The Kennedy Men_ 1901-1963 - Laurence Leamer [392]
Even before Bobby entered office, he knew that Sinatra had long ago soiled his name with his mob connections, and that it was his brother’s weakness to be associated with such a man. At the end of the inaugural gala, when Kennedy praised Sinatra for putting together the extravaganza, Bobby turned to Red Fay and said: “I hope Sinatra will live up to the public position the president has given him by such recognition.”
In recent years Sinatra had pushed his way to the head gangsters’ table and fancied himself a kind of ersatz Hollywood don, with the power to call on his dangerous friends whenever he needed them. In April 1961, Hoover talked to Bobby about Giancana, telling him that one of Giancana’s lieutenants, Joe Pignatello, was trying to get a lucrative liquor and gaming license in Las Vegas, fronting for the Chicago mob. Nothing happened in Las Vegas without connections, and Sinatra had gotten involved, speaking in favor of his friend. Bobby sent a clear message that Sinatra’s name would not buy a free pass in his Justice Department. Again, Bobby could simply have made a few abstract remarks about justice, freedom, and the flag and let things fall as they were going to fall. But on that day he made it indisputably clear that he not only wanted the FBI to try to prevent the granting of the license, but wanted everyone to know that he, Robert F. Kennedy, was personally concerned. “The attorney general indicated we should be sure to indicate that we were speaking on his behalf and explain that he is quite concerned about it,” Hoover noted.
As the FBI increased its surveillance of the mob in Chicago, Giancana and his henchmen expressed their outrage. Their fury would have been even greater had they known their tirades were being recorded. Early in December 1961, as the tape recorder whirled, one of Giancana’s associates, Johnny Formosa, talked to his boss. Formosa had just returned from a visit to Sinatra’s Palm Springs home. During his stay there, he said, Joe Kennedy had called the singer three times. Formosa had been trying to learn why the mob had been unable to cash in its chit with the Kennedys. Formosa recounted that the singer had explained that he had done everything he could. “I wrote Sam’s name down and I took it to Bobby,” Sinatra told Formosa. When that didn’t work, Sinatra said, he had talked to Kennedy’s father to see whether he could work his will on what the mob considered his double-crossing son.
“Well, one minute he says he tells me this and then he tells me that and then the last time I talked to him at the hotel down in Florida a month before he left, and he said, ‘Don’t worry about it, if I can’t talk to the old man, I’m gonna talk to the man,’ “a peeved Giancana replied. “One minute he says he’s talked to Robert, and the next minute he says he hasn’t talked to him. So he never did talk to him. It’s a lot of shit.”
Giancana was probably correct in his assessment. It seems unlikely that Sinatra would have been capable of persuading Bobby to back off investigations of Giancana, or if he would have dared to make such a request face to face with the new attorney general. He may, however, have talked to Joe, who might have been more amenable, though hardly likely to have asked Bobby specifically to avoid prosecuting Giancana. It is probable that the vain, boastful Sinatra promised something from his Kennedy connections that neither he nor anyone else could deliver. Although Giancana may simply have been boasting, it seems likely that he did make various kinds of contributions to the campaign and now raged at both the Kennedys and Sinatra.
Bobby was apparently immediately made aware of Giancana’s allegations. On the bottom of the teletype from the Chicago bureau, Hoover had scrawled “&promptly” after his aide’s notation: “Memo to AG Being Prepared.”
“As the Bureau is aware, considerable information has been received … which reflects a serious rift between Giancana