Benjamin Bugsy Siegel was born in Brooklyn, New York, on 28th February, 1906. As a young man he teamed up with Meyer Lansky, and became involved in bootlegging in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia. By the late 1920s he had joined Albert Anastasia and Lucky Luciano in a gang led by Joe Masseria.

In 1937 Siegel went to the California to develop the idea of gambling ships, operated outside the jurisdiction of the authorities. He also became involved in drug smuggling before with funding from gangster in New York, opened the Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vagas, Nevada.

Siegel's partners in New York, including Meyer Lansky, suspected that he was hiding some of the profits being made from the casino. On 20th June, 1947, Bugsy Siegel was killed by a hail of bullets as it looked out the window of his luxury Beverly Hills home.