NEW YORK (AP) An FBI file on Mickey Mantle shows he was threatened by gamblers and was blackmailed for having an affair with a woman, television station WCBS reported.
The 28-page file contains a report that in 1956 the New York Yankees great was blackmailed by an unidentified person for $15,000 after being caught in a "compromising situation" with a married woman, the station said Sunday night.
A 1963 entry has a source telling the FBI that Mantle received a number of telephone calls from a known gambler, the station said. The file also has a 1960 letter to Mantle threatening to shoot his knees.
Wayne Miller, a Dallas lawyer for the Mantle family, said: "They were dumbfounded the FBI would be looking into Mickey back in the mid 1950s. They knew no reason why the FBI should be following them. Merlyn (Mantle's wife) had no idea it was going on at that time."
The file covers Mantle's activities from 1956-63, the height of his career. The FBI declined to disclose why it opened a file on the late Hall of Famer, WCBS said. The agency kept files on many Americans.
The file was once delivered to the White House, but WCBS' report did not
say which president asked for it.
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modified: Thursday, 31-May-2007 09:42:13 EDT