Frank Sinatra and the Mafia Murders

Drawing on recently released secret files, an astonishing look at the extent to which Frank Sinatra’s life and career were inextricably linked with the Mafia.

In Frank Sinatra and the Mafia Murders Mike Rothmiller and Douglas Thompson draw on previously secret Los Angeles Police intelligence files, a cache of FBI documents released to the authors in 2021 and extensive interviews with prime sources, to reveal the extent to which Sinatra’s life and career were inextricably linked with the Mafia.

Sixteen days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy on 30 November 1963, Frank’s nineteen-year-old son Frank Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped at gunpoint from his hotel room in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. A $240,000 ransom was demanded from his father. While the FBI and Nevada and California law-enforcement agencies sprang into action, Frank secretly contacted his Mafia friends for help. The Mafia believed they could free young Frank much more quickly through their underworld connections. Some of those they questioned died.

Revealed here as never before is the extent to which Sinatra was adopted by the Mafia. They promoted his career and ‘watched his back’ and, in return, Sinatra danced to their tune. New information disclosed here shows that Sinatra also offered to spy for the CIA. Inside sources say Sinatra wanted the CIA to intercede to stop an investigation into his gaming licence in Las Vegas. But the CIA declined because they were already working with the Mob and were concerned Sinatra would learn of the Mafia’s connection to the CIA and leak it.