Benjamin ‘Bugsy’ Siegel
People who know the history behind Las Vegas in the US state of Nevada, associate the Flamingo hotel and casino with a hoodlum by the name of Bugsy Siegel, but few appreciate just how big a criminal he was. By the age of twenty-one it would be hard to mention any crime that he hadn’t been involved in. He was guilty of hijacking, bootlegging, narcotics trafficking, white slavery, rape, burglary, robbery, the numbers racket, extortion and numerous murders.
The nickname ‘Bugsy’ was generally used as a term of endearment among the world of gangsters, and was given to those who showed no fear in the face of danger. However, Benjamin Siegel hated the name with a passion, and anyone who dared to use it to his face risked their own personal safety. Perhaps it is strange, therefore, that the name he is best remembered for should be the one he hated the most. Siegel was not a man to be messed with, and through experience his associates learned to show him respect.
early days
Benjamin Siegel was born in 1906 to Russian immigrant parents. They lived in the deprived area of New York called Hell’s Kitchen, where thousands of Irish, Italian and Jewish immigrants struggled against poverty and disease. It was a breeding ground for crime, and this is the world that the young Siegel vowed he would rise above. He learned early on in his life that in his part of the world, crime was the most lucrative occupation.
Siegel had a good childhood friend called Moey Sedway, and together they formed a minor extortion racket against the street vendors. Siegel would approach the vendor begging for some money, but when he was told to push off, Sedway would splash the vendor’s wares with kerosene and throw a match onto the stall. The next time the two boys approached the vendor, he was more than willing to pay up. From there they moved up into the protection game, offering vendors on Lafayette Street security in return for money. It was while Siegel was running this racket, that he met another teenager, Meyer Lanksy – a young man with big plans. Together Lansky and Siegel gradually built up a gang of killers, which would eventually become one of the most notorious national crime syndicates in the USA.
Siegel and Langsky were of similar age and backgrounds, and they both had big plans for the future. Siegel was gaining himself a repuation as a fearless fighter, prepared to rush into gun battles without giving a second thought for his own safety.
In 1929, Siegel married his childhood sweetheart, Esta Krakow, who was the sister of a fellow hit man Whitey Krakow.
FIRST TASTE OF MURDER
In 1930, Siegel and Lansky joined forces with Charles ‘Lucky’ Luciano. Siegel became a bootlegger and carried out operations in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia. His first taste of murder was in the form of a revenge killing for his associate Luciano. Lansky had close associations with both Jewish and Sicilian mobs, mainly because of his friendship with Luciano. When Luciano was imprisoned on drug charges, both Siegel and Lansky knew it was up to them to settle the debt.
The man responsible for putting Luciano away was an Irish policeman, and when Luciano was released he wanted immediate revenge. Lansky warned against him acting too quickly and told him to leave the matter in the hands of himself and Siegel. One year after his release, Lansky advised Luciano to take a short holiday and, while he was out of the way, Siegel and Lansky took their revenge.
The body of the nineteen-year-old policeman was never found despite a massive manhunt. Just as Siegel and Lansky felt they were in the clear, a woman came forward saying that she had information regarding the murder. Luciano, Siegel and Lansky had the woman savagely beaten, but were caught in the act by the police. Although they were taken to court, the woman never turned up to give her side of the story, and the three men walked free.
Eight years later the same woman bumped into Siegel in a bar and jeered at him for being a violent thug. Siegel, who was not prepared to let the matter rest, followed the woman home and brutally raped her in a side alley. Siegel was arrested and charged with rape, but after a private word from ‘Bugsy’ all the charges were dropped.
building an empire
In the years after the murder of the young policeman, Luciano, Siegel and Lansky kept a fairly low profile. They were keen to make money and used this time to carefully build their own criminal empire. They started to look at ways to fund their plans and decided they would overpower a security guard who was taking money to a bank. They were successful in this venture and got away with $8,000.
