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N0KFQ > TODAY 20.06.11 18:07l 50 Lines 2256 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 9075_KB0WSA
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Jun 20
Path: IZ3LSV<IK2XDE<IK6ZDE<VE3UIL<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 110620/1551Z 9075@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.0.4
Jun 20, 1947:
Bugsy Siegel, organized crime leader, is killed
Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, the man who brought organized crime to
the West Coast, is shot and killed at his mistress Virginia
Hill's home in Beverly Hills, California. Siegel had been talking
to his associate Allen Smiley when three bullets were fired
through the window and into his head, killing him instantly.
Siegel's childhood had been pretty similar to that of other
organized crime leaders: Growing up with little money in
Brooklyn, he managed to establish himself as a teenage thug. With
his pal Meyer Lansky, Siegel terrorized local peddlers and
collected protection money. Before long, they had a business that
included bootlegging and gambling all over New York City.
By the late 1930s, Siegel had become one of the major players of
a highly powerful crime syndicate, which gave him $500,000 to set
up a Los Angeles franchise. Bugsy threw himself into the
Hollywood scene, making friends with some of the biggest names of
the time--Cary Grant, Clark Gable, and Jean Harlow. His all-night
parties at his Beverly Hills mansion became the hot spot in town.
He also started up a solid gambling and narcotics operation to
keep his old friends back east happy. Just before World War II
began, Siegel traveled to Italy to sell explosives to Mussolini,
but the deal fizzled when tests of the explosives did too.
In 1945, Siegel had a brilliant idea. Just hours away from Los
Angeles sat the sleepy desert town of Las Vegas, Nevada. It had
nothing going for it except for a compliant local government and
legal gambling. Siegel decided to build the Flamingo Hotel in the
middle of the desert with $6,000,000, a chunk of which came from
the New York syndicate.
The Flamingo wasn't immediately profitable and Siegel ended up in
an argument with Lucky Luciano over paying back the money used to
build it. Around the same time that Siegel was killed in Beverly
Hills, Luciano's men walked into the Flamingo and announced that
they were now in charge. Even Siegel probably never imagined the
astounding growth and success of Las Vegas in the subsequent
years.
73, K.O. n0kfq
Another old retired guy
N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: n0kfq@centurytel.net
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