NOTES
Prologue
1. Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives, quoted in Laurence Bergreen, As Thousands Cheer: The Life of Irving Berlin (Boston: Da Capo, 1996), 7.
2. Quoted in Fried, Rise and Fall, 37.
3. Author interview with Nick Pileggi.
4. Fried, Rise and Fall, 232.
5. Malcolm Gladwell, “The Crooked Ladder,” New Yorker, August 3, 2014.
6. Birmingham, The Rest of Us, 278.
7. Fried, Rise and Fall, 250.
8. Cohen, Tough Jews, 150.
Chapter 1. The Lure of the Streets
1. Ship’s manifest, the SS Etruria on its voyage from Liverpool to New York City, June 23–July 1, 1900. Max Siegel is on the immigrant passenger list. Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897, 1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 0136; Line: 3; p. 91.
2. Gragg, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, 2.
3. 1910 US Federal Census report for Max and Jennie Siegel.
4. Hill-Hauser family tree, Ben Siegel, https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/161160880/person/402104221638/facts.
5. Gershon David Hundert and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), 560–567.
6. Birmingham, The Rest of Us, 46.
7. The Lower East Side Tenement Museum, 103 Orchard Street, New York, tours of immigrant life in the early twentieth century.
8. Statement of Benjamin Siegel, Taken by Chief Deputy District Attorney Eugene D. Williams, August 16, 1940, Investigation in LA, CA, 1934–59, 2, Box 1, Folder 3, Murder Inc Series, Kings County DA Files, Municipal Archives of the City of New York.
9. 1910 US Federal Census report for Max Siegel household; 1940 US Federal Census.
10. 1940 US Federal Census; 1930 US Federal Census; 1910 US Federal Census.
11. Laurence Bergreen, As Thousands Cheer: The Life of Irving Berlin (Boston: Da Capo, 1996), 7, 6.
12. Joselit, Our Gang, 18; David Weinstein, The Eddie Cantor Story (Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2017), 10; author interview with Wendy Rosen.
13. 1930 US Federal Census.
14. Epstein, At the Edge of a Dream, 83.
15. The PS 110 Observer, centennial issue, May 30, 2015, PS110 PTA.org.
16. Joselit, Our Gang, 33.
17. Ibid., 6.
18. Lincoln Steffens, The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens (1931; Berkeley, CA: Heyday, 2005).
19. Carpozi, Bugsy, 13.
20. Joselit, Our Gang, 19; Fried, Rise and Fall, 39.
21. Jennings, Kill Each Other, 23.
22. Lacey, Little Man, 34–36; Eisenberg, Dan, and Landau, Meyer Lansky, 55.
23. Cohen, Tough Jews, 42.
24. Eisenberg, Dan, and Landau, Meyer Lansky, 56–57.
25. Robert Rockaway, “Hoodlum Hero: The Jewish Gangster as Defender of His People, 1919–1949,” American Jewish History 82 (1994): 215–235.
26. Author interview with Wendy Rosen.
27. Lacey, Little Man, 36.
28. Author interview with Robert Rockaway.
29. Author interview with Nick Pileggi.
30. Lacey, Little Man, 49.
31. Heinze quoted in Gragg, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, 16; Luciano quoted in Cohen, Tough Jews, 57; Lansky quoted in Rockaway, Good to His Mother, 10.
32. Reppetto, American Mafia, 134.
33. Costello quoted in AZ quotes.com, https://www.azquotes.com/author/30200-Frank_Costello.
34. Fried, Rise and Fall, 122.
35. Eisenberg, Dan, and Landau, Meyer Lansky, 72.
36. Friedrich, City of Nets, 370.
37. Wolf, Frank Costello, 48–50.
38. Denton and Morris, Money and Power, 50.
39. Wolf, Frank Costello, 54–55.
40. Jennings, Kill Each Other, 27.
41. 1940 US Federal Census report for Max Siegel.
42. Florabel Muir, Headline Happy (New York: Holt, 1950), 157.
43. Fried, Rise and Fall, 110.
44. “Las Vegas: An Unconventional History,” American Experience, WGBH-TV, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lasvegas-early/.
Chapter 2. Marriage and Murder
1. Eisenberg, Dan, and Landau, Meyer Lansky, 286–287; Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express, November 19, 1940. Siegel’s police record reviewed, with the rape charge said to have been filed January 3, 1926, in Brooklyn, dismissed January 12, 1926.
2. Carpozi, Bugsy, 17.
3. Lacey, Little Man, 60.
4. “ ‘X, Z’ Suspects Accused of Part in Gang Slaying,” Los Angeles Examiner, August 20, 1940; “Slaying in Los Angeles,” Los Angeles Times, August 21, 1940.
