Benjamin Bugsy Siegel

Author : Larry D. Gragg
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 144080186X
Total Pages : 225 pages
Book Rating : 4.60/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel written by Larry D. Gragg and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2015-01-16 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This intriguing biography recounts the life of the legendary Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, revealing his true role in the development of Las Vegas and debunking some of the common myths about his notoriety. This account of the life of Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel follows his beginnings in the Lower East Side of New York to his role in the development of the famous Flamingo Hotel and Casino. Larry D. Gragg examines Siegel's image as portrayed in popular culture, dispels the myths about Siegel's contribution to the founding of Las Vegas, and reveals some of the more lurid details about his life. Unlike previous biographies, this book is the first to make use of more than 2,400 pages of FBI files on Siegel, referencing documents about the reputed gangster in the New York City Municipal Archives and reviewing the 1950–51 testimony before the Senate Committee on organized crime. Chapters cover his early involvement with gangs in New York, his emergence as a favorite among the Hollywood elite in the late 1930s, his lucrative exploits in illegal gambling and horse racing, and his opening of the "fabulous" Flamingo in 1946. The author also draws upon the recollections of Siegel's eldest daughter to reveal a side of the mobster never before studied—the nature of his family life.

Author : Michael Shnayerson
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300226195
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.95/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Bugsy Siegel written by Michael Shnayerson and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the notorious Jewish gangster who ascended from impoverished beginnings to the glittering Las Vegas strip "[A] brisk-reading chronicle of Siegel’s life and crimes."—Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal "Fast-paced and absorbing. . . . With a keen eye for the amusing, and humanizing detail, [Shnayerson] enlivens the traditional rise-and-fall narrative."—Jenna Weissman Joselit, New York Times Book Review In a brief life that led to a violent end, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel (1906–1947) rose from desperate poverty to ill‑gotten riches, from an early‑twentieth‑century family of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants on the Lower East Side to a kingdom of his own making in Las Vegas. In this captivating portrait, author Michael Shnayerson sets out not to absolve Bugsy Siegel but rather to understand him in all his complexity. Through the 1920s, 1930s, and most of the 1940s, Bugsy Siegel and his longtime partner in crime Meyer Lansky engaged in innumerable acts of violence. As World War II came to an end, Siegel saw the potential for a huge, elegant casino resort in the sands of Las Vegas. Jewish gangsters built nearly all of the Vegas casinos that followed. Then, one by one, they disappeared. Siegel’s story laces through a larger, generational story of eastern European Jewish immigrants in the early‑ to mid‑twentieth century.

Author : George Carpozi
Publisher : Spi Books
ISBN 13 : 9781561711482
Total Pages : 190 pages
Book Rating : 4.89/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Bugsy written by George Carpozi and published by Spi Books. This book was released on 1992 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A biography of the flamboyant mobster discusses his penchant for rape and murder, his transformation of a sandy desert into a multimillion-dollar business called Las Vegas, his relationship with Hollywood, and more. Original.

Author : Richard Cohen
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1439142505
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.09/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Tough Jews written by Richard Cohen and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-06-18 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Award-winning writer Rich Cohen excavates the real stories behind the legend of infamous criminal enforcers Murder, Inc. and contemplates the question: Where did the tough Jews go? In 1930s Brooklyn, there lived a breed of men who now exist only in legend and in the memories of a few old-timers: Jewish gangsters, fearless thugs with nicknames like Kid Twist Reles and Pittsburgh Phil Strauss. Growing up in Brownsville, they made their way from street fights to underworld power, becoming the execution squad for a national crime syndicate. Murder Inc. did for organized crime what Henry Ford did for the automobile, and Tough Jews is the first in-depth portrait of these men, a thrilling glimpse at the muscle that made possible the success of gangster statesmen such as Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky, and Lucky Luciano. For Rich Cohen, who grew up in suburban Illinois in the 1980s taunted by the stereotype of Jews as book-reading rule followers, the very idea of the Jewish gangster was a relief; for once, a Jew in jail did not have to be a white collar criminal. With a clear eye and a comic sensibility, Cohen looks beyond the blood and ultimately encounters each of these ruthless killers’ matzo-ball heart. Tough Jews shows what can happen when a member of the tribe combines brains, heart, and a dangerous determination never to back down.

