Bugsy Siegel

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Lore & Background

Siegel was born on February 28, 1906, in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, the second of five children of a poor Ashkenazi Jewish family from Galicia. He dropped out of school and joined a gang on Lafayette Street, committing theft and developing a protection racket with Moe Sedway. His teenage criminal record included armed robbery, rape, and murder. He befriended Meyer Lansky, who recruited him first for his gang, and together they formed the Bugs and Meyer Mob, handling hits for bootleg gangs in New York and New Jersey almost a decade before Murder, Inc. was formed. Siegel was a bootlegger during Prohibition and turned to illegal gambling after the Twenty-first Amendment passed in 1933. In 1936, he left New York for California, working mainly as a hitman and muscle. In 1941, he was tried for the murder of friend and fellow mobster Harry Greenberg, who had turned informant; he was acquitted in 1942. Siegel traveled to Las Vegas, where he handled and financed some of the city's original casinos. He assisted developer William R. Wilkerson's Flamingo Hotel after Wilkerson ran out of funds, assuming control and managing final construction. The Flamingo's casino opened on December 26, 1946, in a three-day event that was well received, but without a hotel it struggled and closed from February 6, 1947, until the hotel was finished and reopened on March 1, 1947. Siegel's mob partners were convinced that an estimated US$1 million of the construction budget overrun had been skimmed by Siegel, his girlfriend Virginia Hill, or both. On June 20, 1947, Siegel was murdered at age 41 by a sniper through the window of Hill's Linden Drive mansion in Beverly Hills, California.

Reader's Guide

Bugsy Siegel's significance lies in his role as a driving force behind the development of the Las Vegas Strip. His involvement with the Flamingo Hotel—taking over after William R. Wilkerson ran out of funds, managing final construction, and opening the casino on December 26, 1946—helped establish a model for future casino resorts, despite the hotel's delayed opening and cost overruns. As a founder and leader of Murder, Inc., and a key figure in the National Crime Syndicate alongside Meyer Lansky, Siegel exemplified the rise of celebrity gangsters in American culture. His murder on June 20, 1947, likely ordered by mob partners suspicious of a $1 million skim, marked a violent end and highlighted the internal dynamics of organized crime. Siegel's legacy endures as a symbol of the glamour and danger of mid-20th-century gangsterism.

Did You Know?

• Siegel was one of the founders and leaders of Murder, Inc.
• He was tried in 1941 for the murder of informant Harry Greenberg and acquitted in 1942.
• The Flamingo's casino opened on December 26, 1946, but closed from February 6 to March 1, 1947, until the hotel was finished.
• Mob partners believed about US$1 million of the Flamingo's construction overrun had been skimmed by Siegel, his girlfriend Virginia Hill, or both.
• Siegel was murdered by a sniper through a window of Virginia Hill's Linden Drive mansion in Beverly Hills, California, on June 20, 1947.