Bugsy Siegel

Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel (February 28, 1906 – June 20, 1947) was an American mobster. Siegel was known as one of the most “infamous and feared gangsters of his day”.[2] Described as handsome and charismatic, he became one of the first front-page celebrity gangsters.[3] He was also a driving force behind the development of the Las Vegas Strip.[4] Siegel was not only influential within the Jewish mob but, like his friend and fellow gangster Meyer Lansky, he also held significant influence within the American Mafia and the largely Italian-Jewish National Crime Syndicate.

Siegel was one of the founders and leaders of Murder, Inc.[5] and became a bootlegger during the Prohibition. After the Twenty-first Amendment was passed repealing Prohibition in 1933, he turned to gambling. In 1936, he left New York and moved to California.[6] His time as a mobster (although he eventually ran his own operations) was mainly as a hitman and muscle, as he was noted for his prowess with guns and violence. In 1939, Siegel was tried for the murder of fellow mobster Harry Greenberg. He was acquitted in 1942.

Siegel traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada, where he handled and financed some of the original casinos.[7] He assisted developer William R. Wilkerson’s Flamingo Hotel after Wilkerson ran out of funds.[8] 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 home of his girlfriend, Virginia Hill, in Beverly Hills, California.