Read Online Houses of Death (True Crime) by Gordon Kerr - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Gordon Kerr
Tags: nonfiction
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at 810 Linden Drive in Beverly Hills, having enjoyed a manicure and a haircut, and he was looking forward to a relaxing evening. Finally, things were going well. Business had been ropey for a while and he had not been absolutely certain he would make it, but now the money was rolling in and everything he had promised was coming to pass. What’s more, his daughters were on their way to spend the summer with him. What more could a man want?
Meanwhile, outside, in the garden of the house, Charlie Fischetti, a hired killer, squeezed the trigger of his Springfield rifle and the sound of gunfire splintered the hot Las Vegas evening.
At just under 1.8m (6 ft) tall, black-haired and blue-eyed, Bugsy Siegel was the prototype racketeer. He was born Benjamin Siegelbaum, in 1902, to poor immigrant Russian parents and grew up in Brooklyn’s tough Williamsburg area. By his early teens Bugsy had devised his first racket, extorting protection money from street vendors.
Around this time, he met the teenage Meyer Lansky, a Polish Jew who, in partnership with Bugsy, would put together a notorious gang of ruthless thugs and killers, known as the Bugs and Meyer Mob.
The gang contained men who would later become some of America’s most notorious gangsters – Abner ‘Longy’ Zwillman, Lepke Buchalter, future head of the infamous Murder Inc. – the only Mob leader ever to die in the electric chair – and Arthur Flegenheimer, later to achieve notoriety as Dutch Schultz.
Meyer soon realized that it would be better to have the Sicilian gangs on his side. So, he and upcoming Sicilian gangster, Charlie ‘Lucky’ Luciano, forged an invaluable link. It was for Luciano, in fact, that Bugs and Meyer carried out their first hit when they killed the son of an Irish cop who had set Luciano up on a narcotics charge.
By 1919, the Bugs and Meyer Mob was making its money from floating crap games, trade unions and robbery. However, the big time was where their ambitions lay. They put aside money from robberies and their craps and protection rackets, money they invested in established bookmaking businesses and also found its way into the pockets of Lower East Side politicians and policemen who could provide them with protection to carry on their business.
When the Volstead Act became law in 1919, making the manufacture and sale of alcohol illegal in the United States, it was a red-letter day for racketeers everywhere, but especially for Luciano, Lansky and Siegel.
From about 1927 – 1931, the warring factions of the New York underworld went head to head and the Castellamarese war, as it came to be called, between Mafia bosses, Joe Masseria and Sal Maranzano, would define organized crime in America for decades to come. When Luciano changed his sympathies and went over to Maranzano’s side, he did so on the understanding that he would deal with Joe Masseria.
On 15 April, 1931, he invited Masseria to Scarpato’s Restaurant in Coney Island. Towards the end of the meal, Luciano excused himself and went to the bathroom. As he closed the door, four gunmen burst into the room, guns blazing. They were Albert Anastasia, Vito Genovese, Joe Adonis and, leading the charge, as ever, Bugsy Siegel. Masseria was hit six times and another 14 bullets lodged themselves in the restaurant walls.
Charlie Luciano completed his rise to the top by rubbing out Sal Maranzano. Bugsy, however, was never one to abide by the rules and, after one murder too many for which he had not obtained the permission of his superiors, he was becoming too much of a liability. But, the National Crime Syndicate liked him and decided to give him another chance. He was sent to the West Coast where the Mob’s influence was nowhere near as great as in the east.
Bugsy arrived in California with his wife and kids, and bought a $200,000 (£100,000) mansion in the upmarket area of Holmby Hills. He began moving in elite circles, hanging out with George Raft, an old friend from Williamsburg who had
Meanwhile, outside, in the garden of the house, Charlie Fischetti, a hired killer, squeezed the trigger of his Springfield rifle and the sound of gunfire splintered the hot Las Vegas evening.
At just under 1.8m (6 ft) tall, black-haired and blue-eyed, Bugsy Siegel was the prototype racketeer. He was born Benjamin Siegelbaum, in 1902, to poor immigrant Russian parents and grew up in Brooklyn’s tough Williamsburg area. By his early teens Bugsy had devised his first racket, extorting protection money from street vendors.
Around this time, he met the teenage Meyer Lansky, a Polish Jew who, in partnership with Bugsy, would put together a notorious gang of ruthless thugs and killers, known as the Bugs and Meyer Mob.
The gang contained men who would later become some of America’s most notorious gangsters – Abner ‘Longy’ Zwillman, Lepke Buchalter, future head of the infamous Murder Inc. – the only Mob leader ever to die in the electric chair – and Arthur Flegenheimer, later to achieve notoriety as Dutch Schultz.
Meyer soon realized that it would be better to have the Sicilian gangs on his side. So, he and upcoming Sicilian gangster, Charlie ‘Lucky’ Luciano, forged an invaluable link. It was for Luciano, in fact, that Bugs and Meyer carried out their first hit when they killed the son of an Irish cop who had set Luciano up on a narcotics charge.
By 1919, the Bugs and Meyer Mob was making its money from floating crap games, trade unions and robbery. However, the big time was where their ambitions lay. They put aside money from robberies and their craps and protection rackets, money they invested in established bookmaking businesses and also found its way into the pockets of Lower East Side politicians and policemen who could provide them with protection to carry on their business.
When the Volstead Act became law in 1919, making the manufacture and sale of alcohol illegal in the United States, it was a red-letter day for racketeers everywhere, but especially for Luciano, Lansky and Siegel.
From about 1927 – 1931, the warring factions of the New York underworld went head to head and the Castellamarese war, as it came to be called, between Mafia bosses, Joe Masseria and Sal Maranzano, would define organized crime in America for decades to come. When Luciano changed his sympathies and went over to Maranzano’s side, he did so on the understanding that he would deal with Joe Masseria.
On 15 April, 1931, he invited Masseria to Scarpato’s Restaurant in Coney Island. Towards the end of the meal, Luciano excused himself and went to the bathroom. As he closed the door, four gunmen burst into the room, guns blazing. They were Albert Anastasia, Vito Genovese, Joe Adonis and, leading the charge, as ever, Bugsy Siegel. Masseria was hit six times and another 14 bullets lodged themselves in the restaurant walls.
Charlie Luciano completed his rise to the top by rubbing out Sal Maranzano. Bugsy, however, was never one to abide by the rules and, after one murder too many for which he had not obtained the permission of his superiors, he was becoming too much of a liability. But, the National Crime Syndicate liked him and decided to give him another chance. He was sent to the West Coast where the Mob’s influence was nowhere near as great as in the east.
Bugsy arrived in California with his wife and kids, and bought a $200,000 (£100,000) mansion in the upmarket area of Holmby Hills. He began moving in elite circles, hanging out with George Raft, an old friend from Williamsburg who had
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