Sinatra told army he feared crowds to avoid service

Frank Sinatra associated with Mafia gangsters. He may have used his celebrity to avoid the military draft. And he was arrested and charged in 1938 for the crime of - yes, it was actually illegal in the US back then - seduction.

Those rather underwhelming disclosures were the highlights of the FBI files on Sinatra that were released last week. Some 1,300 pages, with just 25 pages withheld to protect the privacy of those still alive, were released to the public. Sinatra, who had requested to see the files in 1980 under the US Freedom of Information Act, did see them years before his death on May 14th. But this is the first time the public has seen the information in the files.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the reports, compiled over the course of a lifetime, was the disclosure that Sinatra had been disqualified from military service because of mental instability as well as a perforated eardrum.

The military examiner wrote: "During the course of the psychiatric interview the patient stated that he was neurotic, afraid to be in crowds, afraid to go to the elevator . . . The examining psychiatrist concluded that this selectee suffered from psychoneurosis and was not acceptable material from the psychiatric viewpoint."

It was a novel pathology for a celebrity. Michael Freedland, an author and Sinatra biographer, told the New York Times: "It's amazing that somebody who has 6,000 girls screaming at him at the Paramount Theater could claim that he is disturbed by crowds. He thrived on crowds."

The sexual misdemeanour with which Sinatra was charged in 1938 is, of course, no longer illegal. It is alleged that he had sexual relations with a "single female of good repute" under the "promise of marriage". The charge was dismissed when it was discovered the woman was married. A subsequent charge of adultery was also dismissed.

Perhaps most surprising was the extent to which the FBI failed to gather hard evidence on Sinatra's associations with the Mafia. While the report mentions many Mob friends of Sinatra, and discusses a $100,000 investment he made with Mob boss Carlo Gambino, an investment that proved worthless, the report fails to document any of the serious allegations that were made by rumour and innuendo over the years. The report confirms that Sinatra and his pal Dean Martin attended the 1959 wedding of Mobster Sam Giancana's daughter. It mentions meetings with Benjamin Bugsy Siegal, one of the Mob founders of Las Vegas.

But nowhere in the report is there mention of Judith Campbell Exner, the woman reported to have been a mistress to Giancana, Sinatra, and President John F. Kennedy. That omission may be because Ms Exner is still alive, and the report tries to delete all references to living persons.

Finally, there are no Sinatra documents after 1980, when his friend Ronald Reagan became president. Sinatra's family had no comment on the report.