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agents that if “Bobby Kennedy wantsto know anything about Momo all hehad to do was to ask Sinatra.”The agent reported the conversation back to Hoover who brought thecomment to Robert Kennedy’s attention. Kennedy told Hoover to increasethe FBI’s surveillance on Sinatra andthe Cal-Neva.The casino was already beinginvestigated because the Feds suspected that the casino’s manager,Skinny D’Amato, was running a statewide prostitution ring out of theplace. The agents suspected that thewomen were being flown in from SanFrancisco with the operation beingrun openly from the hotel front desk.(The above information and quotesagain from the Frank Sinatra FBI Files)Then, a few days after the ChuckieEnglish fiasco, there was the attempted murder of a Cal-Neva employeewho was shot on the front steps of thelodge. No one knows if it was mobrelated or not, since the incident washushed up.On June 30, 1962, Deputy SheriffRichard Anderson came to pick up hisbeautiful brunette wife at the lodgewhere she worked as a waitress Shehad been one of Sinatra’s girlfriendsfor a while before she marriedAnderson, three months before.Anderson had noticed the way Sinatrastared at his wife and heard about therude and off color remarks he madeto her. The Deputy, who was twiceSinatra’s tiny size, warned the singerto stay away from her. Sinatra backeddown and apologized and promised toleave the woman alone.But Sinatra was a man who brooded and let things build up inside himand on the night Anderson came topick up his wife, as he stopped by thekitchen to talk with some of the helpthere, Sinatra came in, saw AndersonCal-Neva in the 1940’sand ran up to him and screamed at him,“What the fudge are you doing, here?”Anderson remained calm and saidhe was waiting for his wife.Suddenly, while the cop was still inmid sentence, Sinatra grabbed himand tried to throw him out. After abrief wrestling match, Andersonended up punching Sinatra so hard inthe face that he couldn’t perform onstage for a week.Several weeks later, on July 17,1962, Anderson and his wife weredriving down Highway 28, not farfrom the Cal-Neva, when they weredriven off the road by a late modelmaroon convertible with Californiaplates. Driving at high speeds,Anderson lost control of his car, skidded off the road and smashed into atree, killing him instantly. His wifewas thrown from the car, and sufferedsevere broken bones and fractures.In an interview with a RenoTelevision station, Anderson’s mothersaid: “We still think to this day thatSinatra had something to do with ourson’s death.” Anderson’s left behindfour children.Sinatra’s troubles with the CalNeva weren’t over yet. A few daysafter Anderson was murdered, andone week before her own death,Marilyn Monroe flew to the Cal-Nevaat Frank Sinatra’s invitation.Sinatra told Monroe that he wanted to discuss their upcoming filmtogether, What a Way to Go. Monroedidn’t want to go, but someone toldMarilyn that Bobby Kennedy wouldbe there. It sounded logical toMonroe, since it had been in thepapers that the Attorney General wasin Los Angeles on business.Sinatra flew Monroe out on hisown plane along with Peter Lawford.Sinatra was no longer speaking toLawford after the Kennedy’s dumpedhim, and Lawfords wife, PatriciaKennedy Lawford.Exactly what happened that weekend at the Cal-Neva, isn’t known andmay never be known. LouieMcWillie, who was still working forSinatra at the Cal-Neva, said in anewspaper interview, “There wasmore to what happened up there thananybody has ever told. It would havebeen a big fall for Bobby Kennedy”.What is known is that there wasdinner with Momo Giancana andPhyllis Mcguire, Peter and PatCASINO CHIP AND TOKEN NEWS Spring 200569

