Chapter 6 - Ethical Culture Fieldston School

“Mr. Sinatra Gets Rejected”
people – as it is a matter of passing data up the chain of command.) No one at
the Justice Department yet knows for sure that Sinatra is the connecting link
between Giancana, JFK and Campbell, but a series of bureau reports document
personal calls by Giancana – the focus of a major investigation of organized
crime – to Sinatra’s unlisted phone number. These reports also claim that
Giancana has been a frequent guest at Sinatra’s house in Palm Springs. This in
itself is a reason that Robert Kennedy says JFK can’t go there: the president
cannot politically afford to be entertained by a man who also hosts gangsters. 4
His brother reluctantly agrees. The presidential party will instead stay with
(Republican) Bing Crosby, who also has a house in Palm Springs. Security
considerations are the official reason given for changing the previously
announced plan to stay with Sinatra.
The president delegates his brother‐in‐law, Peter Lawford, a member of the
so‐called “Rat Pack” (Sinatra had changed its name to the “Jack Pack” during the
1960 campaign) to give Sinatra the news. One result of the conversation is that
Sinatra wields a sledgehammer. Another is that he shoots the messenger:
Lawford is literally written out of two movies in which he is to appear, and
Sinatra refuses to speak to him ever again. Twenty years later, upon learning
that Lawford and his wife were in the audience for a show at the Sands Hotel,
Sinatra delegates two security guards to remove him from the premises. “Mr.
Sinatra refuses to perform until you are gone,” he is told. 5
4 For versions of this story from the Kennedys’ perspective, see Peter Collier and David Horowitz, The
Kennedys: An American Drama (New York: Summit Books, 1984), pp. 294-295 and Richard Reeves,
President Kennedy: Profile of Power (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), pp. 292-293.
5 Taraborelli, pp. 267-268. “I tried several times to apologize for whatever it was that I had done to Frank,
but he has not spoken to me for over twenty years,” Peter Lawford told Kitty Kelly in 1983. “He wouldn’t
take my phone calls and wouldn’t answer my letters. Wherever I saw him at a party or in a restaurant, he
just cut me dead. Looked right though me with those cold blue eyes like I didn’t exist.” Lawford talked
about the problem with Sinatra’s daughter Tina, who encouraged him to keep trying, but to no avail. (592)
American History for Cynical Beginners
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