Paul,
TO answer your question more specifically, yes they did. Here is how ; Peter Lawford was married into the Kennedy family and also a member of Sinatras group. Peter intorduced Sinatra to John F. Kennedy and they hit it off from the get go. When John F. Kennedy was running for President, he used Sinatras connections with Sam Giancana to have Giancana use his Union Influences to convince the union memebers to vote John F. Kennedy. For if Kennedy did not get the Union votes, then most likely he would have lost the election. Giancana did this as a favor to Sinatra on behalf of the Kennedys. However once Kennedy won the Presidency, he eventually appointed his brother Robert Attorney General and his father and brother Robert decided that they no longer wanted any affiliations with Sinatra because he had connections to Sam Giancana! SO basically they used him. To add insult to injury, Brother Robert went after the same mobsters who a few years earlier helped put his brother in office! That is why the mob was so pissed off, and almost took it out on Sinatra. WHat always bothered me about the Kennedys is that they, especially Father Joe and brother Robert, forgot where they came from. Always pointing fingers, going after people, etc. Joseph Kennedy was a bootlegger, that's how they made all of thier money, Illegally! THen years later they had the nerve to call this one and that one criminals! Well, as they say " The Sins of the Fathers." Guess that was true for the entire Kennedy family.