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Title: Lewis rats out Sinatra, French cheer. Post by: Shockeye on May 04, 2005, 05:06:37 PM Quote from: Guardian Unlimited How Ol' Blue Eyes 'carried the mob's greenbacks' (http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1476627,00.html) Dan Glaister in Los Angeles Thursday May 5, 2005 The Guardian Frank Sinatra worked as a mafia courier and was nearly caught carrying a suitcase stuffed with $3.5m, according to the entertainer Jerry Lewis. In an interview for a new biography of Sinatra, Lewis is quoted as saying of the Rat Pack member: "He volunteered to be a messenger for them. And he almost got caught once ... in New York." As he passed through customs, Lewis says, Sinatra was stopped by officials who started to open the suitcase he was carrying. Inside, says Lewis, were notes to the value of "three and a half million in 50s". But the customs officers were distracted by the crowds of people trying to catch a glimpse of the singer and aborted their search. Had they not, claims Lewis, "we would never have heard of him again". The anecdote is one of several accounts linking the legendary singer to organised crime in the biography Sinatra: The Life, by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan. According to Vanity Fair magazine, which has published extracts of the book, the authors do not claim that Lewis witnessed the aborted search but rather related the account "as a fact of which he had knowledge". Lewis says the incident took place shortly after the mobster Lucky Luciano was deported from the US to Italy in 1946. It is not the first time Sinatra has been connected to the mob. The FBI boss Edgar Hoover was convinced that Sinatra was a mafia hoodlum and in 1998 the FBI released its files on the singer. Surveillance of Sinatra over many years showed that he had maintained contact with many mafia figures, including Luciano, the Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana, and the Chicago gangster Charles "Trigger Happy" Fischetti. Although charges were never pressed against Sinatra for his involvement with the mafia, it was alleged that mobsters helped his career get off the ground. Many of Sinatra's business activities, including his involvement in hotels and casinos, were undertaken in partnership with known mafia figures. Title: Re: Lewis rats out Sinatra, French cheer. Post by: stray on May 04, 2005, 05:13:05 PM That's such a misleading post title. This has nothing to do with the French. :x
Title: Re: Lewis rats out Sinatra, French cheer. Post by: Shockeye on May 04, 2005, 05:14:42 PM That's such a misleading post title. This has nothing to do with the French. :x The French love Jerry Lewis. Try to keep up. Title: Re: Lewis rats out Sinatra, French cheer. Post by: stray on May 04, 2005, 05:32:07 PM That's such a misleading post title. This has nothing to do with the French. :x The French love Jerry Lewis. Try to keep up. And I love the French :-D Which is why I'm disappointed...There's nothing for me here :| As for Jerry Lewis, I wonder how far Sinatra's daughters will go in blacklisting him. They get crazy vicious (redundant?) when people bring up this subject. I remember reading something about them harassing Ray Liotta just for making that Rat Pack movie. Forgot exactly what they did though.. Title: Re: Lewis rats out Sinatra, French cheer. Post by: Abagadro on May 04, 2005, 05:37:20 PM Quote Forgot exactly what they did though.. Severed horse head in the bed? Title: Re: Lewis rats out Sinatra, French cheer. Post by: stray on May 04, 2005, 05:43:40 PM Quote Forgot exactly what they did though.. Severed horse head in the bed? Yup, that's it. I think it was toy though. Heh. Title: Re: Lewis rats out Sinatra, French cheer. Post by: HaemishM on May 05, 2005, 08:28:23 AM How did Frank Sinatra courier for the mob?
He did it... Wait for it... His way. /rimshot. I'm sure my wife will beat me up now, not only for the bad joke, but for making a joke about the Italian Elvis. Seriously, Sinatra is to East Coast Italians what Elvis was to Southern rednecks. |