5. Rockaway, Good to His Mother, 22.
6. Author interview with Wendy Rosen.
7. Lacey, Little Man, 69.
8. Lansky and Stadiem, Daughter of the King, 23, 26.
9. Rosen interview.
10. Wedding licenses for Ben Siegel and Estelle Krakauer: Register no. 1195 New York State Department of Health, New York County, City of New York, January 16, 1929; marriage certificate January 27, 1929, 332 Rogers Avenue, New York, County and State of New York. Marriage License for Meyer Lansky of New York City in county and state of New York, and Annie Citron of Brooklyn, New York, April 25, 1929, Register no. 6697, New York State Department of Health.
11. Fried, Rise and Fall, 116.
12. Ibid., 144.
13. Cohen, Tough Jews, 153.
14. Eisenberg, Dan, and Landau, Meyer Lansky, 70.
15. Lacey, Little Man, 56–68.
16. Jennings, Kill Each Other, 23–24.
17. Eisenberg, Dan, and Landau, Meyer Lansky, 129, 130.
18. Lacey, Little Man, 91.
19. Fried, Rise and Fall, 122–126.
20. Eisenberg, Dan, and Landau, Meyer Lansky, 120–124; Lacey, Little Man, 63–65.
21. Gragg, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, 10–14.
22. Rockaway, Good To His Mother, 23; Eisenberg, Dan, and Landau, Meyer Lansky, 127–135; Reppetto, American Mafia, 137.
23. Eisenberg, Dan, and Landau, Meyer Lansky, 136–141; Lacey, Little Man, 62–64.
24. The possibly apocryphal quotation can be found at www .azquotes.com/author/30189-Lucky_Luciano.
25. New York Police Photograph 133-13: People v. Buchalter et al.: Police Investigation, 1936–41, Box 4, Folder 34, Murder Inc Series, Kings County DA files.
26. Carpozi, Bugsy, 23–24; Eisenberg, Dan, and Landau, Meyer Lansky, 166.
27. Carpozi, Bugsy, 24–29.
28. Eisenberg, Dan, and Landau, Meyer Lansky, 175, 176.
29. 1940 US Federal Census report, in which residence information circa 1935 was included.
30. O’Connor, A Sort of Utopia, 98–99.
31. Lacey, Little Man, 89.
Chapter 3. Sportsman in Paradise
A note on the FBI’s Bugsy Siegel files
Over time, the FBI has made public files on certain figures of general interest. These are provided through an online portal titled “The Vault.” As it happens, a voluminous file exists on Ben Siegel at the Vault, readily available by means of a few key clicks. The most direct URL is https://www.fbi.gov/@@search?SearchableText=Bugsy+Siegel&pageSize=20&page=1&sort_on=&sort_order=descending&after=&searchSite=vault.fbi.gov. Most of the relevant FBI documents and fragments deal with the FBI’s months-long surveillance of Bugsy in Las Vegas in 1946–1947.
That said, the Bugsy trove is a mess. Files are presented in mixed-up numerical order. Documents within those folders are disordered and redundant. Many passages are, of course, redacted, which only increases the challenge of dealing with them.
So jumbled are these documents that I saw no point in trying to beat them into a usable order, to which end notes could actually be attached. Instead, I went through the files myself, pruning out the frequent redundancies and creating my own rough chronological master file. After days of organizing them in files that seemed somewhat comprehensible to me, I b
egan sifting through them using relevant keywords. This proved immensely helpful for me in my efforts to squeeze useful information from the files.
As a result, I am making my reorganized FBI files available to anyone who would like to use them. Critics may want to test whether I’ve been accurate in using these FBI files in my research. Other writers about Bugsy Siegel and Jewish gangsters may find that a readily accessible FBI master file on Bugsy is helpful to them. Whatever the motive, I am happy to assist by emailing my FBI master list to anyone who requests it. The material is public to begin with, and thus belongs to all of us, and the organized version, it seems to me, ought to be just as available. Just write me to request the file at [email protected].
Once you have the master file, go back to the book and look for end notes with “keywords” relevant to your subject of interest. Then open the master file and search for that word. Presto—passages with that subject pop up, without the onerous obligation of sifting through all the disorganized documents, again and again.
1. Gragg, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, 22.
2. Astaire, Steps in Time, 125, 126.
3. Jennings, Kill Each Other, 20.
4. Ibid., 36.
5. Tereba, Mickey Cohen, 47–49.
6. Jennings, Kill Each Other, 38.
7. 1940 US Federal Census report for Benjamin Hymen Siegel, in response to questions about where he lived in 1935. Also, Siegel’s draft card circa 1941, in which he lists his home as 250 North Delfern Drive, L.A., his date of birth as February 28, 1906, and his telephone number as BRadshaw 23815. See Benjamin Siegel, birth date February 28, 1906, at Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/161160880/person/402104221638/facts.
