The Behrend beacon. (Erie, Pa.) 1998-current, December 10, 1998, Image 6
Page 6- The Behrend College Beacon - Thursday, December 10 , 1998 FBI documents on Sinatra detail decades of investigations By Ronald J. Ostrow and Lisa Getter Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON - The FBI opened its files Tuesday on entertainer Frank Sinatra, a 1,275-page dossier docu menting decades of probes into the singer’s life, from his alleged ties to organized crime to a tip from gossip columnist Walter Winchell that he had bought his 4-F draft exemption for $40,000. A bureau inquiry found the charge relayed by Winchell to be baseless. But the files, made public under the Freedom of Information Act, detail other probes into Sinatra’s life, with frequent mention of his links with such notorious mob figures as Lucky Luciano and Sam Giancana. Those associations produced no criminal charges against Sinatra, but reportedly were extensive enough to lead President John F. Kennedy to cool his relationship with the famed singer. The agency investigated allegations that Sinatra had links to the Commu nist Parly, as well as death threats made against the entertainer. The bureau rejected Sinatra’s offer to serve as an informant - an offer Jimmy Swaggart still preaching; few are listening By Joe Mathews The Baltimore Sun BATON ROUGE, La. - The Rev. Jimmy Swaggart plays a scale on his grand piano and slides off the bench to grab the microphone. “Praise Jesus!" he says, launching a spellbind ing two-hour sermon, which he inter rupts twice to record 30-second pro motional spots for the TV version. Swaggart yells. He collapses to the tloor. He recounts a conversation with God. Seven times, he abruptly breaks into tears. And he lays hands on a par tially paralyzed young man. "Jesus will heal you because he can heal you,” says Swaggart, weeping again. "I know we have sinned ... but Jesus, please, please help him." The tears resemble those that fell from Swaggart’s face in 1988, when the tele-evangelist, caught with a prostitute, told his congregation, "1 have sinned, my Lord.” Ten years later, everywhere Swaggart looks, his eyes see the dam age caused by his indiscretion in a New Orleans motel room. To his left and right, huge curtains block off seats and disguise the fact that his 7,000-seat Family Worship Center on Bluebonnet Road now at tracts only 500 to Sunday services. Outside, the 100-plus Hag poles that once carried the banners of every country where his sermons were broadcast stand unused. Decorating the stadium-sized, mostly vacant parking lot at the worship center are signs for a shuttle bus that long ago stopped running. Like Jim Bakker and Oral Roberts, Swaggart, 63, has lost much of his flock and his financial empire, which once enjoyed annual revenues of $ 150 million. But Swaggart still preaches the same message from the same place, his 200-acre complex in Baton Rouge. His only public concession to falling popularity is his use of pub lic-access channels (more popular cable outlets largely shun him) to broadcast his message to 250 TV markets at odd hours of the week. He remains, he says, an “old-fash ioned, Holy Ghost-filled, shouting, weeping, soul-winning, Gospel preaching preacher.” He still preaches that Jews and Catholics are going to hell, and he still assails - without a hint of irony or compromise - homo sexuality, pornography, psychology and, yes, prostitution and hypocrisy. And he still lives in the same gated mansion Read the Beacon similar to one the bureau accepted during the 1940 s from Ronald Reagan and his wife, actress Jane Wyman. The 4-F inquiry was conducted in 1944 after Winchell forwarded the FBI an anonymous letter outlining the allegations. The FBI concluded that This worried man ... added that there are certain sex activities by Kennedy that he hopes are never publi cized. (The informant) said he learned that these parties involving the Senator and Sinatra occurred in Palm Springs, Las Vegas and New York City.” Capt. Joseph Weintrob. the medical officer who examined Sinatra at a Newark, N.J., induction station, was justified in exempting Sinatra from military service because the singer had a perforated left eardrum and re lated ear problems. During a psychiatric interview that was part of the medical exam, Sinatra described himself as “neurotic, afraid to be in crowds,” leading the examin ing psychiatrist to find that the bobby- "We don't discuss the past because we don’t live in the past," says his son Donnie, 44, a vice president in Jimmy Swaggart Ministries. “We’ve moved past that.” Avoiding the past might prove im possible. In a book set to be published next month. Hunter Lundy, the attor ney who exposed Swaggart’s fond ness for