His Way_ The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra - Kitty Kelley [286]
At the hearing, Frank denied having had all the trouble that was reported in the press. “We were never frozen out of food at the hotel and so on and so forth,” he said. “It was blown up way out of proportion.”
Q: You do remember it better now then?
A: No, not all of it. I really don’t want to remember it.
Q: Mr. Sinatra, it would appear to me, given an opportunity to explain some of these things, you might take this as an opportunity.
A: I appreciate what you are saying to me, Mr. Bunker, but these things are age-old.
Q: But I do think if there is an explanation for some of these things, that this certainly is the appropriate time to make it.
A: Mr. Rudin made all the explanation that I can remember anyway.
“That’s fine,” said the chairman, accepting Frank’s petulant response as the final explanation of his behavior. Moving on to the next question, he asked Frank about his $46,500 marker from Harrah’s in Lake Tahoe which had been on the casino’s books since 1978 and had never been collected. Frank said he didn’t remember anything about it, so Mickey Rudin explained that it had been written off by Harrah’s in 1980, and that he was still waiting for the necessary tax forms from them. Harrah’s acknowledged it was their mistake. The board accepted the explanation.
The next question concerned an uncollected marker at Caesars Palace that had only recently been repaid. Rudin answered. “There again some dust fell through the cracks, and again, not my fault, and Mr. Wald runs generally a tight ship.… That’s been straightened out.”
Frank was asked about his close friendship with Eugene Cimorelli, an associate of the Chicago Mafia boss, Tony Spilotro, and a golfing partner of Tony “Big Tuna” Accardo at the Indian Wells Country Club near Palm Springs. Observers had expected the chairman to question Sinatra about whether he had exerted pressure on Caesars Palace to get Cimorelli a job as a casino host, but that line of questioning was never pursued. Instead, he asked Frank whether he had appeared on a local television show as a favor to Cimorelli. Frank said that it was possible.
Q: Are you acquainted with a man by the name of Matthew Ianello?
A: I don’t think so. What is his alias?
Q: His alias is Matty the Horse.
A: No.
Q: Mr. Rudin, do you know Mr. Ianello?
A: Yes, I do.
It was not surprising that Frank was so vague testifying about his Mafia friendships considering that he had told Pete Hamill a few years before when they had discussed a possible collaboration on Sinatra’s autobiography that he would never discuss his involvement with the mob. “Some things I can’t ever talk about,” he said. “Someone might come knockin’ at my fucking door.”
Continuing the questioning, Chairman Bunker asked Frank about his relationship to the Kennedys.
“Mr. Sinatra, it is well known that you were, I guess it would be correct to say, a friend of both the late John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy,” he said. “And our question would be: Did you at any time ever attempt to intercede on behalf of Mr. Giancana with either one of those gentlemen?”
Despite wiretap evidence indicating that Frank had interceded with the Kennedys for the Mafia boss, he denied ever doing it.
“Negative,” he said.
“Never at all?” asked the chairman.
“Never.”
Robert Kennedy’s appointment book as attorney general showing the date Peter Lawford came to see him at the Justice Department to plead Frank’s case for Giancana was not available to the Nevada Gaming Control Board. Nor did they know of Lawford’s intercession on Sinatra’s behalf.
FBI wiretaps record Johnny Roselli telling Giancana that Frank had told him he had written Sam’s name on a piece of paper and shown it to Bobby Kennedy, saying: “This is my buddy. This is my buddy. This is what I want you to know, Bob.” But the Nevada Gaming Control Board did not have access to FBI wiretaps.
When Frank was asked by Bunker how he had first met Sam Giancana, Frank said he didn’t remember.
“At Cal-Neva, were you ever in his presence at Cal-Neva?” asked one of the commissioners.
Frank denied that he ever