Siegel, Bugsy

Siegel, Bugsy

 orig. Benjamin Siegel

(born Feb. 28, 1906, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.—died June 20, 1947, Beverly Hills, Calif.) U.S. gangster. He began his career extorting money from Jewish peddlers on New York's Lower East Side. He joined with Meyer Lansky and began operating bootlegging and gambling rackets; they later formed the forerunner of Murder, Inc. In 1937 he was sent to develop rackets on the West Coast, and he soon set up gambling dens and ships, as well as narcotics smuggling and blackmail operations. In 1945 he built the Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nev. Originally budgeted at $1.5 million, its cost was driven to $6 million through his skimming. This angered Lansky and other bosses, and Siegel was murdered in his home.