prostitutes, suggests strongly that the minister was also a pedophile. Swaggart’s old rival, the Rev. Marvin Gorman, has re-emerged, driving a Toyota, doing tent revivals and gen erally posing a humbler eontrast. “The whole story is tragic,” says Gorman over breakfast in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie. “It’s very hard for people who have as much prominence as he and I did in the church to stay humble. Pride goes before destruction and the haughty spirit before the fall. And that crept into each one of us." Swaggart refused to be interviewed for this article. But his sermon offers a reply to his critics. “You can find things about me you don't like. And frankly, I don’t want to hear it,” he says. "If you look hard enough, you’ 11 find something good about me and say it.” At least, Swaggart adds, he has the ability to survive. Jimmy Lee Swaggart, born poor near the Mississippi River in Ferriday, La., started preaching on the revival circuit in 1958 with his wife, Frances, and a beat-up Plymouth. God, he says, has spoken repeatedly to him since he was 8 years old. The Lord instructed him to begin a TV ministry in 1973. By 1986, his TV shows reached 510 million people in 145 countries, and his complex in Baton Rouge made him one of the city’s largest employ ers. He mailed 7 million fund-raising letters a day, raised $135 million an nually in contributions, and used the money to build schools, churches and his own Bible college, while provid ing a lavish lifestyle for his family. His 1984 autobiography pro claimed, “There are no skeletons in the Swaggart closet,” but recounted a warning from a longtime triend. “There are men who can’t stand pros perity. They can’t stand fame. It goes to their head. They start to think they are God.” Swaggart seemed to ignore the ad vice. After pronouncing divine judg ment on tele-evangelists Jim Bakker and Marvin Gorman for their sexual indiscretions, Swaggart was investi gated by Gorman, who discovered World and Nation soxer idol suffered from psychoneuro- But because Sinatra was being re jected for physical grounds, the diag nosis was downgraded to a notation of “emotional instability” to avoid “undue unpleasantness for both the selectee and the induction service.” The agency’s review of Sinatra’s draft status was conducted under handwritten orders by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to do nothing “ir regular." In the draft report, the FBI noted that Sinatra had been arrested twice in 19.38 in Hackensack. N.J. - first on charges of seduction and then on adultery. The charges eventually were dismissed, but agents added two police mug shots of the singer to the Swaggart’s weakness for prostitutes. Swaggart apologized, famously: "I have sinned against you, my Lord, and I would ask that your precious blood would wash and cleanse every stain until it is in the seas of God's forget fulness, never to be remembered against me.” Swaggart received as much money from that single broad cast as he did in three months. Ten years later, that speech haunts him. Gorman won $ 1.85 million from Swaggart in a defamation suit. In 1991, Swaggart lost more followers when he was stopped with a prosti tute in Indio, Calif. A lack of financial contributions forced him to close dozens of churches, schools and medical pro grams overseas, and to lay oil hun dreds of staff in Baton Rouge. He liq uidated other assets to pay off debts such as the $1.4 million court judg ment in Dallas for failing to pay for Bibles. Right now, Jimmy Swaggart Min istries resembles nothing so much as a real-estate enterprise. Many of the buildings on the 200-acre campus have been leased to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Qual- ity or to private businesses. Swaggart’s Bible college is open, but enrollments have declined and the college recently dropped its founder’s Swaggart, his son says, feels vin dicated by the troubles of President Clinton. "A lot of people said he should confess his sin like Jimmy Swaggart,” says Donnie. Swaggart takes heart from several dozen new members who have begun attending services since 1991. “Everyone has trouble. It’s not for us to judge his personal life,” says Judy Washington, a Family Worship Center member from Port Allen, La. Adds Diane Bouche, who helps teach Sunday school: ‘Tve done things in my past that are worse. They just didn’t happen on TV. And he never gave up.” And he never stopped selling. On a recent Sunday, the church bookstore stayed open during services, and vol unteers distributed copies of Swaggart’s magazine, the Evangelist, complete with the Swaggart gill cata log. As he preached, ushers gave out tithe envelopes that ask for a credit card number. Younger visitors