SINATRA’S MURDEROUS MOB PAL

IN LAS Vegas, where Frank Sinatra held court at the Caesar’s Palace casino, the singer was often surrounded by mobsters.

One, a gorilla of a man known as Maxie, had an exceptionally beautiful girlfriend.

Leonard was smitten, but he knew better than to get involved. Although he had grown up among villains in West London — one of his father’s associates had been Gordon Goody, the mastermind of the Great Train Robbery — the Mafia scared Leonard.

He stuck around, though, for Sinatra’s wedding to Barbara Marx, his fourth wife, and did the bride’s hair, as well as tending Sinatra’s wig. About a year later, he was back in Vegas and found himself being stared at by mobster Maxie. Struggling for small-talk, Leonard asked after his girlfriend.

‘She died,’ said Maxie. Shocked, Leonard offered his condolences and asked what had caused her death. ‘ Crabs,’ said Maxie, a reference to sexually transmitted disease. Leonard was baffled, and said he didn’t think people could die from crabs.

‘They can,’ said Maxie, ‘if they give them to me.’