8. 1940 US Federal Census.
9. FBI Bugsy Siegel files.
10. Wilkerson, Hollywood Godfather, 209.
11. Author interview with Wendy Rosen.
12. Gragg, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, 23.
13. Rockaway, Good to His Mother, 17.
14. Fried, Rise and Fall, 187–192.
15. Ibid., 190–192.
16. Cohen, Tough Jews, 165–168.
17. Carpozi, Bugsy, 38.
18. Author interview with Nick Pileggi.
19. “The Daughter of Las Vegas: An Interview with Bugsy Siegel’s Daughter, Millicent,” interview with Millicent Siegel by Diana Edelman, d travels ’round, July 25, 2012, dtravelsround.com /2012/07/25/daughter-las-vegas-interview-millicent-siegel/.
20. Munn, Jimmy Stewart, 77.
21. Carpozi, Bugsy, 58; Munn, Jimmy Stewart, 77–80.
22. Jennings, Kill Each Other, 48.
23. “1930s Holmby Hills Estate Built for Mobster Bugsy Siegel Torn Down after Selling for $17.5M,” Pricey Pads.com, August 9, 2019, https://www.priceypads.com/1930s-holmby-hills-estate-built-for-mobster-bugsy-siegel-redeveloped-after-selling-for-17-5m-photos-video/.
24. Gragg, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, 27.
25. Jennings, Kill Each Other, 47.
26. Ibid., 39–40.
27. Friedrich, City of Nets, 372.
28. Florabel Muir, Headline Happy (New York: Holt, 1950), 163; Parsons, The Gay Illiterate, 142.
29. “Dorothy Di Frasso Wiki, Biography, Net Worth, Age, Family, Facts and More,” wikifamouspeople, https://www.wikifamouspeople.com/dorothy-di-frasso-wiki-biography-net-worth-age-family-facts-and-more/.
30. Gragg, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, 31; Parsons, The Gay Illiterate, 143; Lewis Yablonsky, George Raft (Lincoln, NE: I.Universe.com.Inc, 2001) 181–197.
31. Fried, Rise and Fall, 170, 171.
32. Jennings, Kill Each Other, 106.
33. Gragg, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, 30.
34. Jennings, Kill Each Other, 123–124.
35. Friedrich, City of Nets, 372.
36. Rockaway, Good to His Mother, 163, 164.
37. Turkus and Feder, Murder, Inc., 270.
38. Jennings, Kill Each Other, 48.
39. Gragg, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, 42; also see “George Bruneman,” MafiaWiki, https://mafia.wikia.org/wiki/George_Brunemann.
40. UPI report, October 28, 1981.
Chapter 4. The Masterminds of Murder Inc.
1. Fried, Rise and Fall, 194–195.
2. Ibid., 196.
3. Robert A. Rockaway, “Why Gangsters Who Broke Every Law Still Went to Services on Yom Kippur,” Tablet, October 2, 2014.
4. Rockaway, Good to His Mother, 135.
5. Fried, Rise and Fall, 205.
6. Carpozi, Bugsy, 24.
7. Cohen, Tough Jews, 97.
8. “Bugsy’s Angel Midwestern Millionaire,” Los Angeles Examiner, November 23, 1940; Gragg, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, 34, 35; Jennings, Kill Each Other, 36–37.
9. “Bugsy’s Angel Millionaire.”
10. FBI Bugsy Siegel files.
11. “Bugsy, Lepke, 3 Others Indicted,” Los Angeles Examiner, August 21, 1940; FBI Siegel files, chrono 3, word search: Chi chi; Lacey, Little Man, 110.
12. Allan May, “The History of the Race Wire Service,” Crime, October 14, 2009; Jennings, Kill Each Other, 80.
13. Gragg, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, 32; Jennings, Kill Each Other, 67; James Kaplan, Frank: The Voice (New York; Anchor, 2011), 256–258.
14. Florabel Muir, Headline Happy (Holt: New York, 1950), 199–200.
15. Munn, Jimmy Stewart, 77, 78.
16. Ibid., 79.
17. Jennings, Kill Each Other, 106.
18. Ibid., 43, 44.
19. Gragg, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, 25, 26.
20. Friedrich, City of Nets, 373.
21. Jennings, Kill Each Other, 43, 44, 46.
22. Ibid., 52–60.
23. “Trip Finances under Scrutiny,” Los Angeles Times, January 13, 1939; “Bello Challenge to Love Duel on ‘Hell Ship’ Bared,” Los Angeles Examiner, January 13, 1939.
24. Jennings, Kill Each Other, 57.
25. “Treasure Hunt Recounted by Countess Di Frasso,” Los Angeles Examiner, January 14, 1939.
