The Bug
BornBenjamin Siegel[1][2]
February 28, 1906
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.DiedJune 20, 1947 (aged 41)
Beverly Hills, California, U.S.Cause of deathHomicideResting placeHollywood Forever CemeteryResidenceLos Angeles, CaliforniaOther namesBenny, Bug, Bugs, BugsyEthnicityJewishOccupationRacketeer, gangster, casinoownerParent(s)Max Siegel
Jennie Riechenthal[1]RelativesSee Siegel familySignature
Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel (February 28, 1906[1] – June 20, 1947) was a Jewish American mobster. Siegel was known as one of the most "infamous and feared gangsters of his day".[3]Described as handsome and charismatic, he became one of the first front-page-celebrity gangsters.[4] He was also a driving force behind the development of the Las Vegas Strip.[5]Siegel was not only influential within theJewish mob but, like his friend and fellow gangster Meyer Lansky, he also held significant influence within theItalian-American Mafia and the largely Italian-Jewish National Crime Syndicate.
Siegel was one of the founders and leaders of Murder, Incorporated[6] and became a bootlegger during Prohibition. After Prohibition was repealed in 1933, he turned to gambling. In 1936, he leftNew York and moved to California.[7] In 1939, Siegel was tried for the murder of fellow mobster Harry Greenberg. Siegel was acquitted in 1942.
Siegel traveled to Las Vegas, Nevadawhere he handled and financed some of the original casinos.[8] He assisted developer William Wilkerson's Flamingo Hotel after Wilkerson ran out of funds.[9]Siegel took over the project and managed the final stages of construction. The Flamingo opened on December 26, 1946 to poor reception and soon closed. It reopened in March 1947 with a finished hotel. Three months later, on June 20, 1947, Siegel was shot dead at the Beverly Hills home of his girlfriend, Virginia Hill.
Early life
Murder, Incorporate
By the late 1920s, Lansky and Siegel had ties to Charles "Lucky" Luciano andFrank Costello, future bosses of theGenovese crime family. Siegel, along with Albert "Mad Hatter" Anastasia, Vito Genovese, and Joe Adonis, allegedly were the four gunmen who shot New York mob boss Joe Masseria to death on Luciano's orders on April 15, 1931, ending the Castellammarese War.[32][33]On September 10 of that year, Luciano hired four trigger men from the Lansky-Siegel gang (some sources identify Siegel being one of the hit men[34][35]), to murder Salvatore Maranzano, in his NY office, establishing Luciano's rise to the top of the U.S. Mafia and marking the beginning of modern Americanorganized crime.[36]
In 1931, following Maranzano's death, Luciano and Lansky formed theNational Syndicate, an organization of crime families that brought power to the underworld.[6][37] The Commission was established for dividing Mafia territories and preventing future wars.[6] With his associates, Siegel formed Murder, Incorporated. After Siegel and Lansky moved on, control over Murder, Inc. was ceded to Buchalter and Anastasia.[20]Siegel continued working as a hitman[38]His only conviction was in Miami. On February 28, 1932, he was arrested forgambling and vagrancy, and, from a roll of bills, paid a $100 fine.[5]
During this period, Siegel had a disagreement with associates of Waxey Gordon, the Fabrizzo brothers.[39]Gordon had hired the Fabrizzo brothers from prison after Lansky and Siegel gave the IRS information about Gordon's tax evasion. It led to Gordon's imprisonment in 1933.[21][40]
Siegel hunted down the Fabrizzos, killing them after their assassination attempt on Lansky as well as Siegel himself.[40] After the deaths of his two brothers, Tony Fabrizzo began writing amemoir and gave it to an attorney. One of the longest chapters was to be a section on the nationwide kill-for-hire squad led by Siegel. The mob discovered Fabrizzo's plans before he could execute it.[41] In 1932, Siegel checked into a hospital and later that night snuck out. Siegel and two accomplices approached Fabrizzo's house and, posing as detectives to lure him outside, gunned him down.[40][42]According to hospital records, Siegel'salibi for that night was that he had checked into a hospital.[41] In 1935, Siegel assisted in Luciano's alliance with Dutch Schultz and killed rival loan sharks Louis "Pretty" Amberg andJoseph Amberg.[43][44]
California