Although gambling was dominated by much more powerful New York gangs, Siegel and his friends decided they wanted in on the action. Siegel, in his own inimitable fashion, started challenging the bigger gangs and soon made his mark. He sent over twenty men to do battle with a rival gang which numbered over 100 members. Although Siegel was arrested during the affray, he had sent out a clear message that he was not someone who should be taken lightly.
Bugsy Siegel also made a vast profit out of the Prohibition laws that banned the sale of alcohol. He became involved with the illegal distribution of alcohol in New York and opened hundreds of underground drinking bars. As alcohol was smuggled across the USA, rival gangs tried to hijack each other’s cargos. While Siegel was taking control of New York, his childhood friend, Al Capone, was busy supplying alcohol in Chicago. The two cleverly built up a network between the two areas that was of mutual benefit, and a great alliance was formed.
Charlie Luciano decided to join a rival gang, the Masseria, but still managed to stay good friends with Lansky and Siegel. The Masserias were at loggerheads with a rival rang, the Maranzanos, because the leader of each gang wanted to become the capo di tutti capo or ‘the boss of bosses’, so that they could take total control.
To try and help their friend, Siegel and Lansky thought up a plan to try and bring Luciano to power. Luciano arranged to meet his capo for lunch. While they were sitting at the table, a group of men, led by Siegel, walked straight in and killed Masseria. Luciano immediately became the head of the Masseria gang. Not satisfied with this position, he also killed the head of the rival gang, Sal Maranzano, so that he eventually gained ultimate power.
reckless behaviour
As the reputation of Siegel and Lansky spread, so did their number of enemies, and it wasn’t long before there was a contract put on their heads. The Frabrazzo brothers were the first people to take action, by placing a bomb in Siegel’s house. Luckily for Siegel, he discovered the bomb just before it exploded and managed to throw it clear of the house. Although Siegel was injured in the blast, he managed to track down two of the Frabrazzo brothers and get his revenge. A third brother, Tony, who was scared for his own life, claimed to have written a book that incriminated Siegel and many of his associates. He said that as long as he stayed alive the book would remain unpublished.
However, Siegel, using his contacts, learned that Tony hadn’t even started the chapter that would incriminate him, and so he made plans to take his life. At the time Siegel was in hospital being treated for wounds he received in the blast. He managed to sneak out of the room and meet up with some other gang members, murdering Tony Frabrazzo in front of his elderly parents. Siegel was then driven back to the hospital, where he climbed back through the window before anyone realised that he had gone.
Frabrazzo’s murder was a big mistake for Siegel, who was forced to go underground for a while. Siegel, despite being very close friends with Lansky, was fed up with playing second fiddle, and he jumped at the chance when he was offered a new position on the West Coast.
BUGSY AND ‘THE FLAMINGO’
Siegel and his family moved to a plush mansion in Hollywood and it didn’t take long for him to slip into the glamorous new lifestyle. He got in touch with old contacts and, although Jack Dragna ran the gambling side of things, he reluctantly agreed that Siegel could take control of the unions. Using his union influences he was able to obtain large ‘loans’ from movie stars, which left him in an exceptionally powerful position.
On his first visit to Las Vegas, Siegel was not impressed, but he was sent there in 1941 by the Chicago Outfit crime syndicate to establish the Trans America race wire service to compete with the Continental Press in Nevada. It took him nearly six years to complete his task, but in the end he was able to eliminate Continental.
Initially Siegel only saw Las Vegas as a hot, arid place in the middle of nowhere, but it did have one major advantage, it was legal to gamble in Nevada. Siegel saw this as an opportunity to make money. He attempted to buy some already established gambling houses, but this wasn’t successful until he met a man called Billy Wilkerson. Wilkerson had big ideas and wanted to build the largest and most luxurious hotel that Las Vegas had ever seen. He showed Siegel his drawings with individual air conditioners, tiled bathrooms and two swimming pools. Siegel himself had no experience in building whatsoever, but what he did have was some cash to help finance Wilkerson’s dream. When Wilkerson’s money finally ran out, Siegel bought the controlling interest and finalised his plans to build an oasis in the middle of the desert where travellers from both the East and West Coast could come for gambling, fine food, luxury accommodation and great entertainment. Siegel decided to call his dream ‘The Flamingo’, allegedly after his mistress, Virginia Hill.
