# Bugsy Siegel
**Bugsy Siegel** (Benjamin Siegelbaum; February 28, 1906 – June 20, 1947) was an American gangster and racketeer who rose from Brooklyn street gangs to become a founding member of [Murder, Inc.](https://www.edgepedia.org/murder-inc) and an enforcer associated with the emerging national crime syndicate and the builder of the Flamingo Hotel on the [Las Vegas Strip](https://www.edgepedia.org/las-vegas-strip)[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-siegel/). The Library of Congress authority record lists him under variants including Siegel, Benjamin, and Siegelbaum, Benjamin, and identifies him as an American gangster and racketeer[2](https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n92043937). He was shot to death in Beverly Hills at age 41[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-siegel/).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | Benjamin Siegelbaum, February 28, 1906, Brooklyn, New York, to Russian Jewish immigrants[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-siegel/) |
| Nickname | "Bugsy," from his violent temper, "crazy as a bedbug"; he loathed the name[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-siegel/) |
| Syndicate role | Founding member and chief operator of Murder, Inc.; some estimates credit him with more than 30 murders[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-siegel/) |
| Flamingo cost | Construction overran to $6 million; financed with Syndicate money and a loan from Walter Cosgriff's Continental Bank of Utah[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-siegel/) |
| Opening | Grand opening December 26, 1946; closed within the first month; reopened March 1947 and turned a profit[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-siegel/) |
| Death | Shot by an unknown gunman on June 20, 1947, in Virginia Hill's living room in Beverly Hills[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-siegel/) |
| Primary records | A multi-part FBI case file released through the FOIA vault, running to Part 32 (Final)[3](https://vault.fbi.gov/Bugsy%20Siegel%20/) |
## Early life and rise in New York
Siegel was born Benjamin Siegelbaum to Russian Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn, New York, and by age fourteen had already started his own gang[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-siegel/). A 1947 *Time* account, written days after his death, placed his start differently, saying he was born on New York's Lower East Side and got his start as a night watchman for a gang of beer runners[4](https://time.com/archive/6792196/crime-murder-in-beverly-hills/). The Brooklyn birthplace is the better-supported version, and the two accounts agree on the essentials of his trajectory from teenage street crime into organized bootlegging.
**The nickname.** Fellow gang members called him "Bugsy" in reference to his quick and violent temper; he was, in their phrase, as "crazy as a bedbug." Siegel hated the name, and anyone who used it to his face risked bodily harm[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-siegel/). It nonetheless became the name under which he is remembered, and the title of the 1991 film about him cited in his Library of Congress authority record[2](https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n92043937).
With [Meyer Lansky](https://www.edgepedia.org/meyer-lansky), Siegel ran the Bugs and Meyer Mob out of Manhattan's Lower East Side, mainly bootlegging during [Prohibition](https://www.edgepedia.org/prohibition)[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-siegel/). When he hooked up with Lansky, *Time* reported, New York ranked him as one of the "Big Six" of the rackets[4](https://time.com/archive/6792196/crime-murder-in-beverly-hills/).
## The national syndicate and Murder, Inc.
Siegel became one of the founding members and chief operators of Murder, Incorporated, a group associated with the enforcement operations of the emerging national crime syndicate; by some estimates he murdered more than 30 men[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-siegel/). His standing rested on this enforcement work alongside Lansky and [Lucky Luciano](https://www.edgepedia.org/lucky-luciano), though his partners' assessment of his business abilities was unflattering: unlike Lansky, Siegel lacked business acumen, and his ambition and business naiveté later drove the Flamingo severely over budget[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-siegel/).
In 1937 he was sent to California to oversee the national crime syndicate's interests there[5](https://www.infoplease.com/biographies/society-culture/bugsy-siegel), the move that made him a West Coast rather than a New York figure.
## Los Angeles, Hollywood, and the race wire
In California Siegel emerged as a favorite among the Hollywood elite in the late 1930s while running lucrative operations in illegal gambling and horse racing[6](https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/benjamin-bugsy-siegel-9781440801853/). His documented criminal record was extensive but unsuccessful for prosecutors: *Time* reported that he beat raps for rape, carrying concealed weapons, possessing narcotics, and murder[4](https://time.com/archive/6792196/crime-murder-in-beverly-hills/).
**The Greenberg case.** In 1939 Harry "Big Greeny" Greenberg, a former associate, was found dead, and police arrested Siegel. Jail did not restrain his style: he arranged meals of steak and pheasant and had liquor served in his cell to entertain his women visitors[4](https://time.com/archive/6792196/crime-murder-in-beverly-hills/). Gragg's biography covers a 1940–1942 trial arising from this period and a 1941–1947 monopoly of the Las Vegas race wire, the private wire service carrying race results to bookmakers[6](https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/benjamin-bugsy-siegel-9781440801853/).
## The Flamingo Hotel project
In 1945 Siegel purchased the El Cortez casino with partners including Sedway, Lansky, Gus Greenbaum, Israel "Icepick Willie" Alderman, Chickie Berman, and Davie Berman; the same group took over the Flamingo construction in 1946[7](https://special.library.unlv.edu/jewishheritage/people/benjamin-bugsy-siegel). The Flamingo was almost completely financed with [Syndicate](https://www.edgepedia.org/syndicate) money plus a large loan from Walter Cosgriff's Continental Bank of Utah, and was named after a nickname of [Virginia Hill](https://www.edgepedia.org/virginia-hill), Siegel's companion[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-siegel/).
**Cost overruns.** Construction costs blew up to $6 million. PBS attributes the overrun to contractors who fleeced Siegel, sometimes charging twice for shipments of materials, combined with his business naiveté; the Syndicate suspected skimming[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-siegel/).
