Did Frank Sinatra call the mafia on the Mamas and Papas?
Tales of the Mamas and Papas’ antics were infamous. The folk-rock group might have been the ultimate hippie soundtrack, but their behaviour was pure rock and roll chaos.
The band’s history is a rollercoaster of affairs, arguments and the dangerous consequence of complete and utter hedonism. The Californian four-piece took the free love of the 1960s seriously, creating an environment where no relationship or vow was sacred. Throw in excessive drug use and a real penchant for LSD, and there are enough explosive incidents for hundreds of articles.
It’s not like the band had started out calmly and slowly grown messier as the years went on and their fame threw. The band’s origins were just as tumultuous. It all started when John Phillips met a young model and cheated on his wife with her. Eventually, the pair married, making the origin of John and Michelle Phillips’ relationship instantly based on infidelity. Throughout their marriage, this pattern continued. One of the most infamous affairs was between Michelle Phillips and bandmate Denny Doherty.
“Cass wanted me, I wanted Michelle, John wanted Michelle, Michelle wanted me, she wanted her freedom,” Doherty said of the band’s many conflicting interrelationships. Even when outside parties were brought into the drama through affairs or relationships, the band’s worst fights were kept within their fold.
But in the mid-1960s, their behaviour almost had deathly consequences. While still married to his bandmate, infamous cheater John Phillips is said to have entered an affair with Mia Farrow. At the time, Farrow was married to Frank Sinatra but was enjoying her newfound fame as a counterculture darling thanks to her role in Rosemary’s Baby.
While Sinatra was on tour, Phillips and Farrow were playing with fire. “John spent the night or weekend at Frank’s house,” his friend Bill Cleary told The Guardian, “After that John started dating Mia.”
Eventually, ol’ Blue Eyes found out about the affair and was obviously furious. “Frank was pissed,” Cleary continued in what is a considerable understatement. Sinatra was so angry over the affair that he allegedly got in contact with his mafia connections.
Sinatra’s ties to the mob are a whole other sludgy history. At the time of his death in 1998, the FBI had a file of thousands of pages on the singer’s movements and relationships that tied him to the biggest organised crime bosses of his time.
One key figure that Sinatra was close friends with was Sam Giancana, Chicago’s biggest and most notorious mob boss. After finding out about the affairs, Sinatra reportedly instructed Giancana to send a warning to Phillips. Apparently, a few mafia men paid the singer an intimidating visit. “John told them all to fuck off,” Cleary said of the incident, “We did, however, buy guns after that!”
After being threatened, Phillips swiftly bought some weapons to protect himself, but it’s unknown whether he stopped seeing Mia Farrow. With a debaucherous and disturbing history of infidelity and alleged abuse, this near-deadly run-in with the mafia isn’t even the worst of John Phillips’ track record.
