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Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel

Page history last edited by JermyG 14 years, 11 months ago

Jermy Gedeon

English: Period 4

Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel

"Las Vegas turns women into men and men into idiots."

- Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel

"My friends call me Ben, strangers call me Mr. Siegel, and guys I don't like call me Bugsy, but not to my face."

- Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel

Born Benjamin Siegel, on February 28, 1906, in Brooklyn, New York. The son of Jewish immigrants, Siegel was raised in the crime-ridden section of Williamsburg, where Irish and Italian gangs were prevalent.

Childhood

He was adopted into a Jewish family of five children living in a small tenement house in Brooklyn with their parents. He never denied his Jewish culture and he was the only orphan of his family. His family was undergoing poor conditions. And while his brothers and sisters worked in the classroom, Benjamin chose to work on the streets. By the time he was nine years old, he was already playing confidence games. He first watched and observed others before playing the games himself.

By his late teens, Benjamin was tough. His main source of income was from gambling in the streets. His legacy began once he met Meyer Lanksy. Bugsy was fighting another man over a handgun and Lanksy broke it up, and they became life-long friends after that.

The Gangster is Born

It all started when Siegel joined a street gang on Lafayette Street in the Lower East Side and committed mainly thefts with another youth named Moe Sedway. Soon later, Benjamin gained power of his little neighborhood and forced pushcart merchants to pay him five dollars to sell their product on the corner or he would confiscate their merchandise on the spot.

During adolescence, Siegel met Meyer Lansky, and they became close friends, and they decided to form a small gang whose criminal activities expanded to include gambling and car theft. Siegel reputedly also worked as the gang's hit man whom Lansky would sometimes hire out to other gang bosses. In 1926, Siegel was arrested for raping a woman who had turned down his advances in a speakeasy, but Lansky coerced the victim not to testify.

In 1930 Lansky and Siegel joined forces with Charles "Lucky" Luciano. Siegel became a bootlegger and was also associated with Albert Anastasia. Siegel was used for bootlegging operations in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia. During the so-called Castellammarese War in 1930-1931, they fought the gang of Joe Masseria; Siegel reputedly had a hand in Masseria's 1931 murder in Coney Island and later had a part in the formation of Murder, Inc. In 1932 he was arrested for gambling and bootlegging but got away with only a fine. Lansky and Siegel were briefly allied with Dutch Schultz and killed rival loan sharks Louis and Joseph Amberg in 1935.

Harry Greenberg Trial

Harry Greenberg was an associate and childhood friend of Benjamin, but betrayed him and lied to him. So Benjamin and other members of his dangerous gang murdered Harry Greenberg on November 22, 1939. Benjamin was tried for murder but later acquitted. This trial ruined Benjamin's reputation. But this is the same trial that got him the name "Bugsy", based on the slang word "bugs" meaning crazy and also for his violent temper. Soon, that was the name people knew him by, but nobody called him that to his face, or he would kill them right on the spot.

Bugsy was sent to California in 1937 by the East Cost Mob to develop organized gambling rackets. He set up a national wire to help the East Cost Mob quicken their returns, and gained entry to Hollywood's circle.

The Father of Vegas

It is common knowledge that Bugsy is responsible for developing Vegas and putting it on the map. But truthfully, there was already a casino being built there by a man named William Wilkerson before Bugsy sot involved. Wilkerson had a gambling problem and he ran out of money, and a lightbulb lit up in the back of Bugsy's head, and took interest in the development. He basically said, "I'll have that, thank you !"

Using investments from the mob, he took over the plans to build the first casino resort. Unfortunately, the budget ran way over, plus Bugsy was suspected of "skimming". The mob was not happy, as they had already fronted about 5 million dollars into the project. But to sum it all up, when Vegas started turning into profit, the mob decided they didn't want Bugsy involved anymore, so they retired him.

The development of this beautiful monument, began Bugsy's affiliation to Hollywood.

The Flamingo Hotel (named after his girlfriend, Virginia Hill) was opened December 26, 1946, 9 months before scheduled opening in hopes of helping Bugsy to pay back debts.

Before the Flamingo was built.

Esta Krakower

Esta was Bugsy's wife, but they divorced a year before Benjamin started his project in Vegas.

Mrs. Siegel

Virginia Hill was one of the most famous female mobsters.

No woman personified the mob girlfriend more than Virginia Hill, a.k.a. The Flamingo. A sharp-tongued Georgia peach with enough sass and guts to stand toe-to-toe with the likes of Frank Nitti, Al Capone, Joe Adonis and eventually Benny Siegel, Virginia was passed along from mobster to mobster but always managed to keep her status on the A-list of underworld women.

Virginia and Ben hit it off famously and fought as hard as they loved. They each had a short fuse and Virginia was one of the few people men or women who would dare stand up to Ben when he went buggy. There are some who say they were only interested in the other for sex and money, but others who knew them said eventually Ben and Virginia got married in a quick Mexican ceremony.

Pictures of the Gorgeous Gangster

474.jpg Benjamin Siegel image by missylissy1021 siegal.jpg Benjamin Siegel image by tallulahbankhead 3-2-Benjamin-Bugsy-Siegel.jpg Bugsy Seigal image by PiRose

So Long...

On June 20th, 1947, Bugsy was staying in the house rented by his wife, Virginia Hill at 810 Linden Drive, Beverly Hills.

Bugsy was reading the LA Times in the living room, around 10:30 p.m.

Bugsy was in this room:

Meanwhile, Eddie Canizzaro (Bugsy's Assassin), is sneaking up the driveway of the house next door, and aims through the side window. There were either 8 or 9 shots from a .30 caliber rifle, and 2 ended up in Bugsy's head, and one shot blew his eye clear out of his head, across the room like a superball. He died immediately of cerebral hemorrhage.