The 1947 Murder of Bugsy Siegel: Glamour, Gambling, and a Gangster’s Violent Final Curtain
On the night of June 20, 1947, one of the most infamous figures in American organized crime—Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel—was shot to death in the lavish Beverly Hills home of his girlfriend, Virginia Hill. The bullets that tore through his body ended the life of a man who had risen from Brooklyn’s brutal streets to become a Hollywood socialite, a mob visionary, and the face of the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas.
But behind his movie-star looks and charm, Siegel was a cold-blooded killer, a mobster whose ambition—and recklessness—may have cost his life. His murder remains one of the most notorious unsolved killings in American mob history, filled with betrayal, greed, and the brutal rules of the underworld.
Who Was Bugsy Siegel?
Born Benjamin Siegelbaum on February 28, 1906, in Brooklyn,...