Author : Charles River Charles River Editors
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781727310283
Total Pages : 132 pages
Book Rating : 4.84/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky written by Charles River Charles River Editors and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-09-13 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading In the last 70 years, a countless number of people have come across the grisly and morbidly fascinating crime scene photographs of Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel's murder. The photographs are as disconcerting as they are iconic, for they show a gritty glimpse into the haunting reality of a life too often glamorized by pop culture. The less-publicized photograph of Bugsy in the morgue is, in a way, a more chilling reminder of the barbarity and callous irony behind the term "organized crime." With the blood on his face rinsed off and his hair slicked back, it almost seems as if the photographer had caught Bugsy mid-slumber, but the balls of cotton plugging the gaping bullet holes in his face suggest otherwise. One minute, the fearless Bugsy was stalking the streets of Sin City, his mere presence enough to make even the most hardened thugs break out in a cold sweat, and the next minute, Bugsy was reduced to an unrecognizable body sprawled out on a hard metal slab, with the name on his toe tag misspelled. Bugsy, who helped turn Las Vegas into what it became, had risen to the upper echelons of New York's criminal underworld along with his childhood friend, Meyer Lansky. One of America's most infamous mobsters, Lansky was also one of the most mysterious, a perplexing, yet inexplicably intriguing individual with multiple reputations. To his admirers, he was in many ways the ultimate genius and survivor within the callous and cut-throat world of 20th century organized crime. Even in adulthood, Meyer was smaller than most, standing anywhere between 4'11" to 5'4," and weighing 136 pounds at his heaviest. He was not merely an intellectual - he was worldly and wise, one who often doled out advice akin to poetry to his children and grandchildren, his gravelly voice oddly soothing. At the same time, he had all the stealth and cunning of a sphinx, and while remarkably even-tempered, gangsters twice his size dared not cross him. To them, he was no more than a wildly ambitious, often misunderstood entrepreneur who trod upon the border between legality and lawlessness with all the mastery of a tightrope artist. He was, above all, the definition of humility, one whose "handshake was worth more than any contract," and a man who actively dodged the spotlight that doggedly tailed him until the end of his days. Conversely, most will quickly concede that while Lansky was an exceptionally clever criminal, he was a criminal all the same, and the crimes of this dark horse were unforgivable. Meyer was a fraudulent, tax-evading crook whose massive fortune was literally made off the bodies of countless victims. He was a silver-tongued fiend who preyed on the weak and impressionable, plying them with booze and drugs and feeding their gambling addictions. Lansky, whose most famous nickname remains the "Mob's Accountant," was one of the few gangsters of his era to die in old age, and he was never pinched for anything more serious than gambling. It's believed he made upwards of $20 million in his time as a mobster, but some still claim he was never the mogul the media painted him out to be. Instead, they assert that he was an expendable middleman, and that he was an overzealous rogue who squandered away whatever fortune he had. Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky: The Controversial Mobsters Who Worked with Lucky Luciano to Form the National Crime Syndicate profiles the friends and partners as they rose from the streets of the Lower East Side to become some of the most influential organized crime leaders in America. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky like never before.

