As a teenager, he extorted money from pushcart peddlers on New York City’s Lower East Side. The son of Jewish immigrants, Siegel was raised in the crime-ridden section of Williamsburg, where Irish and Italian gangs were prevalent. Siegel was born Benjamin Siegel, on February 28, 1906, in Brooklyn, New York.
In 1947 he was gunned down at his girlfriend Virginia Hill's home at the age of 41. He opened the famous Flamingo Hotel and Casino, the start of his notorious gambling operation in the middle of the Las Vegas desert. Bugsy Siegel built a criminal empire through bootlegging, gambling and ruthless assassinations before setting up shop in Las Vegas.