Lawford, Frank Sinatra and MarilynMonroe.Momo, of course, had no businessbeing in the Cal-Neva since he waslisted in the Nevada Black Book,“The List of Excluded Persons”. Thebook was made up of persons forbidden to enter a casino, in fact, he wasat the top of the list of restricted persons, but, as San Francisco’s newcolumnist Herb Caen said: “I sawSinatra at the Cal-Neva when SamGiancana was there. In fact I metGiancana through Frank. He was atypical hood, didn’t say much. Hewore a hat at the lake, and sat in hislittle bungalow, receiving people.”(San Francisco Chronicle, June 3,1962).Exactly a year later, Sinatra’sinvolvement with the Cal-Neva cameto an end, when the McGuire sisterswere scheduled to perform there.Giancana was dating PhyllisMcGuire, with whom he shared achalet during her performance there.Unfortunately for Giancana,McGuire, Sinatra and the Cal-Neva,the FBI photographed the hood playing golf with Sinatra and havingdrinks and dinner together in the CalNeva dining room.The FBI was also watching thatsame evening when, during a smallparty in McGuire’s room, VictorLeCroix Collins, longtime friend andthe road manager of the McGuireSisters, became irritated when PhyllisMcGuire kept walking by his seat andpunching him on the arm.“So I told her,” Collins said, “youdo that again and I’m going to knockyou right on your butt. A half an hourlater she punches me again and so Igrabbed her by both arms and meantto sit her in the chair I got out of, butI swung around and missed the chairand she hit the floor. “She didn’t hurt70happened the night before, as a wellas several rolls of film of Sinatra withGiancana, filed its report, with photographs, with the State of NevadaGambling Control Board.McGuire Sistersherself but Sam came charging acrossthe room and threw a punch at mewearing a huge big diamond ring thatgouged me in the left eye”.“I just saw red then and grabbedhim, lifted him clean off the floor,and I was going to throw him throughthe plate glass door, but thought, whywreck the place? So, I decided to takehim outside and break his back on thehard metal railing on the patio. I gotas far as the door and then got hit onthe back of the head. I don’t knowwho hit me from behind but the backof my head was split open.”“It didn’t knock me out but I wentdown with Sam underneath me, hehad on a pearl gray silk suit andblood from my eye was running allover his suit. I had a hold of him bythe testicles and the collar and hecouldn’t move, that’s when Sinatracame in with his valet George, thecolored boy, they were coming to jointhe party, the girls were screamingand running around like a bunch ofchickens in every direction becausenobody knew what was going to happen. George just stood there with thewhites of his eyes rolling around andaround in his black face because heknew who Sam was and nobody everfought with Sam. Sinatra and Georgepulled me off of Sam, who ran outthe door.” (verbatim - FBI SinatraFiles)The next morning, the FBI, whichhad a fairly clear idea of what hadCASINO CHIP AND TOKEN NEWS Spring 2005After reading the report, theControl Board’s chairman, Ed Olson,called Sinatra at the Sands in LasVegas and asked about Giancanabeing on the property. Sinatra saidthat he saw a man who looked likeGiancana and that they just waved andnodded to each other and that was all.But the FBI also had wind of thefight and told the investigators whoflew to Omaha, where the McGuireSisters were playing at the OrpheumTheatre. They interviewed Collinswho filled them in and then wentback to Sinatra who denied knowinganything about it. Olson thankedSinatra for his time and hung up.There was little else he could do.Sinatra was a casino owner, with substantial investments in the state, andhe was also a major celebrity whowas singularly responsible for drawing tens of thousands of tourists intoNevada.Then the newspapers got hold ofthe story and backed Olson into a corner, forcing him to remark that hisinvestigation would not concludeuntil “certain discrepancies in theinformation provided by various people at Cal-Neva could be resolved.”Sinatra read that and called Olsonand asked him to come to the CalNeva for dinner “to talk about this,your statements.” Olson said that hefelt it was inappropriate to be seen atthe Cal-Neva having dinner withSinatra, since the singer was, technically, under investigation by Olson’soffice, and even if Sinatra weren’tunder investigation, Olson said, itwould still be unacceptable for theGaming Commissioner to be seenfraternizing with a casino owner.

