Okla-homey
6/20/2006, 06:10 AM
June 20, 1947 Bugsy Siegel is murdered
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/3623/bugsy2nb.gif (http://imageshack.us)
Bugsy
59 years ago today Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, the man who brought organized crime to the West Coast, is shot and killed at his mistress Virginia Hill's home in Beverly Hills, California. Siegel had been talking to his associate Allen Smiley when three bullets were fired through the window and into his head, killing him instantly.
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/9255/bugsy059rb.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Scene of the crime
At 10:45 p.m., a mob hitman, allegedly Eddie Cannizzaro on orders from Siegel's mob rival Lucky Luciano, hid outside the couple's mansion at 810 N. Linden Drive in Beverly Hills and shot Siegel several times with a U.S. military M1 Carbine as he sat near a window reading the Los Angeles Times.
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/6482/bugsymainluciano4hb.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Lucky Luciano
The force of the carbine's .30-caliber rounds fired at close range blew Siegel's eye five yards from his body. The assassin got away with it, since no one was ever charged with this bloody murder. Apparently the matinee-idol handsome 41-year-old Bugsy Siegel died instantly.
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/1234/bugsykattri78mq.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The bullet-through-the-eye style of killing became popular in Mafia movies, called the "Moe Greene Special" after the character Moe Greene was killed in this manner in The Godfather. Other references to this form of demise come from The Sopranos, where the character of Brendan Filone is also executed with a bullet through the eye.
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/562/bsiegel2cu.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
1928 mugshot
Siegel's childhood had been pretty similar to that of other organized crime leaders: Growing up with little money in Brooklyn, he managed to establish himself as a teenage thug. With his pal Meyer Lansky, Siegel terrorized local peddlers and collected protection money. Before long, they had a business that included bootlegging and gambling all over New York City.
http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/2209/bugsy2000503mp.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Meyer Lansky. He and Bugsy ran the "Kosher Nostra"
By the late 1930s, Siegel had become one of the major players of a highly powerful crime syndicate, which gave him $500,000 to set up a Los Angeles franchise.
Bugsy threw himself into the Hollywood scene, making friends with some of the biggest names of the time-Cary Grant, Clark Gable, and Jean Harlow. His all-night parties at his Beverly Hills mansion became the hot spot in town. He also started up a solid gambling and narcotics operation to keep his old friends back east happy.
Just before World War II began, Siegel traveled to Italy to sell explosives to Mussolini, but the deal fizzled when tests of the explosives did too.
In 1945, Siegel had a brilliant idea. Just hours away from Los Angeles sat the sleepy desert town of Las Vegas, Nevada. It had nothing going for it except for a compliant local government and legal gambling. Siegel decided to build the Flamingo Hotel in the middle of the desert with $6,000,000, a chunk of which came from the New York syndicate. he chose the name "Flamingo" because it was his petname for Virginia Hill, the leggy Alabama beauty who usually wore pink with whom he consorted.
http://img74.imageshack.us/img74/1478/bugsy31virginiahill2wj.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
No woman personified the mob girlfriend more than Virginia Hill, a.k.a. The Flamingo. A sharp-tongued Alabamian with enough sass and guts to stand toe-to-toe with the likes of Frank Nitti, Al Capone, Joe Adonis and eventually Benny Siegel, Virginia was passed along from mobster to mobster but always managed to keep her status on the A-list of underworld women.
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/2213/bugsyflamingo16pj.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The Flamingo as it appeared after opening
Although Siegel's idea established the gambling mecca we know today, the Flamingo wasn't immediately profitable and Siegel ended up in an argument with Lucky Luciano over paying back the money used to build it.
Around the same time that Siegel was killed in Beverly Hills, Luciano's men walked into the Flamingo and announced that they were now in charge. Even Siegel probably never imagined the astounding growth and success of Las Vegas in the subsequent years.