were offered admissions materials for the Bible college. The FBI dossier includes hundreds of references to Sinatra's ties to “criminals and hoodlums." Relying on unnamed informants, press reports and secret surveillance, the FBI spent nearly 30 years track ing Sinatra and his associates. Bugsy Siegel invited him to the opening of the Flamingo Hotel in 1946. Luciano listed him in his ad dress book in 1949. Giancana. Vito Genovese and Thomas Luchese were his guests in Atlantic City in 1959. James John Warjac. who had made it to the FBl's 10 Most Wanted List, had a picture of Sinatra dealing blackjack when Warjac was nabbed in 1960. Joe Fischetti dined with him in Miami in 1968. Ilil infonmuu Gangsters all, the FBI said. One 1961 memo noted that Giancana and Sinatra liked to have contests to see who could spend the most money buying drinks and trin kets for their friends in Chicago. But Sinatra told the FBI that Giancana “was only someone he re called meeting at an airport." Particularly worrisome to the FBI was Sinatra's relationship with Presi dent Kennedv. Berkeley to clamp on homeless street By Edward Wong and Maria L LaGanga Los Angeles Times BERKELEY, Calif. - Here in the land of free speech and the home of the brazen, a City Council of leg endary liberalness is poised to choose capitalists over street kids. Tuesday night, Berkeley’s coun cil is expected to ratify an ordinance aimed at taking the city’s colorful main commercial streets back from ;bands of homeless street youths and their dogs wjio have turned of Telegraph and Shattuck avenues into urban campgrounds. “What we’re trying to do is en sure sidewalk accessibility,” said Council Member Polly Armstrong, who co-authored the pioposed or dinances. “We continue to be an ex tremely liberal city, and we’re proud of that. But there's a differ ence between liberal and lawless.” The proposed rules - which bubbled up from complaints by business owners about aggressive panhandling and open drug deal ing - would prohibit people from sleeping or lying on Telegraph and Shattuck during the day. In the ca nine corollary, the regulations would ban three or more dogs from standing or lying within 10 feet of UNICEF: 1 billion to poverty By John M. Goshko The Washington Post UNITED NATIONS - One billion people - nearly a sixth of humanity - will enter the 21 st century doomed to poverty because they are unable to read a book, write their names or master other skills necessary to hold a job, UNICEF reported Tuesday, “The consequences of illiteracy are profound - and even potentially life threatening. For millions and millions of children, education is literally a matter of life and death,” UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy wrote in the agency’s annual report on illiteracy, “The State of the World’s Children 1999.” In underdevelo; timated 130 million children, about 40 percent of the elementary school age population, either never enter school or drop out, the report says. Of that total, 73 million are girls. Even in many industrialized coun tries, 15 percent to 20 percent are functionally illiterate, unable to un derstand a job application, much less operate a computer or develop other As a senator, the FBI noted, Kennedy attended “an alleged indis creet party" with Sinatra, other guests and several prostitutes. Even Kennedy’s campaign man ager was concerned, the FBI reported it was told by a reliable informant. “This worried man... added that there are certain sex activities by Kennedy that he hopes are never publicized. (The informant) said he learned that these parties involving the Senator and Sinatra occurred in Palm Springs, Las Vegas and New York City." One informant told the FBI that the underworld was using Sinatra to gain access to the White House. Indeed, the FBI noted. President Kennedy called Sinatra in Atlantic- City in 1962 while Sinatra was attend ing the wedding of Philadelphia mob boss Angelo Bruno’s daughter. In 1954, the Army refused to aliow Sinatra clearance to entertain the troops in Korea, saying he had failed a security clearance because “serious questions existed as to Mr. Sinatra’s sympathies with respect to commu nism. communists, and fellow travel incensed, Sinatra argued that "he hated and despised everything that each other. Some students at the University of California campus, which sits at the top of Telegraph Avenue, wel come the proposed Berkeley ordi- nances. “I don’t mind them cracking down, because it gets really annoy ing here,” says 20-year-old senior Weijean Strand. “This is a college town, and I know people come here because of the freedom. But at the same time, you want to upkeep the community.” The homeless, however, are less than impressed. Shane