Hearsay plagued the famous fifties crooner throughout his life and, perhaps even more so after his death, with many theorising over his supposed ties to organised crime. Turns out that there's probably a pretty good dossier of evidence out there about old blue eyes and his relationship with the mob - the FBI kept Sinatra under surveillance for almost five decades, owing to avowed professional and personal links with mafia dons Carlo Gambino, Sam Giancana, Lucky Luciano, and Joseph Fischetti - and he even had a character modelled after him in The Godfather. What's less known is that Sinatra may have gotten involved with criminal underworld in the first place because, in actuality, he was working as an informant for the feds. Declassified documents from the FBI hint at a time in the mid-fifties where Sinatra himself volunteered to work as a spy for them, himself stating that he felt "as a result of his publicity he can operate without suspicion". Apparently they turned him down but, according to his daughter Tina, his offer was taken up by the CIA. Rather than doing anything approaching espionage, however, the singer instead act as a secret courier for them. A courier of people. Because he flew all around the globe on his own private jet, it was pretty easy for him to cover for the CIA when they wanted somebody out of the country, without leaving a trail. Which makes his rendition of Come Fly With Me a heck of a lot more sinister.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/