Benjamin
"Bugsy" Siegel
"We only kill each other."
-- Bugsy Siegel to Las Vegas Developer Del
Webb |
|
Like
hundreds of thousands of others, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel (1906-1947)
was a New Yorker who moved to
Los
Angeles
to make a better life for himself. Unlike
most, though, his wasn't the kind of success story that local boosters liked to
celebrate. He represents a darker side of the city that writers like Raymond Chandler relished -- an underside to the
"fun in the sun" image
Los
Angeles
cultivated. Credited with helping to
launch
Las Vegas
as an international center for
gambling and entertainment in the 1940’s, Siegel, with his movie-star
good looks, enjoyed hob-nobbing with
Hollywood
celebrities. He was a well known lady killer. He'd started out,
however, as a different kind of killer.
Born
in
Brooklyn
to poor parents, as a teenager
Siegel began as a local tough shaking down pushcart owners, setting up a
"protection" racket. As Jay Robert Nash reports in his crime
encyclopedia Bloodletters and Badmen, Siegel established a partnership
with another up and coming mobster, Meyer Lansky. The "Bug and
Meyer" syndicate moved into hot cars, bootlegging, and gambling rackets in
sections of
New York
,
New
Jersey
and
Philadelphia
.
Siegel sealed his underworld reputation in 1935 with a contract hit, executing
Bo Weinberg, gangster Dutch Schultz's right hand man. Siegel stabbed
Weinberg to death and dumped him in the
Hudson River
. Not
everyone was happy about Weinberg's brutal denouement. Things got hot for
Siegel and he looked to
California
for a fresh start. As Nash reports, east coast crime families considered
Los Angeles
, run by local
mobster Jack Dragna, as "virgin territory." Siegel was given the
job of "consolidating" activities in the City of the Angels.
In
1937, Siegel, with his wife and two daughters, headed to
Hollywood
. They rented a lavish mansion
owned by opera singer Laurence Tibbet. Nash writes: "He looked up an
old friend -- George Raft, who was a gossamer star in the movies by 1937,
making $5,000 a week; they had grown up together in
New
York
's
Lower East Side
. Siegel's
plan was simple. George was associated with
Hollywood
's bigwigs and he was going to
provide Bugsy with the proper introductions."
Bugsy,
who hated his nickname, was soon welcome in some of
Hollywood
's highest circles. He
socialized with Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Gary Cooper and Jean Harlow. With
another legendary
Los Angeles
mobster, Mickey
Cohen, as his underling, Siegel backed illicit gambling joints, including the
infamous "Rex," a floating casino on a large yacht, anchored 12 miles
off the
Los Angeles
beach front, just out of legal reach for authorities.
Siegel
never divorced his wife, but monogamy wasn't his style. At $5,000 parties
he was seen with some of
Hollywood
's
most dazzling beauties, especially a wealthy and hot-blooded countess, Dorothy
Dendice Taylor DiFrasso. One adventure with the Countess brought Siegel to
Europe
where he met Mussolini and German
leaders Herman Goering and Joseph Goebbels. Siegel took an instant dislike
to the Nazis, and later offered to kill them. "History might have
thought differently of Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel if he had," Nash
concludes.
In Los
Angeles Siegel lived a double life. While he was charming
Hollywood
stars he took
time to gun down Harry "Big Greenie" Greenberg when Greenie was
accused of turning stoolie. Siegel was acquitted of the Greenberg murder
and soon afterward he returned to his gambling enterprises.
In
1945, a light went off in Bugsy Siegel's head; it flashed: "
Las Vegas
!" The
Nevada
outpost was isolated in the desert, but still
relatively close to
Los Angeles
-- a "Rex" in the sands. The building of the nearby Hoover Dam made
Las Vegas
a boomtown in
the 1930’s, but at the time Siegel's scheme still seemed like a crazy
idea. Despite this, he raised $6 million of mob money and began building the
Flamingo Hotel and Casino. The Flamingo became a glamorous destination for
high rollers and fun-seekers from across the country. Siegel was riding
high until
New York
mobster Lucky Luciano asked for $3 million of his investment back. Siegel
hesitated, which was a big mistake.
On
June 27, 1947, Siegel was with his latest girl friend, Virginia Hill, in her
$500,000
Beverly Hills
mansion on
Linden Drive
,
when he was shot three times with a shotgun. He was 41. Rivals
quickly moved in on the Flamingo and Siegel's
Hollywood
friends found excuses for failing to show up at his funeral.
Bugsy
Siegel may have had movie-star good looks, but it took a while before
Hollywood
finally put his
name up in lights. In 1991 his life became the bio-pic Bugsy,
starring Warren Beatty.
--
Contributed by Jon Wilkman, 1999
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