Today in History, June 20, 1947 – Bugsy Siegel

On June 20, 1947, mobster Bugsy Siegel was gunned down in Beverly Hills.

Born in Brooklyn on February 28, 1906, Bugsy Siegel built a criminal empire through bootlegging, gambling and ruthless assassinations before setting up shop in Las Vegas. He opened the famous Flamingo Hotel and Casino, the start of his notorious gambling operation in the middle of the Las Vegas desert.

On the evening of June 20, 1947, Siegel was brutally killed, when a  fusillade of bullets crashed through his living room window in Beverly  Hills. Simultaneously, three of Lansky’s cohorts entered the Flamingo  Hotel and declared a takeover. Although Lansky denied involvement in the  hit, there is little doubt that Siegel was murdered on syndicate  orders.