Siegel had learned from his associates that he was in danger.[45] His hospital alibi had become questionable and his enemies wanted him dead.[46] In the late 1930s, the East Coast mob sent Siegel to California.[47] Since 1933, Siegel had traveled to the West Coast several times,[48] and in California, his mission was to develop syndicate gambling rackets with Los Angeles crime familyboss, Jack Dragna.[49] Once in Los Angeles, Siegel recruited gang bossMickey Cohen as his chief lieutenant.[50]Knowing Siegel's reputation for violence and that he was backed by Lansky and Luciano who, from prison, sent word to Dragna that it was "in [his] best interest to cooperate",[38] Dragna accepted a subordinate role.[45] Siegel moved Esta and their daughters, Millicent and Barbara, to California. On tax returns he claimed to earn his living through legal gambling at Santa Anita Park near Los Angeles.[51] In Los Angeles, Siegel took over the numbers racket.[52] He used money from the syndicate to help establish a drug trade route from the U.S. to Mexico and organized circuits with the Chicago Outfit's Trans-America Wire service.[30][53]
By 1942, $500,000 a day was coming from the syndicate's bookmaking wire operations.[30][52] In 1946, because of problems with Siegel, the Chicago Outfittook over the Continental Press and gave the percentage of the racing wire to Jack Dragna, infuriating Siegel.[53][54]Despite his complications with the wire services, Siegel controlled several offshore casinos[55] and a majorprostitution ring.[19] He also maintained relationships with politicians, businessmen, attorneys, accountants, and lobbyists who fronted for him.[56]
Hollywood
In Hollywood, Siegel was welcomed in the highest circles and befriended stars.[30] He was known to associate with George Raft, Clark Gable, Gary Cooper and Cary Grant,[38][57] as well as studio executives Louis B. Mayer andJack L. Warner.[58] Actress Jean Harlowwas a friend of Siegel and godmother to his daughter Millicent. Siegel led an extravagant life. He bought real estate, and threw lavish parties at his Beverly Hills home.[30] He gained admiration from young celebrities, including Tony Curtis,[59] Phil Silvers, and Frank Sinatra.[60] Siegel had several relationships with actresses, including socialite Dorothy DiFrasso, the wife of an Italian count. The alliance with the countess took Siegel to Italy in 1938,[61]where he met Benito Mussolini, to whom Siegel tried to sell weapons. Likewise he met there Nazis leadersHermann Göring and Joseph Goebbels, to whom he took an instant dislike and later offered to kill them.[29][62][63] He relented because of the countess's anxious pleas.[57]
In Hollywood, Siegel worked with the crime syndicate to form illegalrackets.[45] He devised a plan of extorting movie studios; he would take over local unions (the Screen Extras Guild and the Los Angeles Teamsters) and stage strikes to force studios to pay him off, so that unions would start working again.[53] He borrowed money from celebrities and didn't pay them back, knowing that they would never ask him for the money.[64][65] During his first year in Hollywood, he received more than $400,000 in loans from movie stars.[45]
Greenberg murder and trial
On November 22, 1939, Siegel, Whitey Krakower, Frankie Carbo and Albert Tannenbaum killed Harry "Big Greenie" Greenberg outside his apartment. Greenberg had threatened to become a police informant,[66] and Lepke Buchalter, boss of Murder, Inc., ordered his killing.[67]
Tannenbaum confessed to the murder[68] and agreed to testify against Siegel.[69] Siegel and Carbo were implicated in the killing of Greenberg, and in September 1941, Siegel was tried for the Greenberg murder.[70] Whitey Krakower was killed before he could face trial.[71] The trial gained notoriety because of the preferential treatment Siegel received in jail; he refused to eat prison food and was allowed female visitors. He was also granted leave for dental visits.[52][72] Siegel hired attorneyJerry Giesler to defend him. After the deaths of two state witnesses,[52][73] no additional witnesses came forward. Tannenbaum's testimony was dismissed.[74] In 1942, Siegel and Carbo were acquitted due to insufficient evidence[74] but Siegel's reputation was damaged. During the trial, newspapers revealed his past and referred to him as "Bugsy". He hated the nickname (said to be based on the slang term "bugs", meaning "crazy", used to describe his erratic behavior), preferring to be called "Ben" or "Mr. Siegel".[4] On May 25, 1944, Siegel was arrested for bookmaking.George Raft and Mack Gray testified on Siegel's behalf, and in late 1944, Siegel was acquitted.[75]
Las Vegas
Bugsy's original Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, 1947.