26. “The Daughter of Las Vegas: An Interview with Bugsy Siegel’s Daughter, Millicent,” interview with Millicent Siegel by Diana Edelman, d travels ’round, July 25, 2012, dtravelsround.com /2012/07/25/daughter-las-vegas-interview-millicent-siegel/.
27. Interview with Millicent Siegel, Las Vegas Sun, November 3, 2010.
28. William Bradford Huie, “My Christmas with Bugsy Siegel,” American Mercury, January 1951, pp. 7–22. See also Muir, Headline Happy.
29. Gragg, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, 44.
30. Jennings, Kill Each Other, 62.
31. Fried, Rise and Fall, 212.
32. Jennings, Kill Each Other, 76.
33. Gragg, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, 38, 39; Jennings, Kill Each Other, 75–78.
34. Eisenberg, Dan, and Landau, Meyer Lansky, 185, 186.
35. Cohen, Tough Jews, 189; Robert Rockaway, “Hoodlum Hero: The Jewish Gangster as Defender of His People, 1919–1949,” American Jewish History 82 (1994): 215–235.
Chapter 5. Going After Big Greenie
1. “Bugsy, Lepke, 3 Others Indicted,” Los Angeles Examiner, August 21, 1940.
2. Eisenberg, Dan, and Landau, Meyer Lansky, 168.
3. Ibid., 166.
4. Fried, Rise and Fall, 214; Cohen, Tough Jews, 203.
5. Jennings, Kill Each Other, 82–85.
6. Gragg, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, 48–51.
7. Cohen, Tough Jews, 103.
8. “Slaying in Los Angeles,” Los Angeles Times, August 21, 1940.
9. “Bugsy, Lepke, 3 Others Indicted.”
10. Rockaway, Good to His Mother, 159.
11. Turkus and Feder, Murder, Inc.
12. “Murder Inc.! 3 Accused Here in Gang Killings,” Los Angeles Evening Herald and Examiner, August 16, 1940; Gragg, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, 52.
13. “Seize Bugs Siegel as Slaying Suspect,” Los Angeles Examiner, August 17, 1940.
14. Jennings, Kill Each Other, 99–103.
15. Sta
tement of Benjamin Siegel, Taken at Kipling Hotel, Room 521, 4077 West Third Street, LA, CA, by Chief Deputy District Attorney Eugene D. Williams, at 1 pm, August 16, 1940.
16. Death notice for Morris Louis Annenberg, Alabama Journal, July 21, 1942.
17. “Seize Bugs Siegel.”
18. “Fear Man Sought in Gang Killing Slain,” Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express, August 22, 1940.
19. “Bugsy Feared Gang Assassination,” Los Angeles Examiner, August 22, 1940.
20. “ ‘Just a Retired Business Man,’ ‘Bugsy’ Tells Judge,” Los Angeles Examiner, August 18, 1940.
21. “Ask Court to Set Bail for Bugs Siegel in Murder Inc. Case,” Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express, September 30, 1940.
22. “Fear New L.A. Gang Slaying,” Los Angeles Evening Herald Express, August 22, 1940.
23. “Ask Court to Set Bail.”
24. “Bugsy Siegel Jail Parties Probed,” Los Angeles Examiner, November 19, 1940.
25. Jennings, Kill Each Other, 118.
26. Gragg, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, 57; Jennings, Kill Each Other, 119–120.
27. “Dr. Blank Suspended 30 Days in Siegel Inquiry,” Los Angeles Examiner, November 23, 1940; “Blank Served Formal Notice of Ouster; Will Fight Charges,” Los Angeles Examiner, December 10, 1940.
28. Jennings, Kill Each Other, 121–122.
29. “Siegel Free, Sorry,” Los Angeles Examiner, December 12, 1940.
30. “Siegel Free, Sorry.”
31. “Final Pleas in Siegel Hearing,” Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express, May 27, 1941.
32. “Hunt Bugsy in Greenie Killing,” Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express, September 23, 1941; “Bugsy Still Missing as Case Up,” Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express, September 24, 1941.
33. Cohen, Tough Jews, 223, 224, 228.
34. Jennings, Kill Each Other, 127, 128.
35. Eisenberg, Dan, and Landau, Meyer Lansky, 170; Cohen, Tough Jews, 232–233.
36. “Carbo Trial Goes On, Siegel Freed 2nd time in Murder Case,” Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express, February 6, 1942; “Bugsy Siegel Freed in Gangland Murder Case,” Los Angeles Times, February 6, 1942.
Chapter 6. The Flamingo
1. John Cahlan oral history interview, Collection #: OH-00151, October 4, 1978, audio recording transcript, 2 tapes, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
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