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4 e@e MOTLETLE, me ax . Lollywood last April. But if was now Too, mete eye serge 4 Se:ious inquiries inte Sinatra’s past and his a — ations. In anticipation of his trial in the Mor. er slugging fase, a canvass was inade of his early career, The seduction case turned up and Sinatra's photographs and fingerprints from the court files were sent to California. Meanwhile, the i. B. I. and the Bureay of Narcotics had em records in the routine course of Their work. Hoth of these agencies were inferested, invmany oF Sinatra s associates—Luciano, the Fischettis ang Wilhe Moretti, a notorious New dersey gangster, who for years has been associated wiih Weanke Coctello, doe, Adonis, | Vongle Zwillman, Meyer Lansky and the late Bugsy Siegal, Moretti is commonly known. as Willie Moore. 1 enero donis, 2 mighty man in the underworld of New York \ and Brooklyn, recently moved to Bergen Gounty, N. J., where Moore ty the absolute underworld boss. It was in Bergen County that Sinatra was arrested in 1938 on a charge of se- duction and causing the pregnancy of an unmarried young woman. Sinatra was in the roadhouse stage of his career and Moretti, or Moore, was his friend of some years, The complaining witness developed a husband in about one month, so the charge waa reduced to adultery which, naturally, was beneath tha notice of 3 worldly Bergen County grand jury. TO INDICTMENT WAS FOUND and Sinatra was dis- LN charged. The incident did indicate a certain precocity, however, for it will be observed that the facts of the case never wera tried and that this experience of the youth so soon to become the idol of American girlhood was by no means common to decent young American males, however poor. Incidentally, Sinatra’s polttical appeal has been based on the piteous pretenses that he was a poor boy and was called a “Dago’’ when he was a child. He never was dirt poor, however, ant! always had a comfortable home m Hohoken, where his father is a captain of the Fire Department, an im- portant political appointment in that jurisdiction. There were many respectable Italian-Americans In the area, so the picture of little Frank Sinatra as a sensitive and oppressed member of an ostracized minority is an invention of self-serving and self-pitying publicity. By choice, Sinatra became the friend of Moretti, who was no credit to the Ital- jan community. Frank appears to have been tough only in a sly and tricky way. He never made a name as an upstanding, man-fashion fighter, Jn his only confirmed public fistfight it was shown that he slugged Baten winti Tan BW, his victim, Lee Mortimer, with a sneak punch from behind or from @ blind side. Mortimer did not even know Sinatra was near. OT ONLY SINATRA but the claque of radio and syndicated newspaper columnists and propagandists who advertise wnder- world personalities are clamorous idolators of the late Roosevelt | and partisan Democrais. Many of them and, of course, thousands of magnates and actors of the movie industry and radio enter- tainers elbowed for room in the spotlights te show themselves to Roosevelt and the other party bosses in the March of Dimes and Birthday Bali rites. The hangouts of such people have long been the unofficial political headquarters of the bosses and aristocrats of the new rul- ing class. It was at Toots Shor's restaurant, in New York, fre- quented by Longie Zwillman and similar trade, ihat Bob Hannegan, the Postmaster General, then chairman of the Democratic National Committee, who also makes the place his spiritual home in town, invited Sinatra to visit President Roosevelt in the White House. This was toward election time in 1944. Shor was in wrong with the O. P. A. at the moment over red points for steaks, put Hannegan invited him, too, and Sinatra and Shor were duly re- celved. Prior io this time, Sinatra had been classified 1-A by his draft. hoard but had not been called. E. J. Kahn, Jr., a very friendly biographer reporis that after the visit with Roosevelt, Sinatra gave $7,500 to the Democratic campaign fand for the fourth term. A few months later, in March, 1945, he was permanently de- ferred on final orders from Washington. fn tomorrow's Journal-American Westbrook Pegler continues his ; forceful, factual blasis against injustice. Don't miss his colemn isa Sandey's Joursal-Amorican either, . |