Bugsy Siegel built his criminal empire through bootlegging, gambling, and ruthless hits before making his mark in Las Vegas. He launched the iconic Flamingo Hotel and Casino, kicking off a notorious gambling operation in the middle of the desert. Born Benjamin Siegel on February 28, 1906, in Brooklyn, New York, he was the son of Jewish immigrants and grew up in the rough Williamsburg neighborhood, where Irish and Italian gangs thrived. As a teen, he shook down pushcart vendors on New York City’s Lower East Side. In 1918, he teamed up with fellow gangbanger Meyer Lansky to form the Bugs-Meyer Gang…a crew of tough Jewish mobsters who also ran a deadly group of contract killers known as Murder, Inc. In January 1929, Siegel married his childhood sweetheart, Esta Krakower, and they had two daughters, Millicent (who passed away in 2017) and Barbara. But Siegel’s wandering eye led to their divorce in 1946, after ccc which Esta took the girls, left Beverly Hills, and moved back to New York. 
In the 1920s, Mafia boss Charles “Lucky” Luciano and other Italian gangsters formed a national syndicate. Known as Bugsy for his fiery temper, Siegel quickly rose in the ranks of this new criminal network. In 1931, aiming to eliminate some of New York’s old guard, Siegel was one of four hitmen tasked with killing Sicilian mobster Joe “the Boss” Masseria. By 1937, he moved his bootlegging and gambling operations to California, where he opened gambling dens, ran offshore casinos, and took control of existing prostitution, drug, and bookmaking rackets. Relocating his family, Siegel lived lavishly in Beverly Hills, owning a grand estate, attending glamorous parties, and mingling with Hollywood’s elite.
In the late 1930s, Siegel started dating actress Virginia Hill, and together they made a striking pair, known as much for their fiery tempers as for their glamorous style. In 1945, they moved to Las Vegas, where Siegel chased his dream of creating a gambling haven in the Nevada desert. Backed by the Eastern crime syndicate, he oversaw the construction of the Flamingo Hotel and Casino. What began with a $1.5 million budget quickly spiraled out of control, with costs soaring past $6 million. When it was revealed that much of the overspending was due to Siegel’s theft and poor management, Lansky…by then a key figure in the syndicate—was furious at the betrayal.
On the evening of June 20, 1947, Siegel was brutally killed, when a fusillade of bullets crashed through Hill’s 
living room window in Beverly Hills where he was visiting…likely he was living with her. Simultaneously, three of Lansky’s cohorts entered the Flamingo Hotel and declared a takeover. Although Lansky denied involvement in the hit, there is little doubt that Siegel was murdered on syndicate orders. In 1947 he was gunned down at his girlfriend Virginia Hill’s home at the age of 41.
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