Arrests, I’ve had a few*
Sinatra police records on sale
FRANK Sinatra was once charged with seduction and adultery – and the signed fingerprint card which proves it is up for auction.
In November 1938, aged 23, and before finding fame, Ol’ Blue Eyes was twice arrested in Bergen County, New Jersey – initially for seduction.
The singer was earning just $15 a week singing at a club there called The Rustic Cabin, where he became involved in a dispute between then-girlfriend, Toni Della Penta and Nancy Barbato.
After Toni tried to tear off her love rival’s dress in a jealous rage, Sinatra ordered Nancy away and told Toni he would marry Barbato because she was pregnant.
But furious Toni went to police complaining Sinatra was refusing to honour a marriage proposal he had made to her before sleeping with her.
His initial charge sheet in 1938 stated that “on the second and ninth days of November 1938 at the Borough of Lodi” and “under promise of marriage” Sinatra “did then and there have sexual inter- course with the said complainant, who was a single female of good repute.” When it emerged Toni was married, Sinatra was arrested a second time and charged with adultery. Both charges were dropped and, within a year after his arrest, Sinatra kept his word to stonemason’s daughter Nancy, by marrying her. The sheet, valued at £4,500, shows the ten fingerprints of “Sinatra, Francis Albert” and is signed in pencil by the accused. He is described as 5ft 8in, 125lb, with blue eyes. Sinatra’s occupation is given as “singer” although he was a long way from sell-out shows at Madison Square Garden and hits including Strangers in the Night in 1966 and My Way in 1969. The sheet is being sold by US auction house Julien’s on May 19. Boss Martin Nolan said: “It is fascinating to see his crime listed as ‘seduction’. It was clearly a very different time.” Sinatra, who died aged 82 in 1998, had close links to the mob but he was never convicted of any crime.