His Way_ The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra - Kitty Kelley [19]
“Dolly poked her head out the door and hollered, ‘Come over here, you little son of a bitch. I want you to take some of these sausages home for your family’s dinner.’ I came from a lot of kids, and we didn’t have much. Dolly knew that and helped out once in a while. Anytime we were in trouble or needed something, we always went to her. We looked to her for confidence and leadership. She was so powerful that she could march into City Hall and demand jobs for us. One summer, she stomped in with a bunch of us kids and said, ‘Give these little bastards a job,’ and, by God, we were put to work. Our own fathers couldn’t do that, but Dolly Sinatra could. She was tougher than most men.”
Unquestionably, Dolly had become the one person in Hoboken to turn to when in trouble, and at times that meant more than simply providing food and jobs for people. As the local midwife, she was also called upon to perform abortions.
“If an Italian girl got pregnant, her family would disown her,” said Tony Mac. “Completely disown her. There was no forgiveness in the family if that happened. It was the worst dishonor that could befall an Italian Catholic family in those days. Dolly saved a girl’s family embarrassment by doing an abortion. By doing her operations, she saw to it that many of these young girls could go on with their lives and not be disowned by their families.”
Not everyone looked as kindly on Dolly for her illegal operations, especially in a community of churchgoing immigrants who considered abortion murder. Not only was it against the law of the land but, in their eyes, it was a sacrilege, for it violated God’s law as well.
Still, once the word circulated that Dolly Sinatra would perform an abortion for twenty-five to fifty dollars, she soon found herself with a steady business. Doctors afraid of losing their licenses by performing the illegal operation themselves frequently referred patients to her, and she traveled regularly to Jersey City, Lodi, Weehawken, Union City, and Paterson with her little black bag.
“She even set up a table in her house,” said Anna Spatolla Sinatra, who married Frank’s first cousin. “I had to go to her three times. She had me come to the house and lie down on that table in the basement. Then she brought out a long wire—not a coat hanger—with special medication on the end of it. Afterwards, she told me to take Lysol douches three times a day and quinine pills. Lord, those quinine pills made my ears ring. They were the worst part.”
For many years, Dolly performed these operations secretly, but when she was arrested in 1937, her abortion business became public knowledge. The abortion business, along with her running a saloon during Prohibition and dealing with bootleggers, did not enhance Dolly’s respectability in certain circles, and some of the churchgoing people in Hoboken took it out on her son by refusing to let their children play with him.
“Frank felt it too,” said Tony Mac. “He never talked about it, but he heard people calling his mother a rabbit-catcher and a baby-killer. I think that’s the reason that once he finally got out of Hoboken, he never came back.”
Ignoring the scandal she created, Dolly was unconcerned by the talk behind her back. She continued to do all she could to help her son make friends by giving him money daily for treats and allowing him to buy whatever he wanted at any store. Although she always went out to political parties on Saturday nights, she let Frank bring his friends in for dancing and always left them plenty of cake and cream soda.
“The Sinatras were always open-handed and hospitable,” said Lee Bartletta. “We knew that anytime we asked, Dolly would let us gather in their home for an evening.”
After Rosa Garavante died, Frank’s grandfather came to live with them and would act as the chaperon for