Frank Sinatra had to beg for his life after the New York mafia took out a hit on him in the early 1970s, according to a new book.
Mafia Takedown, written by former FBI agent Mike Campi, reveals the singer had so enraged the Genovese crime family that he was summoned to a secret meeting in an East Harlem basement by ruthless mob puppet master ‘Fat Tony’ Salerno.
It was here that one of Campi’s informants, the Genovese ‘soldier’ George Barone, was instructed to kill Sinatra.
The crooner’s ties to the mafia are the stuff of Hollywood legend – so much so that the character of Johnny Fontane in The Godfather is said to have been based on his life.
‘Rumors long circulated that he was close to gangsters and that they boosted his career from the outset,’ writes Campi – who led one of the most successful attacks on organized crime in the US.