Author : Tere Tereba
Publisher : ECW Press
ISBN 13 : 1770902031
Total Pages : 386 pages
Book Rating : 4.39/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Mickey Cohen written by Tere Tereba and published by ECW Press. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The sensational tell-all biography of Hollywood’s most infamous mob boss who dominated Los Angeles’s underworld—and headlines—from the 1940s to the 1970s. When Bugsy Siegel was murdered in 1947, his henchman Mickey Cohen took over his criminal enterprise in Los Angeles. As charismatic as he was ruthless, Cohen attained so much power up until his death in 1976 that he was a regular above-the-fold newspaper name, with more than one thousand front-pages in LA papers alone. His story is inextricably intertwined with the history of the city of angels. Mickey Cohen is a seductive tale of Hollywood true crime history with a wildly eccentric mob boss at its center. Biographer Tere Tereba delivers tales of high life, high drama, and highly placed politicians—among them Robert F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon—as well as revelations about countless icons, including Shirley Temple, Lana Turner, Frank Sinatra, and even Rev. Billy Graham. Meticulously researched, this rich tapestry presents a complete look at the mid-twentieth century Los Angeles underworld. “The author does a superb job of tracing the ins and outs of Hollywood’s gang world in the 1940s and ’50s.” —The Wall Street Journal

Author : John Buntin
Publisher : Crown
ISBN 13 : 0307352080
Total Pages : 442 pages
Book Rating : 4.88/5 ( download)

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Download or read book L.A. Noir written by John Buntin and published by Crown. This book was released on 2010-04-06 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now the TNT Original Series MOB CITY Midcentury Los Angeles. A city sold to the world as "the white spot of America," a land of sunshine and orange groves, wholesome Midwestern values and Hollywood stars, protected by the world’s most famous police force, the Dragnet-era LAPD. Behind this public image lies a hidden world of "pleasure girls" and crooked cops, ruthless newspaper tycoons, corrupt politicians, and East Coast gangsters on the make. Into this underworld came two men—one L.A.’ s most notorious gangster, the other its most famous police chief—each prepared to battle the other for the soul of the city.

Author : Robert A. Rockaway
Publisher : Gefen Books
ISBN 13 : 9789652292490
Total Pages : 287 pages
Book Rating : 4.94/5 ( download)

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Download or read book But He was Good to His Mother written by Robert A. Rockaway and published by Gefen Books. This book was released on 2000 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seventh printing includes more gangsters! Newly footnoted and expanded bibliography! New FBI documents! More detailed information about the alleged plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler! Gangsters dealt with in this book include Louis Lepke Buchalter, Benjamin Bugsy Siegel, Arthur Dutch Schultz Flegenheimer, Meyer The Little Man Lansky, Chalie King Solomon, Max Boo Boo Hoff and Abner Longy Zwillman. Over 10,000 sold. Also available in Hebrew.

Author : Warren Robert Hull
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781629335537
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.33/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Family Secret (hardback) written by Warren Robert Hull and published by . This book was released on 2020-04-21 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On June 20, 1947, one of the most notorious gangsters of the twentieth century, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, was murdered in the Beverly Hills mansion of his mistress, Virginia Hill. The Siegel murder case is still officially unsolved...until now.

Author : Albert Fried
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780231096836
Total Pages : 374 pages
Book Rating : 4.36/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America written by Albert Fried and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Albert Fried recalls the rise and fail of an underworld culture that bred some of America's most infamous racketeers, bootleggers, gamblers, and professional killers, spawned by a culture of vice and criminality on New York's Lower East Side and similar environments in Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, Detroit, Newark, and Philadelphia. The author adds an important dimension to this story as he discusses the Italian gangs that teamed up with their Jewish counterparts to form multicultural syndicates. The careers of such high-profile figures as Meyer Lansky, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, and "Dutch" Schultz demonstrate how these gangsters passed from early manhood to old age, marketed illicit goods and services after the repeal of Prohibition, improved their system of mutual cooperation and self-governance, and grew to resemble modern business entrepreneurs. A new afterword brings to a close the careers of the Jewish gangsters and discusses how their image is addressed in selected books since the 1980s. Fried also examines the impact of films such as The Godfather series, Once Upon a Time in America, and Bugsy.