Sinatra's Files See the Light of Day

Six months after the singer's death, the FBI has released its 1,300-page Frank Sinatra file to the public. With Ol' Blue Eye's affinity for gangsters already well known, much of the file's content--his various connections with Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, Sam Giancana and a list of assorted mobsters--comes as little surprise.

But the file also contains a few shockers. One of the newly released FBI memoranda from 1955 contains allegations that Sinatra, the future Ronald Reagan confidante, was a member of the Communist Party. According to another, the singer tried to bribe his way out of the draft, and claimed he was neurotic in his psychiatric evaluation.

Most of the charges aren't true. But the voluminous notes the FBI kept on Sinatra make us wonder what we will have to look forward to when the current crop of celebrities bites the dust. Somewhere squirreled away in a Washington file cabinet lie the secrets in Dennis Rodman's closet; the dark mysteries of Celine Dion and the true story of Leonardo DiCaprio. Until those yellowed files to see the light of day, we can only speculate what, in the words of the FBI, "Association with Criminals and Hoodlums" our favorite stars may have.

MAKING THE ROUNDS--Geoffrey C. Upton; WITH CLASPED HANDS--Molly Hennessy Fiske; FILED AWAY--Alan E. Wirzbicki