Siegel wanted to be a legitimate businessman, and in 1945, he saw an opportunity with William R. Wilkerson'sFlamingo Hotel.[76] Las Vegas gave Siegel his second opportunity to reinvent himself. In the 1930s, Siegel had traveled to Southern Nevada with Meyer Lansky's lieutenant Moe Sedwayon Lansky's orders to explore expanding operations. There were opportunities in providing illicit services to crews constructing the Hoover Dam. Lansky had turned the desert over to Siegel, but Siegel turned it over to Moe Sedway and left for Hollywood.[77][78]
In the mid-1940s, Siegel was lining things up in Las Vegas while his lieutenants worked on a business policy to secure all gambling in Los Angeles.[79] In May 1946, Siegel decided the agreement with Wilkerson had to be altered to give him control of the Flamingo.[80] With the Flamingo, Siegel would supply the gambling, the best liquor and food, and the biggest entertainers at reasonable prices. He believed these attractions would lure not only the high rollers, but thousands of vacationers willing to lose $50 or $100.[55] William Wilkerson was eventually coerced into selling all stakes in the Flamingo under the threat of death, and went into hiding in Paris for a time.[81] From this point the Flamingo became syndicate-run.[82]
Las Vegas' beginning
Siegel began a spending spree. He demanded the finest building that money could buy at a time of postwar shortages. As costs soared, Siegel's checks began bouncing. By October 1946, the costs were above $4 million.[83] In 1947, the Flamingo cost was over $6 million (around $60 million in today's money[84]).[85] By late November, the work was nearly finished.[86]
According to later reports by local observers, Siegel's "maniacal chest-puffing" set the pattern for several generations of notable casinomoguls.[19] Siegel's violent reputation didn't help his situation. After he boasted one day that he'd personally killed some men, he saw the panicked look on the face of head contractor Del Webb and reassured him: "Del, don't worry, we only kill each other."[87]
Other associates portrayed Siegel in a different aspect; Siegel as an intense character who was not without a charitable side, including his donations for the Damon Runyon Cancer Fund.[19]Lou Wiener Jr., Siegel's Las Vegas attorney, described him as "very well liked" and that he was "good to people".[19]
Defiance and devastation
Problems with the Trans-America Wire service had cleared up in Nevada andArizona, but in California, Siegel refused to report business.[79] He later announced to his colleagues that he was running the California syndicate by himself and that he would return the loans in his "own good time". Despite his defiance to the mob bosses they were patient with Siegel because he had always proven to be a valuable man.[88]
The Flamingo opened on December 26, 1946. The casino, lounge, theater, and restaurant were finished.[89] Although locals attended the opening, few celebrities materialized. A handful drove in from Los Angeles despite bad weather. Some celebrities present wereJune Haver, Vivian Blaine, George Raft,Sonny Tufts, Brian Donlevy, and Charles Coburn. They were welcomed by construction noise and a lobby draped with drop cloths. The desert's first air conditioning collapsed regularly. While gambling tables were operating, the luxury rooms that would have served as the lure for people to stay and gamble were not ready. As word of the losses made their way to Siegel during the evening, he began to become irate and verbally abusive, throwing out at least one family.[90] After two weeks the Flamingo's gaming tables were $275,000 in the red and the entire operation shut down in late January 1947.[91]
After being granted a second chance, Siegel cracked down and did everything possible to turn the Flamingo into a success by making renovations and obtaining good press. He hired future newsman Hank Greenspun as a publicist. The hotel reopened on March 1, 1947,—with Meyer Lansky present[92]—and began turning a profit.[30][93][94]However, by the time profits began improving the mob bosses above Siegel were tired of waiting.[30] Although time was running out, at age 41, Siegel had carved out a name for himself in the annals of organized crime and in Las Vegas history.[19]
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