Late Tony Bennett Quit The Mafia After Falling Victim to Mobster's Brutal Phone Book Beating, Biographer Reveals

Crooner Tony Bennett may have left his heart in San Francisco — but he nearly left his whole body in Las Vegas after crossing a notorious hit man, RadarOnline.com can reveal.

The singer, who died at 96 on July 21, had dangerous ties to the Mafia, which gave his career a boost when he was just starting out. Biographer David Evanier revealed Bennett was helped with financing and nightclub access by members of Chicago racketeer Al Capone's family.

"The wise guys controlled the clubs all across the country, from the Copacabana in New York to the 500 Club in Atlantic City," Evanier wrote in his 2011 bestseller, All the Things You Are: The Life of Tony Bennett.

While the rising singer initially benefited from the mob's muscle, Evanier said Bennett also felt its wrath when he ran afoul of infamous hit man Tony Spilotro, a brutal enforcer who inspired Joe Pesci's kill-crazy character in the mob movie Casino.

Bennett's past was full of dark secrets, according to his ex-wife Sandra Grant Bennett, who blasted the singer as a drug-dazed "old fool."

"The Tony I knew is not the same smiley Mr. Nice Guy the world knows," she ranted four years before his death. "He's been a star to three generations, but this wonderful singer has another side to him."

Bennett and Sandra wed after she had given birth to Bennett's daughter Joanna in 1970. The two had a second daughter, Antonia, in 1974, before separating in 1979 — although they didn't officially divorce until 2007.

She also went into detail about how she saved the singer from dying of a drug overdose.

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Devastated by the death of his beloved mom in 1977 and with barely any work outside Las Vegas, Bennett OD'd on cocaine and passed out in a bathtub. Sandra was the one who rushed him to the hospital.

She went on to claim that Bennett ruined her financially because he owed back taxes, alleging he "allowed our family home to be sold out from under us, even though his daughters and I had nowhere else to live."

Bennett's longtime publicist, Sylvia Weiner, confirmed his death last month. The New York State of Mind singer suffered from Alzheimer's disease until the end. He kept his battle with the degenerative brain disease a secret until 2021.

Bennett left behind four adult children and his third wife, Susan Crow, whom he wed in 2007, almost immediately after divorcing Sandra.