Possible Mafia ties stretch back to Sinatra’s grandfather’s youth in Sicily, the Italian island that was the birthplace of the Cosa Nostra. Was he really part of the Mafia? Or was he, as many have concluded, just a ‘groupie’, in love with the life but content to watch from the sidelines? They were never proven, but the whispers of Sinatra’s intimate links to the mob were never silenced either.
Dark scandals pack license#
There was further public testimony, and further denials, in the hearings of the Nevada Gaming Control Board in 1981, where Sinatra was seeking to obtain a lucrative gambling license for his Las Vegas interests. He was called before a Joint Senate-House Select Committee on Crime – along with his fellow Rat Pack performer Sammy Davis Jr – investigating gambling and corruption related to sport, in 1972.
While he always denied any Mafia involvement, his name kept cropping up.
Sinatra would not escape similar hearings in the future. However, during his questioning Sinatra nevertheless admitted to more than passing acquaintances with a significant list of made men: Lucky Luciano, Bugsy Siegel, Willie Moretti and Al Capone’s cousins, The Fischetti Brothers. Narrowly escaping a public grilling on this occasion was a struggling club singer called Frank Sinatra.Ĭouncil Joseph L Nellis questioned the singer in advance to determine his suitability for the stand, and the Kefauver Committee ultimately decided that no real purpose would be served by a Sinatra subpoena: his career was ailing at the time and the Committee generously opted not to finish him off by tarring him with the Mafia brush. Unusually for the time, the proceedings were televised, with more than 30 million viewers eagerly tuning in to watch the testimonies of infamous gangsters: Mickey Cohen, Frank Costello, Jake ‘Greasy Thumb’ Guzik and others. Popularly known as the Kefauver Committee, after its chairman Senator Estes Kefauver, its findings included admissions of the FBI’s failure to combat countrywide mob activity, leading to more than 70 local ‘crime commissions’ to combat the Mafia at local level, and a nationwide Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act. In 1950 the US Senate convened a high-profile committee to investigate the growing problem of organised crime in America. Subscribe to All About History now for amazing savings!
Rumours of Sinatra’s Mafia connections dogged his entire career and the legendary crooner certainly had connections to made men…
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