Bugsy Siegel

American mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel had a key role in the creation of the Las Vegas Strip. Along with his boyhood buddy and fellow mobster Meyer Lansky, Siegel had tremendous influence not just inside the Jewish Mob but also among the Italian-American Mafia and the mostly Italian-Jewish National Crime Syndicate. He rose to prominence as one of the first front-page celebrity gangsters, being praised for his good looks and personality. During Prohibition, Siegel, one of the founding members and top executives of Murder, Inc., started bootlegging. He started gambling in 1933, the year the Twenty-first Amendment was approved eliminating Prohibition.

He departed New York in 1936 and relocated to California. Since he was known for his skill with firearms and brutality, his role as a gangster at this time was primarily that of a hitman and muscle. Harry Greenberg, a buddy and fellow gangster, had turned informant, and Siegel was charged with his murder in 1941. In 1942, he was found not guilty. He developed into a guy with a dream, and that desire was to construct a casino and hotel in Nevada's expanding Las Vegas. The Flamingo, the first significant casino/hotel in Las Vegas, was under construction from 1945 until its opening in March 1947. However, Siegel and his partner Virginia Hill had stolen millions of dollars from the mob to fund the building project. On June 20, 1947, a barrage of bullets fired through Siegel's living room window led to his death. Who gave the killing order for him is not known for sure. However, three Lansky goons entered the Flamingo as Siegel was dying and said that the east coast mafia had taken over.