Read Frank Sinatra's Letter to Mike Royko

Read the entire 1976 letter written and signed by Frank Sinatra to newspaper columnist, Mike Royko.

May 30, 2022

During ANTIQUES ROADSHOW’s visit to Madison, Wisconsin, in 2009, a guest named Vie brought in a letter written and signed by Frank Sinatra on May 4, 1976, to newspaper columnist Mike Royko.

Sinatra wrote a scathing letter in response to Royko’s article in the Chicago Daily News accusing him of hiring a private Chicago Police Force detail while there were dangerous crimes happening in the city.

When Royko realized there was public interest in the letter, he published it in the Daily News and put it up for auction with the intent of donating the proceeds to the Salvation Army. Vie, a longtime fan of Royko’s work, purchased the letter with a $400 bid. At our 2009 event, Sports Memorabilia and Collectibles appraiser Simeon Lipman gave the letter a conservative auction estimate of $15,000. “I conferred with some of my colleagues here, and we all agree that it is the best Sinatra letter we ever read,” Lipman says.

Both Vie and Lipman note the humorous and uniquely “Sinatra” tone of the letter, which goes as far as to say, “Quite frankly, I don’t understand why people don’t spit in your eye three or four times a day.”

In December 2021, ROADSHOW reached out to Lipman and received an updated auction estimate of $20,000.

Read the full letter below:

Letter written to Mike Royko, May 4, 1976, by Frank Sinatra

May 4, 1976

Mr. Mike Royko
“Chicago Daily News”
401 No. Wabash Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60611

Let me start this note by saying, I don’t know you and you don’t know me. I believe if you knew me:

First, you would find immediately that I do not have an army of flunkies.

Secondly, neither myself, nor my secretary, nor my security man put in the request for police protection. It is something that’s far from necessary.

It’s quite obvious that your source of information stinks, but that never surprises me about people who write in newspapers for a living. They rarely get their facts straight. If the police decided that they wanted to be generous to me, I appreciate it. If you have any beefs with the Chicago Police Force, why not take it out on them instead of me, or is that too big a job for you?

And thirdly, who the hell gives you the right to decide how disliked I am if you know nothing about me. The only honest thing I read in your piece is the fact that you admitted you are disliked, and by the way you write I can understand it. Quite frankly, I don’t understand why people don’t spit in your eye three or four times a day.

Regarding my “tough reputation” you and no one else can prove that allegation. You and millions of other gullible Americans read that kind of crap written by the same female gossip columnists that you are so gallantly trying to protect; the garbage dealers I call hookers, and there’s no doubt that is exactly what they are, which makes you a pimp, because you are using people to make money just as they are.

Lastly, certainly not the least, if you are a gambling man:

You prove, without a doubt, that I have ever punched an elderly drunk or elderly anybody, and you can pick up $100,000.

I will allow you to pull my “hairpiece”; if it moves, I will give you another $100,000; if it does not, I punch you in the mouth. How about it?

SINATRA

cc: The Honorable Richard J. Daley Supt. James Rochford

Mr. Marshall Field, Publisher Mr. Charles D. Fegert, Vice Pres.

FS:d

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