Childhood: Frank Sinatra was born to Natalie Della and Anthony Sinatra, in Hoboken, New Jersey. His mother, known as Dolly, ran an illegal abortion business and was twice arrested for it.

Contrary to F. Scott's Fitzgerald's pronouncement, American lives do have second acts. So why is the final act so conspicuously absent in James Kaplan's new Frank Sinatra biography, "Frank: The ...