WASHINGTON -- The rumors about Frank Sinatra that filled the Hollywood gossip columns for years are nothing compared with the singer's 1,300-page FBI file.
Francis Albert Sinatra -- draft dodger? The allegation, however unfounded, is there.Ol' Blue Eyes, friend of the mob? There, too.
The Chairman of the Board, a would-be FBI special agent? His offer is included, in black and white, for the public to finally see.
The FBI released all but 25 pages of its files about Sinatra on Tuesday, following a Freedom of Information request from The Associated Press and other news organizations. Sinatra himself saw the material after filing his own requests in 1979 and 1980. He died in May at age 82.
The Sinatra family had no comment on the public release of the documents, their spokeswoman, Susan Reynolds, said.
The FBI opened its file in February 1944, after gossip columnist Walter Winchell passed along a tip that the breadstick-thin singer had paid a doctor $40,000 to give him a phony 4-F draft rating.
The agency investigated and concluded "that Sinatra was suffering from an ear ailment and that his rejection was in conformance with the then-existing Selective Service regulations."
Over the ensuing years, the file filled up with allegations that were similarly sensational -- and often unfounded. The hand-typed pages released Tuesday are full of redactions, black marks used to cover the names of innocent parties.
A Sept. 7, 1950, confidential memorandum showed Sinatra offering his assistance to the FBI. Using an unidentified go-between, the Hoboken, N.J., native told FBI officials that he felt there was an opportunity to "do some good for his country under the direction of the FBI," the memo said.
The singer, the memo continued, was "willing to do anything even if it affects his livelihood and costs him his job."
A February 1947 memo, rounding up all the FBI's information on Sinatra to that point, offered a section titled "Association with Criminals and Hoodlums."
It briefly mentioned a Sinatra meeting with Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel and a gift of a dozen shirts from a Chicago mob acquaintance of Al Capone.