His Way_ The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra - Kitty Kelley [314]
The author interviewed Mort Sahl on May 30, 1983, and his wife on June 5, 1983. Sahl told the author that he was not invited by Sinatra to participate in the Kennedy inaugural. “The Kennedys started ruling and I started attacking.” In 1974, Sahl attacked Sinatra. “Once you get Sinatra on your side in politics, you’re out of business.” Sahl made jokes about the billing at Caesars Palace featuring Frank and his two singing children. “Coming attractions: the Daughter, The Son, The Father, and the Holy Ghost.” Frank sued him for $10,000; he claimed Sahl still owed him part of an old $20,000 loan. “Frank used that lawsuit as a way to get back at Mort,” Mrs. Sahl told the author. “Frank got Mort writing for the Kennedys and then there was trouble between the Kennedys and Mort.… Frank threatened Mort all over town. … I hate him. Frank Sinatra is scum of scum.”
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