Bugsy Siegel
On this date: Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was shot and killed in Beverly Hills, California. In 1945, Bugsy Siegal, was instrumental in establishing the first resort on the now famous Las Vegas Strip with the opening of the Flamingo Hotel & Casino.
Siegel befriended fellow hooligan Meyer Lansky, with whom he established the Bugs-Meyer Gang, a band of ruthless Jewish mobsters that ran a group of contract killers under the name Murder, Inc.
Siegel opened The Flamingo Hotel & Casino at a total cost of $6 million on December 26, 1946. Billed as the world’s most luxurious hotel, the 105-room property and first luxury hotel on the Strip, it was built seven miles from Downtown Las Vegas out the the city limits in Clark County Nevada.
Bugsy was brutally killed On the evening of June 20, 1947, when bullets came crashing through his living room window in Beverly Hills. Meanwhile back in Las Vegas, three of Lansky’s cohorts entered the Flamingo Hotel and declared a takeover. Although Lansky denied involvement in the hit, there is little doubt that Siegel was murdered on orders.
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