking to, but if I’m gonna talk to … after all, if I’m taking somebody’s money, I’m gonna make sure that this money is gonna 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.
ROSELLI: That’s right. He [Frank] says he wrote your name down. …
GIANCANA: Well, one minute he [Frank] 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 [Joseph Kennedy], I’m gonna talk to the man [President Kennedy].” One minute he says he’s 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 shit.… Why lie to me? I haven’t got that coming.
ROSELO: I can imagine.… Tsk, tsk, tsk … if he can’t deliver, I want him to tell me: “John, the load’s too heavy.”
GIANCANA: That’s all right. At least then you know how to work. You won’t let your guard down then, know what I mean.… Ask him [Frank] if I’m going to be invited to his New Year’s party.
ROSELLI: I told him that’s where I usually go for New Year’s with Sam. But he says, “I have to be in Rome the twenty-seventh.”
GIANCANA: Too fucking bad. Tell him the Kennedys will keep him company.
ROSELLI: Why don’t you talk to him [Frank]?
GIANCANA: When he says he’s gonna do a guy a little favor, I don’t give a shit how long it takes. He’s got to give you a little favor.
Frank had been steadily losing clout with the Boys over his dwindling influence with the Kennedys. FBI records indicate that when in 1961 Carlos Marcello, the capo di tutti capi (boss of all bosses) of Louisiana, who headed one of the oldest and most deeply entrenched Mafia families in the United States, had become one of Bobby Kennedy’s targets for deportation, the New Orleans don contacted Santo Trafficante, head of the Florida Mafia family, who in turn called Frank to use his influence with “the President’s father” on Marcello’s behalf. But Trafficante’s efforts failed and may have only intensified federal efforts against Marcello, who was eventually deported to Guatemala.
Mafia leaders by this time realized they had vastly overrated Frank’s influence with the Kennedys. They could no longer count on him to run interference for them. Despite the syndicate’s “donation” to the Kennedy campaign, on telephones tapped by federal agents, Johnny Roselli discussed the problem with Sam Giancana, remarking that Frank was powerless to help them at all. Roselli suggested that Sam not rely on Sinatra anymore and try something else to get rid of the FBI agents who were shadowing him constantly.
ROSELLI: He’s got big ideas, Frank does, about being ambassador, or something. You know