His Way_ The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra - Kitty Kelley [320]
“He did it twice at the Sands Hotel before Howard Hughes took over, and now he forced Caesars to pull the advertising of his act,” stated a 1969 editorial in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “The balding, middle-aged crooner again sang the blues about the R-J and apparently thought he would stop the presses by dictating the advertising policy during his stay.
“… To point out how childish Sinatra actually is, to order his ads out of the state’s largest newspaper can only be compared to the way he idolizes underworld figures. He gave up a gambling license rather than break off a friendship with Chicago gangland Mafia boss Sam Giancana.”
The Sacramento Bee published a story by Denny Walsh and Nancy Skelton entitled “Palm Springs, Where Stars, Pols—and Mobsters—Live in Style.” Although not mentioned in the article, Peter Epsteen was referred to in a photo caption as an “automobile dealer financed by the Mafia.” Represented by Sinatra’s attorney, Mickey Rudin, Epsteen filed a $6 million libel suit against the newspaper. He denied any affiliation with the Mafia and demanded a retraction. The Sacramento Bee published a story reporting Epsteen’s denial but did not retract the charge.
Lawyers representing the newspaper hired former FBI agent William Roemer to investigate the matter. Roemer is a lawyer with twenty-two years’ experience investigating organized crime in Chicago. In an interview with the author on March 15, 1986, Roemer told her: “I flew to Chicago and sat down with a lower level Mafia boss at Crane’s restaurant. I told the mobster that we were going to subpoena Gus Alex and Tony Accardo [two of Chicago’s top Mafia chieftains] for depositions and bring them into the lawsuit as hostile witnesses in an effort to prove their connections with Peter Epsteen. I also said I would testify to that effect and this guy knew I could say plenty from my thirty years with the Bureau, most of it investigating organized crime. He told me he would get the word to Alex and Accardo by sundown that day. A few weeks later, Peter Epsteen dropped his lawsuit.”
lacocca by Lee Iacocca with William Novak, New York: Bantam Books, 1984, recounts that Sinatra offered to help Chrysler stay in business by doing television commercials for a well-publicized fee of one dollar a year. In addition to the one dollar, Frank received stock options which Iacocca said were valuable. “I hope Frank held on to them, because if he did, he made a bundle.”
In 1979, Ford Motor Company stockholders brought a $50 million lawsuit against Henry Ford II and the company. The suit alleged in part that Ford had diverted company money for personal use. William Safire wrote a column stating that Ford had had a meeting with Frank Sinatra in hopes that Sinatra could use his influence with Roy Cohn, the stockholders’ attorney, to “lay off.” After reading the column, Frank sent Safire a telegram: YOU ARE A GODDAMN LIAR. This incident was reported in New York magazine in October 1984.
CHAPTER 33
The author consulted the transcripts of the Nevada Gaming Board’s 1981 hearings and conducted extensive interviews with one of the Board’s investigators, who requested anonymity, on June 6, 29, and September 1, 1983. Information on Sinatra’s finances was taken from the financial statement submitted by Sinatra to the Board.
The author interviewed Ovid Demaris on March 21, 1984, Judith Exner, Ralph Salerno, Phyllis McGuire, and Victor LaCroix Collins, Robert Kennedy’s appointments secretary on February 4 and 12, 1986, Pearl Similly on January 14, 1984, and consulted several magazines and newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, New York magazine, the Los Angeles Times, and Variety. Billboard reported in June 1975 that Sinatra started adding an extra clause to his contract stipulating that no one, “no matter how famous,” was to be allowed backstage or even to approach him.
In 1976, Judith Exner announced plans to write a book detailing her introduction to John F. Kennedy and Sam Giancana