The Man Who Did Not Invent Las Vegas.

Bugsy Siegel
February 28, 1906 – June 20, 1947
You remember the 1991 Warren Beatty film Bugsy, right? Beatty, as Siegel, is driving through the desert with Annette Bening and Harvey Keitel in the 1940s when he has to take a leak. While leaking, Siegel decides to build a great expansive casino on that very spot. He draws up plans and builds the Flamingo, thereby inventing Las Vegas as we know it.

And that's correct...except the part that's utter crap.

Las Vegas was incorporated as a city in 1905, as you may be aware, and gambling was legalized long before Bugsy came to town. In fact, there were already casinos, mostly downtown on Fremont Street. The El Cortez was already there, as were the Golden Nugget, the Sal Sagev (now the Golden Gate), El Rancho Vegas, and the Last Frontier. In fact, the Flamingo was already there, though only partially constructed, when Siegel took over on behalf of his "business associates" in the Chicago Outfit.

Siegel and his associates had already made some money by buying the El Cortez for $600,000 and selling it for a $166,000 profit. This is not mentioned in the film...which, while a decent flick, is filled with lies.

How Siegel convinced Hollywood Reporter owner Billy Wilkerson (who was building the Flamingo) to let him take over isn't quite clear. The story is that the cost of building the hotel was getting out of control and Wilkerson was strapped for cash. But maybe, just maybe, Wilkerson also liked the idea having all his blood stay inside his body. I'm just sayin'.

But it is known that Siegel caused cost overruns on the Flamingo and it made the mob nervous. By the time it finally opened it cost several million dollars more than projected and, while a financial success, it was suspected that Bugsy and his girlfriend Virginia Hill were skimming money. Siegel was shot to death at Virginia's home in Los Angeles on June 20, 1947. She wasn't home. She later fled to Austria where she committed suicide in 1966. The end of the film Bugsy indicates that she returned the money she and Siegel skimmed, but this can't be proven and the mob doesn't give receipts.

The final shot of the film Bugsy shows footage of 1991-era Las Vegas and a note about how much money is spent there today as a result of "Bugsy Siegel's dream". I won't argue that Bugsy contributed to the founding of Las Vegas as we know it, but he invented nothing. The mob was already in Vegas, and I believe that it still would have all happened without him.

Bugsy Siegel was nothing more than a punk and a killer, his contributions to Las Vegas have been vastly overrated, and he dressed like a clown. The end.