The Seedy Side of Frank Sinatra and other Beloved Historic Figures

Mussolini’s Seedy Side

Il Duce had underlings sort his fan letters by senders into “known” and “new”. After police background checks on the “new” women, the more interesting ones were put in folders and passed on to him. Those who caught his eye – usually big breasted and broad hipped – were summoned for an afternoon liaison at his palace. He wasted no time, and often got down to business immediately on the carpet, against the wall, or on a stone window seat. Those who pleased him were added to his many mistresses, and in correspondence with them, Mussolini held little back.

E.g.; ” O-r-g-a-s-m is good for you: it sharpens your thoughts, it widens your horizons, it helps your brain, makes it vivid and brilliant“. Or “Be afraid of my love. It’s like a cyclone. It’s tremendous; it overwhelms everything. You must tremble.” And “I tremble in telling you, but I have a feverish desire for your delicious little body which I want to kiss all over. And you must adore my body, your giant…” Or “Your flesh has got me – from now on I’m a slave to your flesh.” And ” I’m bad – hit me, hurt me, punish me, but don’t suffer. I love you. I think about you all day, even when I’m working.”

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

Ackroyd, Peter – Dickens (1990)

Atlantic, The, October 11^th, 2011 – Dickens in Love: How the Author’s Romantic Life Affected His Novels

Capeci, Jerry – The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Mafia (2005)

Carlson, W. Bernard – Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age (2013)

Cheney, Margaret – Tesla: Man Out of Time (2011)

Costanzo, Ezio – The Mafia and the Allies: Sicily, 1943, and the Return of the Mafia (2007)

Cracked – 20 Classy (but Still Kinda Sleazy) Facts About Frank Sinatra

Crime Museum – Frank Sinatra

Critchley, David – The Origin of Organized Crime in America: The New York City Mafia, 1891-1931 (2008)

Daily Beast – For 50 Years ‘The Godfather’ Has Sold Us a Beautiful Lie

Daily Best – What the Hell Has Hollywood Got Against Nikola Tesla?

Dormandy, Thomas – Opium: Reality’s Dark Dream (2012)

Duggan, Christopher – Fascism and the Mafia (1989)

Fuchs, Jeanne, and Prigozy, Ruth – Frank Sinatra: The Man, the Music, the Legend (2007)

Gambino, Richard – Vendetta: The True Story of the Largest Lynching in US History (2000)

GQ, June 20^th, 2019 – A Dirty, Rotten, Double Crossing (True) Story of What Happened to the Italian American Mob

Hamill, Pete – Why Sinatra Matters (1998)

Hari, Johann – Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs (2016)

Hertfordshire Life – The Dramatic Life and Passing of Prime Minister Lord Palmerston

History Collection – Hollywood’s Witch Hunt Created a Communist Blacklist for these Celebrities

Honolulu Star Advertiser, March 18^th, 2018 – Hawaii Ponzi Schemer and Professed Secret Agent Dies at 76

Los Angeles Times, November 7^th, 1999 – The Rise and Fall of Joseph McCarthy

Lupo, Salvatore – History of the Mafia (2009)

Mayer, Jane – Dark Money: The History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right (2016)

National Post, April 18^th, 2017 – ‘I Want to Harm You, Be Brutal With You’: How Mussolini’s Last Love, Fueled by Sex and Power, Shaped Him 

New Orleans Historical – Sicilian Lynching at the Old Parish Prison

National Public Radio – Dining Like Darwin: When Scientists Swallow Their Subjects

New York Times, September 3^rd, 1985 – CIA Officers Testify at Hawaii Fraud Trial

New York Times, January 12^th, 2016 – Father of Koch Brothers Helped Build Nazi Oil Refinery, Book Says

Neville, Peter – Mussolini (2004)

Ranker – 16 Extremely Dark Things You’d Never Suspect Charles Dickens Actually Did

Schulman, Daniel – Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America’s Most Powerful and Private Dynasty (2014)

Slate – What’s Fact and What’s Fiction in ‘The United States vs Billie Holliday?

Smithsonian Magazine, December 2005 – The Evolution of Charles Darwin

Smithsonian Magazine, October 11^th, 2011 – Edison vs Westinghouse: A Shocking Rivalry

Spiegel, November 26^th, 2009 – In Bed With Benito: Sex Diaries Reveal Mussolini’s Soft Side

Taraborrelli, J. Randy – Sinatra: Behind the Legend (2015)

Washington Post, May 5^th, 2017 – Five Myths About the Mafia

World History Project – Frank Sinatra is Arrested