Siegel encountered difficulties right from the outset. Construction materials were difficult to get hold of and were extremely expensive, and conditions made it difficult to transport goods across the desert. Siegel talked some of his gangster friends into investing in the project, as well as the mob, and it was this factor that ultimately led to his death.
The project soon spiralled out of control. The initial estimate of $1.2 million had now escalated to $6 million, and Lansky and the other investors started to get worried about Siegel’s desert dream. Siegel was a mobster, not a construction engineer, and workers ripped him off left, right and centre. By December 1946, one year after they started on the project, the casino was literally sucking the mob dry.
The organisation were not happy and wanted something done about Siegel, and fast. Meyer Lansky managed to convince them to give his friend one more chance, and that was to wait until Christmas when the casino opened. He said that if it didn’t make any money after it opened, then the mob could put a contract out on Siegel’s life.
When Christmas arrived, Siegel pulled out all the stops and arranged the most extravagant entertainment money could buy, in an effort to draw in the punters. There were big names on the venue such as Clark Gable, Lana Turner, Joan Crawford, Anne Jeffreys and Caesar Romero. However, despite his efforts, the punters didn’t come, which was probably made worst by an appalling spell of bad weather. Added to that Lansky revealed even more disturbing news to the mob, and that was that Siegel had apparently been stealing money from the mob and placing it in numbered Swiss bank accounts.
By now the mob were after Siegel’s blood, and once again his friend Lansky stepped in and saved the day. He told the syndicate that he was convinced that Las Vegas would soon become a very profitable resort. He suggested that they should put The Flamingo into receivership to stop any further losses, and then the mob could buy out the original partners. Once again Bugsy Siegel had a reprieve.
the last chapter
The Flamingo barely limped through the month of January and Siegel decided to close it until the hotel rooms were completed. He felt the problem was, that with nowhere to stay, his customers were taking their money away and spending it elsewhere. Luckily, he still had the backing of Lansky and Luciano, who continued to believe that The Flamingo could make money. Siegel was exhausted. He spent every hour of the day making sure that the Flamingo would be ready for its grand reopening in March. Siegel’s determination and hard work paid off. When The Flamingo reopened in March his dream came true. It showed a profit of $250,000 for the first half of 1947, even though the month of January had been a major disaster.
At last Siegel felt as though he could relax and he sent a wire to his mistress, Virginia Hill, and asked her to join him in Vegas. However, before long the couple had one of their famous arguments and Hill reportedly hit one of The Flamingo’s female patrons around the face with a bottle. She was very quickly despatched to Zurich.
Despite Siegel’s new-found glory, it appears that the mob never really forgave him for the financial problems he put them through. On the evening of June 20, 1947, Siegel was sitting at home in his bungalow when a burst of gunfire smashed through the living room window. The first bullet hit Siegel in the head, causing his eye to shoot out of its socket. Four more bullets hit his torso, breaking his ribs and tearing holes in his lungs. Bugsy Siegel, at forty-two years of age, was dead.
Even though his death made front page news, not one of his mobster friends made the funeral, not even his most trusted and loyal friend Lansky. The only people to attend were five of his relatives. It is widely suspected that Lansky was under strict mob orders not to attend and, needless to say, no one was ever convicted of his murder.
For many years The Flamingo was definitely the best that Las Vegas had to offer. With more than 3,500 rooms it was one of the largest hotels in the world. Siegel’s original Flamingo hotel was pulled down in the 1980s and replaced when the Hilton Corporation bought the site and put up their own version of the Flamingo casino and hotel.