His Way_ The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra - Kitty Kelley [249]
“Those of us who have had the privilege of being in this room and who have heard many great performances know that once in a while there is a moment when there is magic in this room, when a singer is able to move us and capture us all, and Frank Sinatra has done that tonight, and we thank him,” said the President.
“Lovely words, sir,” said Frank, his eyes filling with tears. “See you very soon.”
“July,” said Nixon. “I’ve got to practice. I haven’t played golf for a year.”
Before Frank left that evening, the President took him aside and told him to seriously consider coming out of retirement. “After tonight, I’ll have to think about it,” said Frank.
The rapport between Sinatra and the White House gave rise to FBI allegations, later dismissed, that his endorsement of the Nixon-Agnew ticket and his fifty-thousand-dollar campaign contribution, plus an “unrecorded contribution” of $100,000 in cash, had paved the way for the prison release of his distant relative, Angelo “Gyp” DeCarlo, the underboss of New York’s Mafia family. Having served only nineteen months of a twelve-year sentence for extortion, DeCarlo, who was described by prosecutors as “violent… homicidal… and a man who orders executions,” had received a commutation from President Nixon on December 20, 1972. The official reason given had been that DeCarlo was suffering from terminal cancer, but weeks later the FBI had learned that “certain associates” of DeCarlo credited the release to Frank’s intervention with the White House. Furthermore, Newsweek magazine reported that DeCarlo, though ailing, was “back at his rackets, boasting that his connections with Sinatra freed him.”
After a two-month investigation, the Justice Department announced that although Frank’s name had been mentioned frequently on wire-tapped conversations of DeCarlo from 1961 to 1965, there was no evidence that he used his influence with the President to get his Mafia relative released.
Senator Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson (D-Wash.) was not convinced. He charged that the pardon “bypassed normal procedures and safeguards.” He said his Senate Permanent Investigations Subcommittee had turned up information that raised “serious and disturbing questions as to the reasons and manner in which Angelo DeCarlo was released from federal custody,” but the mobster died in 1973 before the senator’s investigation was completed, and none of the information was released.
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At the time, Frank was working to keep his good friend Spiro Agnew out of prison. Involved in a criminal Maryland kickback scheme, the Vice-President was being investigated for bribery, extortion, and tax fraud. Records of his election campaigns had been subpoenaed to determine possible violation of criminal laws covering conspiracy.
“We were at Sinatra’s house in Palm Springs when the news broke that Agnew had been taking cash payoffs since 1967 of at least $100,000,” said Peter Malatesta. “We flew back to Washington right away with Mickey Rudin, whom Frank sent off to Baltimore to find out what was really going on. Rudin came back three days later saying that the Vice-President was dead-ass guilty. ‘So is Marvin Mandel,’ he said, ‘but he has his ducks in a row better than Agnew.’
“I asked Mickey who he had talked to and he said, ‘Some guys.’ I asked what guys, and he put his fingers to his nose and squashed it, whatever that means. I was stunned.
“Vic Gold had joined us, and Rudin was outlining a plan of action, saying that he could put together a cartel of the five best criminal lawyers in the country to defend Agnew and no jury in America would convict him unanimously. He reasoned