Help support the Crime Library by visiting our sponsor.
BUGSY SIEGEL
by Mark Gribben
The Sociopath
Standing just a tad under six-feet tall, with a thick head
of black hair and piercing blue eyes, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel seemed to be a
gangster sent from central casting in Hollywood. He was charming with the ladies and a
sharp dresser, athletically inclined and fearless. Not only did Ben talk the talk, he
walked the walk of a prototypical racketeer. It seemed only inevitable that Siegel would
end up hobnobbing with the glitterati in Hollywood. While his friend Meyer Lansky flitted
back-and-forth between legitimate and illegal business opportunities all the while keeping
a low profile, Siegel moved from the crime-ridden slums of Brooklyn to the backlots of
Hollywood and along the way became one of the first page-one "celebrity"
gangsters.
Bugsy was a textbook sociopath. He took what he wanted when he wanted
it and the emotion of remorse was alien to him. In his mind, other people were there to be
used by him, which was demonstrated by his long record of robbery, rape and murder dating
back to his teenage years.
In gangster circles, the nickname "Bugsy" is often a term of
endearment or honor. It is given out to those racketeers who show no fear in sticky
situations or who are willing to step up to jobs that others are afraid to take. Bugsy
Siegel earned the nickname early on in his criminal career because of his tendency to
"go bugs" whenever he was angered or thwarted. It was an appellation that he
strongly disliked and anyone who used the nickname to his face risked certain bodily harm.
Siegel preferred that his friends call him Ben. If you weren’t his friend, "Mr.
Siegel" would do just fine.
"When we were in a fight Benny would never hesitate," Meyer
Lansky once said. "He was even quicker to take action than those hot-blooded
Sicilians, the first to start punching and shooting. Nobody reacted faster than
Benny."
Benjamin Siegel, with his Hollywood friends and flamboyant lifestyle,
will go down in the annals of crime history as the man who brought the rackets to the West
Coast and made Las Vegas into the gambling mecca of the United States.
This is the story of Bugsy Siegel -- a man who rose from the depths of
poverty to the pinnacle of mob life, but whose hubris would be his downfall.
