THE MYSTERIOUS SIDE OF BING CROSBY

Bing Crosby died on this day 48 years ago. His life, unlike fellow crooner Frank Sinatra was not too eventful. Sure rumors came out after Bing's death, but for the most part his life was quiet.

THERE may have been more to the bigger-than-life friendship between Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra than just broads and tossin’ back the booze. Like Sinatra, Crosby had a thing for mobsters.

He combined high-profile glittering nights with pals like Dorothy Lamour, Bob Hope and Mel Torme with illicit payoffs and gambling tours after dark. Considered America’s most cherished entertainer for his rendition of “White Christmas” and turn as a kindly priest in “The Bells of St. Mary’s” — Crosby was also the target of numerous death threats.

In the late ’50s, the FBI learned that Crosby was hobnobbing with mobsters, including mob frontman Moe Dalitz, who he invited to go deer hunting.

His passion for golf also led him into troublesome company. Crosby biographer J. Roger Osterholm said one of Crosby’s golf partners was Jack “Machine Gun” McGurn, an alleged gunman in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

“Crosby just loved golf; he didn’t care who he played with. I stress that it was just very innocent — it was just to play golf,” Osterholm said.

Partly, it seems Crosby was just a victim of the time and the place. One 1930s memo written by FBI agent Clyde Tolson says “an extremely serious situation exists in Hollywood … with all types and kinds of racketeers preying upon prominent persons in the motion picture industry.”

Tolson never speculated on who the racketeers were — but Bugsy Siegel, the mobster who built Las Vegas, and Frank Nitti, a henchman of Al Capone are mentioned.

Tolson revealed that Crosby had once coughed up $10,000 because of a threat hanging over him. Crosby was so fond of gambling, he would eagerly track down illegal games to blow his millions.

Reports says one memo detailing a 1947 raid on a Burbank, Calif., gambling joint noted that “approximately 100 patrons, among them being Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, were permitted to leave the place.”

It reprints a letter from a man who claimed to have gone on an all-night gambling binge in Nevada with Crosby and his first wife, Dixie Lee. “An argument broke out,” the man wrote.

“Two men held … Crosby with guns and four men walked me out, put me in a black Cadillac limousine, handcuffed me and took me for a real fast ride and beat me up in route … “

FBI reports show that one death threat Crosby received warned: “Crosby, I want you to send me $6,000 wright (sic) away. I hate your guts you Bastard. Your (sic) not going to make a fool out of me.

“You will have to send me all of your money for what you did to me and what you tried to do.”

The writer never explained how Crosby had allegedly wronged him.

Despite these FBI reports of Bing's gambling dealings, he left behind a sizeable estate. And when he left us on the golf course in Spain on October 14, 1977 he left behind countless records, movies, and maybe even a little mystery...