**Opening and closure.** The Flamingo held its grand opening on December 26, 1946. Bad weather kept the Hollywood stars away, the rooms were unfinished, and the casino lost money; within its first month the hotel closed[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-siegel/). Siegel reopened it in March 1947, and by the end of its first month back in business the hotel was turning a profit[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-siegel/).
## Assassination of June 20, 1947
On June 20, 1947, an unknown gunman murdered Siegel as he sat reading the evening newspaper in Virginia Hill's living room in Beverly Hills[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-siegel/). The UNLV Jewish heritage archive places the shooting in the living room of his home rather than Hill's[7](https://special.library.unlv.edu/jewishheritage/people/benjamin-bugsy-siegel); the PBS account, tied to the named witnesses and the house's ownership, is the more specific version.
**Theories.** Contemporary press offered no shortage of explanations. Readers could take their pick of roughly a dozen theories: a fight over stolen jewelry; a gang war for control of a news service to bookies; a West Coast shipping strike; a dispute over distribution of a brand of Scotch whiskey; or "The Syndicate," roiled over Bugsy's losses as manager of its $6,000,000 Flamingo Club at Las Vegas[8](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-bugsy/). History.com adds that Siegel had argued with Lucky Luciano over repaying the construction money[9](https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/june-20/bugsy-siegel-organized-crime-leader-is-killed). No retrieved source identifies the killer or establishes which theory is correct.
**Immediate takeover.** Within minutes of Siegel's death, Syndicate figures Davey Berman, Gus Greenbaum, and Morris Rosen arrived and assumed control of running the Flamingo.[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-siegel/) History.com describes the same event as Luciano's men walking into the Flamingo and announcing they were now in charge[9](https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/june-20/bugsy-siegel-organized-crime-leader-is-killed); the named individuals in the PBS account make it the more precise record of who took control.
## By the numbers
- **$6 million**: the Flamingo's final construction cost, against a project financed with Syndicate money and a Continental Bank of Utah loan[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-siegel/).
- **December 26, 1946**: the grand opening; the casino lost money and the hotel closed within its first month[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-siegel/).
- **March 1947**: the reopening, profitable by the end of its first month[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-siegel/).
- **More than 30**: the number of murders some estimates credit to Siegel as a chief operator of Murder, Inc.[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-siegel/).
- **2,400+ pages**: the FBI file material on Siegel used for the first time in Larry Gragg's biography[6](https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/benjamin-bugsy-siegel-9781440801853/).
## Legacy and the Las Vegas myth
The Flamingo's eventual success spurred Strip development and cemented the Syndicate's investment in Las Vegas casino-resorts[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-siegel/). A [Yale University Press](https://www.edgepedia.org/yale-university-press) biography frames the pattern that followed: Jewish gangsters built nearly all of the Vegas casinos that came after Siegel's, and then, one by one, they disappeared[10](https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300226195/bugsy-siegel/).
**The founder myth.** Siegel is popularly remembered as the founder of Las Vegas, and scholarship has pushed back. Larry D. Gragg, professor emeritus of history at the [University of Central Missouri](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-central-missouri), wrote the first biography to use the full FBI file, more than 2,400 pages, alongside New York City Municipal Archives documents and the 1950–51 Senate Committee testimony on organized crime; the book dispels the myths about Siegel's contribution to the founding of Las Vegas and examines his image in popular culture[6](https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/benjamin-bugsy-siegel-9781440801853/). The defensible core of the Siegel story is narrower than the legend: he built and opened the Flamingo, it failed, he was killed, and under new management it succeeded and pointed the way for later Syndicate-financed resorts[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-siegel/).
**The documentary record.** The FBI's FOIA vault holds a multi-part released case file on Siegel running through Part 32, marked final, which constitutes the primary federal investigative record of his activities[3](https://vault.fbi.gov/Bugsy%20Siegel%20/). Gragg's biography supplements it with municipal archives, Senate testimony, and recollections of Siegel's eldest daughter[6](https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/benjamin-bugsy-siegel-9781440801853/). The American National Biography Online carries a scholarly entry, "Siegel, Bugsy (1906–1947), gangster," published in 2000 by David Richard Johnson[11](https://doi.org/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.2001749).
## References
1. [Benjamin Siegel (1906–1947), American Experience, PBS](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-siegel/)
2. [Siegel, Bugsy, 1906–1947, LC Linked Data Service, Library of Congress](https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n92043937)
3. [Bugsy Siegel, FBI Vault (FOIA reading room)](https://vault.fbi.gov/Bugsy%20Siegel%20/)
4. [CRIME: Murder in Beverly Hills, Time (1947)](https://time.com/archive/6792196/crime-murder-in-beverly-hills/)
5. [Bugsy Siegel Biography, Infoplease](https://www.infoplease.com/biographies/society-culture/bugsy-siegel)
6. [Larry D. Gragg, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel: The Gangster, the Flamingo, and the Making of Modern Las Vegas, Praeger](https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/benjamin-bugsy-siegel-9781440801853/)
7. [Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, Southern Nevada Jewish Community Digital Heritage Project, UNLV](https://special.library.unlv.edu/jewishheritage/people/benjamin-bugsy-siegel)
8. [The "Inside" on Bugsy, American Experience, PBS](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-bugsy/)
9. [Bugsy Siegel, organized crime leader, is killed, HISTORY](https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/june-20/bugsy-siegel-organized-crime-leader-is-killed)
10. [Bugsy Siegel: The Dark Side of the American Dream, Yale University Press](https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300226195/bugsy-siegel/)
11. [Siegel, Bugsy (1906–1947), gangster, American National Biography Online](https://doi.org/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.2001749)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Law and justice › Criminal law and penal justice › Outlaws, gunfighters, and American frontier figures (biographies and episodes)*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license