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/2289/bugsyflamingo3on.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Today's Flamingo has been enlarged and upgraded, but it is dwarfed by other casinos in Vegas
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/8568/bugsysiegel8qo.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Bugsy is buried in a Hollywood cemetery
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/483/insane7zo1jh.jpg
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/3623/bugsy2nb.gif (http://imageshack.us)
Bugsy
59 years ago today Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, the man who brought organized crime to the West Coast, is shot and killed at his mistress Virginia Hill's home in Beverly Hills, California. Siegel had been talking to his associate Allen Smiley when three bullets were fired through the window and into his head, killing him instantly.
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/9255/bugsy059rb.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Scene of the crime
At 10:45 p.m., a mob hitman, allegedly Eddie Cannizzaro on orders from Siegel's mob rival Lucky Luciano, hid outside the couple's mansion at 810 N. Linden Drive in Beverly Hills and shot Siegel several times with a U.S. military M1 Carbine as he sat near a window reading the Los Angeles Times.
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/6482/bugsymainluciano4hb.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Lucky Luciano
The force of the carbine's .30-caliber rounds fired at close range blew Siegel's eye five yards from his body. The assassin got away with it, since no one was ever charged with this bloody murder. Apparently the matinee-idol handsome 41-year-old Bugsy Siegel died instantly.
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/1234/bugsykattri78mq.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The bullet-through-the-eye style of killing became popular in Mafia movies, called the "Moe Greene Special" after the character Moe Greene was killed in this manner in The Godfather. Other references to this form of demise come from The Sopranos, where the character of Brendan Filone is also executed with a bullet through the eye.
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/562/bsiegel2cu.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
1928 mugshot
Siegel's childhood had been pretty similar to that of other organized crime leaders: Growing up with little money in Brooklyn, he managed to establish himself as a teenage thug. With his pal Meyer Lansky, Siegel terrorized local peddlers and collected protection money. Before long, they had a business that included bootlegging and gambling all over New York City.
http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/2209/bugsy2000503mp.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Meyer Lansky. He and Bugsy ran the "Kosher Nostra"
By the late 1930s, Siegel had become one of the major players of a highly powerful crime syndicate, which gave him $500,000 to set up a Los Angeles franchise.
Bugsy threw himself into the Hollywood scene, making friends with some of the biggest names of the time-Cary Grant, Clark Gable, and Jean Harlow. His all-night parties at his Beverly Hills mansion became the hot spot in town. He also started up a solid gambling and narcotics operation to keep his old friends back east happy.
Just before World War II began, Siegel traveled to Italy to sell explosives to Mussolini, but the deal fizzled when tests of the explosives did too.
In 1945, Siegel had a brilliant idea. Just hours away from Los Angeles sat the sleepy desert town of Las Vegas, Nevada. It had nothing going for it except for a compliant local government and legal gambling. Siegel decided to build the Flamingo Hotel in the middle of the desert with $6,000,000, a chunk of which came from the New York syndicate. he chose the name "Flamingo" because it was his petname for Virginia Hill, the leggy Alabama beauty who usually wore pink with whom he consorted.
http://img74.imageshack.us/img74/1478/bugsy31virginiahill2wj.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
No woman personified the mob girlfriend more than Virginia Hill, a.k.a. The Flamingo. A sharp-tongued Alabamian with enough sass and guts to stand toe-to-toe with the likes of Frank Nitti, Al Capone, Joe Adonis and eventually Benny Siegel, Virginia was passed along from mobster to mobster but always managed to keep her status on the A-list of underworld women.
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/2213/bugsyflamingo16pj.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The Flamingo as it appeared after opening
Although Siegel's idea established the gambling mecca we know today, the Flamingo wasn't immediately profitable and Siegel ended up in an argument with Lucky Luciano over paying back the money used to build it.
Around the same time that Siegel was killed in Beverly Hills, Luciano's men walked into the Flamingo and announced that they were now in charge. Even Siegel probably never imagined the astounding growth and success of Las Vegas in the subsequent years.
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/2289/bugsyflamingo3on.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Today's Flamingo has been enlarged and upgraded, but it is dwarfed by other casinos in Vegas
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/8568/bugsysiegel8qo.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Bugsy is buried in a Hollywood cemetery
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/483/insane7zo1jh.jpg