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Authors: Nigel Blundell
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California through the Prohibition years and became boss of the Los Angeles crime family after the unexplained death of the incumbent, Joseph Ardizzone, in 1931. He was to remain the ‘Capone of LA’, as the media labelled him, until his own death from a heart attack in 1956. Between them, Siegel and Dragna operated a string of illegal gambling houses and offshore casino ships, as well as drug smuggling operations and even a wire service. The money rolled in throughout World War Two, and in 1945 Lansky helped organise for Siegel a $3 million loan to build a casino hotel in Las Vegas – forerunner of the many monolithic emporia that were to make the desert town into a mobsters’ Mecca.
Siegel matched $3 million of his own money with the crime Syndicate’s stake and started building The Flamingo, a name chosen by his girlfriend, Virginia Hill. During construction, large sums were salted away into Swiss banks, some of them said to be in the name of Miss Hill. The gaping hole in the accounts did not go unnoticed.
At their Cuba summit in December 1946, when Siegel’s EastCoast associates Lansky, Luciano and Genovese met with other leading gangsters to discuss Mob matters, the problem of the errant ‘Bugsy’ was raised. Lansky, who had once considered Siegel a blood brother, put the case for his friend and won him a reprieve. It was decided that Siegel be asked to repay with interest all of the Syndicate investment as soon as the hotel was open. If he failed to do so, then ‘Bugsy’ would be ‘retired’.
Siegel’s luck was out. He opened the Flamingo Hotel on 26 December 1946, with Virginia Hill at his side. The event was a disaster. Bad weather grounded planes in Los Angeles and few of the invited famous faces turned up. The grand opening fell flat, publicity was scant, interest dimmed and the punters stayed away. For two weeks Siegel struggled on. The casino alone lost more than $100,000 before he ordered it to be closed.
The demands for repayment of the Mob’s loan became more and more insistent. But Siegel’s money was largely tied up in the hotel, and the sums siphoned off to Switzerland did not add up to what the Syndicate demanded. He stung everyone he knew for cash; George Raft lending him $100,000 that he never saw again. Siegel was given one last chance, with a reopening night the following March, but that too was a damp squib. Worse, the few punters who turned up had a lucky streak and won more than the casino took in profits.
Siegel still thought he could bluff his way out of the crisis, under the protection of Lansky, but his old friend now washed his hands of him. Luciano accepted the task of arranging Siegel’s execution. On the night of 20 June 1947, Siegel was sitting on the sofa in the living room of Virginia Hill’s rented house in North Linden Drive, Los Angeles, when an unknown killer or killers fired eight or nine bullets at him through a window. The result was not a pretty sight, which would nothave pleased the man who had the reputation for being the ‘Casanova of the Mafia’. His body was riddled. And one bullet had blown out his left eye – the coup de grâce that was the Mafia’s ‘calling card’. ‘Bugsy’ would have preferred a more dignified death. So too would his former Hollywood crowd. Those rich and famous friends steered well clear now that his fame had turned to notoriety. There were only five mourners at his funeral; Meyer Lansky was not one of them.
CHAPTER 5
HOW THE GANGSTER SQUAD NAILED THE RIMAN
W hen Bugsy Siegel was bumped off in June 1947 for skimming Mafia money, an associate of the flashy fiend was waiting in the wings ready to take advantage. As one might expect, in this world of supposed family ‘honour’ but in reality back-stabbing duplicity, Siegel’s successor was a former faithful friend who owed his success and wealth to the mobster he helped murder.
Meyer Harris Cohen, later known as ‘Mickey’, was born into an Orthodox Jewish family,
Siegel matched $3 million of his own money with the crime Syndicate’s stake and started building The Flamingo, a name chosen by his girlfriend, Virginia Hill. During construction, large sums were salted away into Swiss banks, some of them said to be in the name of Miss Hill. The gaping hole in the accounts did not go unnoticed.
At their Cuba summit in December 1946, when Siegel’s EastCoast associates Lansky, Luciano and Genovese met with other leading gangsters to discuss Mob matters, the problem of the errant ‘Bugsy’ was raised. Lansky, who had once considered Siegel a blood brother, put the case for his friend and won him a reprieve. It was decided that Siegel be asked to repay with interest all of the Syndicate investment as soon as the hotel was open. If he failed to do so, then ‘Bugsy’ would be ‘retired’.
Siegel’s luck was out. He opened the Flamingo Hotel on 26 December 1946, with Virginia Hill at his side. The event was a disaster. Bad weather grounded planes in Los Angeles and few of the invited famous faces turned up. The grand opening fell flat, publicity was scant, interest dimmed and the punters stayed away. For two weeks Siegel struggled on. The casino alone lost more than $100,000 before he ordered it to be closed.
The demands for repayment of the Mob’s loan became more and more insistent. But Siegel’s money was largely tied up in the hotel, and the sums siphoned off to Switzerland did not add up to what the Syndicate demanded. He stung everyone he knew for cash; George Raft lending him $100,000 that he never saw again. Siegel was given one last chance, with a reopening night the following March, but that too was a damp squib. Worse, the few punters who turned up had a lucky streak and won more than the casino took in profits.
Siegel still thought he could bluff his way out of the crisis, under the protection of Lansky, but his old friend now washed his hands of him. Luciano accepted the task of arranging Siegel’s execution. On the night of 20 June 1947, Siegel was sitting on the sofa in the living room of Virginia Hill’s rented house in North Linden Drive, Los Angeles, when an unknown killer or killers fired eight or nine bullets at him through a window. The result was not a pretty sight, which would nothave pleased the man who had the reputation for being the ‘Casanova of the Mafia’. His body was riddled. And one bullet had blown out his left eye – the coup de grâce that was the Mafia’s ‘calling card’. ‘Bugsy’ would have preferred a more dignified death. So too would his former Hollywood crowd. Those rich and famous friends steered well clear now that his fame had turned to notoriety. There were only five mourners at his funeral; Meyer Lansky was not one of them.
CHAPTER 5
HOW THE GANGSTER SQUAD NAILED THE RIMAN
W hen Bugsy Siegel was bumped off in June 1947 for skimming Mafia money, an associate of the flashy fiend was waiting in the wings ready to take advantage. As one might expect, in this world of supposed family ‘honour’ but in reality back-stabbing duplicity, Siegel’s successor was a former faithful friend who owed his success and wealth to the mobster he helped murder.
Meyer Harris Cohen, later known as ‘Mickey’, was born into an Orthodox Jewish family,
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