Bugsy Siegel: the Sociopath that Shaped Las Vegas

Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel is credited as being one of the founding fathers of modern Las Vegas. As a gangster, he was described as fearless and ruthless. So unstable was he that his nickname "Bugsy" was actually derived from his hot temper and tendency to "bug out" or "go bugs" when he became angry. Thanks to the legacy of Benjamin Siegel, the nickname "Bugsy" continues to be considered a term of endearment among gangsters to describe those who are as fearless and ruthless as he was. Interestingly, the real Bugsy hated his nickname, and anyone who used the name to his face usually risked great physical harm in return.

Born into poverty in Brooklyn, New York by a pair of Russian Jewish immigrants in 1906, Bugsy decided as a child that he would lift himself out of poverty and entered into a life of crime early on. As a young hoodlum, he and his friends would extort money from local vendors by asking for cash handouts and trashing the store of any vendor who refused, ensuring that the next time Bugsy and his friends were around, the vendors would think twice about refusing any requests for money or free merchandise. Eventually, Bugsy evolved this low level scam into a protection racket, offering "protection" to vendors against other criminals who would seek to extort them, creating a solid territory from which Bugsy was able exercise near complete criminal control.

While operating his protection racket, Bugsy met another young man with an aversion for the law, Meyer Lansky, and the two formed a close friendship, eventually forming a gang that would be known as the "Bugs and Meyer Mob". The gang organized along the same lines as the Italian and Irish gangs in the area and broadened their criminal enterprise to include a protection racket, stolen car ring, illegal gambling outfit, and bootlegging gang.

The Bugs and Meyer Mob was eventually invited into "the Syndicate", a loosely organized group of gangsters from various gangs around the country, all working together to keep each other well paid and well protected from the law. Bugsy's ruthlessness and fearlessness came in good use when he went on to become one of the founding fathers of "Murder, Inc", the branch of the Syndicate dedicated to the enforcement of mob orders. As a member of Murder, Inc, Bugsy committed, arranged, or assisted in the murders of anyone who threatened the interests of the Syndicate and its members.

With the success of Murder, Inc came heat from the law, and Bugsy was forced into hiding. With no Syndicate representation on the West Coastat the time, during the mid to late 1930s, Syndicate leadership allowed Bugsy to leave town and become their contact on the West Coast, working to organize Syndicate strength where it didn't yet exist.

Bugsy and his family moved to Hollywood, where Bugsy looked up an old childhood friend and actor George Raft, who would eventually help Bugsy enter the world of the Hollywood elite. Bugsy was introduced to the biggest celebrities of the time, and was invited to just about every A-list party the town had to offer. When not hobnobbing with the stars and starlets of the golden screen, Bugsy was busy running a union racket which allowed him to establish a stronghold on Hollywood and the movie production business. Bugsy infiltrated the extra's union, which allowed him to lean on studio executives and actors alike. By threatening the studios with an extra walk off, Bugsy could effectively and single handedly shut down production on any picture he desired, unless, of course, the producers and/or actors paid up. They usually did.

Along with the union racket, Bugsy also ran illegal wire circuits (connecting illegal bookies and bet makers across the country) and even helped the Syndicate by maintaining part of their drug trade route that stretched through California and Mexico.

By the early 1940s, the Syndicate took an interest in the money making opportunities available in Las Vegas, where gambling had been legalized. Bugsy was appointed by the Syndicate to establish a hotel/casino racket that could fund mob activity and supply the mob with a seemingly endless supply of fresh and legitimately earned cash. Bugsy caught wind of a hotel/casino project that was running low on capitol and offered to help the developers finish their project in with investment cash raised by the Syndicate. Unfortunately, Bugsy's pursuit of the classiest hotel/casino in the region coupled with his lack of business sense sent the Syndicate deep into debt. The name of the casino would be the "Flamingo", which also happened to be the nickname of a woman with whom he had an enduring relationship with, Virginia Hill. Though not an initial success, the Flamingo eventually became a success, but Bugsy would never get the chance to watch his seed fully blossom.

On June 20, 1947, while reading the paper on Virginia Hill's sofa in their Hollywood bungalow, a barrage of bullets flew through the living room window, striking Bugsy in the head and torso, killing the life time gangster almost instantaneously. He was 42 years old. Despite the eventual success of the Flamingo, Bugsy had apparently burned too many bridges for his success to matter.

Bugsy's murderers were never caught. Some say that Bugsy was killed in retaliation for the role he played in the death of wire operator James Ragan. Others believe profits from the Flamingo didn't come fast enough, and anxious investors were to blame for Bugsy's hit.

The Flamingo fell under the control of the Syndicate, who sent their own operatives to run the casino following Bugsy's demise.

Eventually, Las Vegas slipped from the control of the mob and Hilton Corporation bought the Flamingo in the 1980s. Although he would never know it, Bugsy's work and lavish desire to create a hotel of class in the Nevada desert set the bar for future casino projects and forever shaped the landscape of the Vegas strip.

Sources:

Mark Gribben. "Bugsy Siegel". TruTV.com.

"Benjamin Siegel (1906-1947)". PBS.org.