Scully, a 27- year-old with a large blue star tat tooed on his forehead, calls the side walks of Telegraph Avenue home and has no plans to leave. “Why should I go someplace else to be happy when I’m happy here?” asked Scully, a native Rhode Is lander who lounged on a green blanket one recent day with his Rottweiler, Isabelle. Sometimes called the “People’s Republic of Berkeley,” this city has stood since the 1960 s as a symbol of tolerance. Nothing embodies that spirit more than Telegraph Avenue, with its colorful array of bookshops, cafes and street vendors who sell everything from pottery to “I Love Hemp” T-shirts. But a coa- skills necessary to survive in the com petitive global economy. Using statistics from a variety of sources, UNICEF found that children with no basic education will face dif ficulties that go far beyond support ing themselves and their families. Education is vital in helping people achieve fundamental human rights, such as health, nutrition and safe childbirth, the report says. It also says literacy helps people learn to manage conflict and respect diversity in society: “On a society wide scale, the denial of education harms the cause of democracy and social progress and, by extension, in ternational peace and security.” The goals of expanding access to and improving childhood education, agreed upon at a 1990 world confer ence, have progressed more slowly than hoped, the report noted. The lag is particularly acute in providing edu cation for girls and women. Individual national governments hold primary responsibility, the report concludes. While education was de clared a human right under the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the ied countries, an es- Illiteracy pertained to communoni I'an .a n end of the meeting, the genci .n- . fused lo change their mm.K 11 however, compliment Sum performance in the Idm I : ' 1 1 !!. i. to Eternity." according i.' i o'", t t the meeting. In the midst of writing a h' * 'k .tN.t,; her father in 1 96 l >. Nano; 'on >f ' wrote to FBI Directin' If ” '■ ( !"i 1 - help. To make my hook complci ■ ! IoT that true experiences slu:c.l v mF ! friends will allow the p.M'li. ; the real Frank Sinatra.' ; r "I would like to kilo v. |F' 1 1 ' moment that \on haw * *>->’ s Daddy that stands out a* dm ; memorable in your mind Interestingly. Iloo\ Nancy Sinatra's Idler. Km mu no secrets in his response In - !c.m. 1 told her about a coineiviimn !:. with Sinatra on Dee. 11. nr J.. Frank Jr. was returned viteK .me h kidnapping. Hoovct -..mi lu i-m Sinatra to keep mum mini m ..1 was closed. "Your father, ol com sc. coopri m in every possible waw lh>o\ci » m down youths lition of merchants has demanded that the city sweep the streets eh an of these young wanderers and tin ir canine companions and lin t atened they would move their businesses elsewhere. “I think there's a time when tie. community just has to come to gether and say, ‘lies, we're luim victimized here,’ " said M a'. Weinstein, owner of Amoeba Me sic, which has been on lihg< h;l Avenue for nine years. Kriss Worthington, tin- 1 ii> • ■ 1 cil member who represent - b a graph and cast the sole \“U a-.a.i: . the new rules, suggests th;*> • ii l needs to work on more lone. !i * solutions, including homeh -s !i ■. ■! ters, detox programs and c ni.a , ment of existing laws “rathe; dmo making up a host ol new in w s.' Kain Wesson. 20. i'uiin < u Utah,said he’s been in Bcrk--'i > »• i months and insists lie and hi - weiler, Jezebel, won't lie ilnr-id “I don’t care what tins an u ing to do. I’m going to do w lnto <. I want with my dog. M\ dog ha, m as much right as I do,” said es-„ a who was wearing a black knit < .i| Army fatigue pants and a I - in with a cannabis plant logo. dooms Child, “there lias not Ivcn sidla political will” in main countin', make the necessary investment money and effort, it savs. “To achieve education tor all ciul dren, the world would need to spem an additional $7 billion a ve.tr ovc the next 10 years.” the repoii noic - "This is less than is annua!!’, speni. cosmetics in the United Stales oi o ice cream in Europe.” Among Third World eounti io if, report finds that the greatest mtpi o, e ments during the last Ids ears m I .at n America and Asia. But even m these areas, vast disparities remain Iviw ec haves and have nuts. The report cites isolated "brigl spots” where innovative el forts at being made to expand literacy In t!i Philippines, itinerant icachcm in backpacks over rugged terrain t bring classes to children in isolate provinces. In Cambodia, teaehei from different villages share mulct als. And in many countries anion them Nepal, Nicaragua and the Ik minican Republic - efforts are hem made to expand teaching owi th- r. dio.