“But frank kept insisting,” Olsonsaid, “and I kept refusing. The more Irefused the madder he got until heseemed almost hysterical. He used thefoulest language I ever heard in mylife.”To calm Sinatra down, Olsonagreed to meet Sinatra in Olson’soffice but Sinatra didn’t show up. Anhour later Sinatra called Olson in arage. “You listen to me Ed, you’reacting like a fudge-filled cop, I justwant to talk to you off the record.”Olson, in an attempt to take backthe high ground that his positionrequired said: “Who I am speakingto?”“This is Frank Sinatra! You fudging so-and so! F-r-a-n-k, Sinatra.”Olson avoided the insults and saidthat any meeting between them wouldhave to be on record in the presenceof witnesses. Sinatra cut him shortand screamed, “Now, you listen Ed! Idon’t have to take this kind of shitfrom anybody in the country and I’mnot going to take it from you people,I’m Frank Sinatra!”Sinatra went on and on, until, atone point, Olson warned Sinatra thatif he didn’t show up for an interviewthat Olson would have him subpoenaed. “You just try and find me,” thesinger threatened, “and if you do youcan look for a big fat surprise, a bigfat fudging surprise. You rememberthat, now listen to me Ed, don’t fudgewith me. Don’t fudge with me, justdon’t fudge with me.” (verbatim Sinatra FBI files)“Are you threatening me?” Olsonasked. “No.just don’t fudge with meand you can tell that to your fudgingboard of directors and that fudgingcommission too.”The next day two investigatorscame to watch the count at the Cal-Neva and Sinatra yelled across thecasino to Skinny D’Amato, “Throwthe dirty sons of bitches out of thehouse.”But since the count had alreadystarted, the agents left before an incident could be started, but came backthe next day, only to have D’Amatooffer them 100 each “to cooperate.”The agents reported the bribe toOlson, who took moves to revokeSinatra’s license.When the news was announcedthat Sinatra was under investigationand would probably lose his casinolicense, very few people in Nevadarushed to his aid. There were a lot ofpeople in Nevada who resentedSinatra, others despised him and veryfew people felt that he should havegotten a state gaming license in thefirst place, and the word around thecapitol building, was that Sinatraneeded to be taught a lesson.The lesson they taught him was totake away his license to operate acasino or hotel in Nevada, thus forcing him to sell not only his 50% inthe Cal-Neva, but also his 9% interestin the Sands, about 3.5 million dollarsworth of holdings in 1963.From the Kitty Kelly book, HisWay, “I talked to Sam (Giancana) thenext day,” said Joe Shimon, aWashington, D.C. police officerassigned to the Central IntelligenceAgency, “and he told me that Sinatrahad cost him over 465,000 on CalNeva.” He said, “That baboon andhis big mouth. All he had to do was tokeep quiet, let the attorneys handle it,apologize and get a thirty to sixty daysuspension but no, Frank has to geton the phone with that damn bigmouth of his and now we’ve lost thewhole damn place. He never forgavehim. He washed Frank right out of hisbooks.”The Rat PackNevada’s Governor, Grant Sawyer,stood behind the Gambling ControlBoard’s decision to yank Sinatra’slicense. However, while the case wasstill pending, President Kennedycame to the state and was given a caravan parade through the streets of LasVegas, and found himself sitting inthe same car with Governor Sawyer.Kennedy turned to Sawyer, and said,“Aren’t you people being a little hardon Frank out here?”The Governor didn’t reply, butlater repeated what Kennedy had saidto Ed Olson , who was startled by theremark. “That’s about the highestdegree of political pressure you couldever put into the thing,” Olson said.But the Cal-Neva incident was, forthe Kennedys, as Peter Lawford said,“the end of old Frankie boy as far asthe family was concerned.”During the three years that FrankSinatra had partnership in the CalNeva, there were only a few artifactswith his name on them, including afew chips, ashtrays and some otherscarce items.Copyright Steve Fischer 2005 AllRights Reserved.Steve writes and sells on eBay underthe name OmahaGrampa. His book,When the Mob Ran Vegas will befirst offered for sale during theCasino Chip and Gaming TokenConvention at the Riviera in August.CASINO CHIP AND TOKEN NEWS Spring 200571

Lodge was sold in 1960 to Frank Sinatra and Associates for 250,000. Everything - the whole place - for 250 Large! Frank Sinatra's Cal-Neva Lodge by Steve Fischer Cal-Neva in the 1930's What also didn't make the news-papers about the deal, was the FBI assumption that Sinatra was nothing more than a front in the Cal-Neva for