Bugsy Siegel
American mobsterWikipedia
114
MENTIONS
60
EPISODES
56
PODCASTS
Search complete. 114 mentions across 60 episodes found for "Bugsy Siegel".
Sep 14, 2026
George KnappNARRATOR
Not many people noticed, not until the early 1940s.
George KnappNARRATOR
[upbeat music] That's when Las Vegas caught the eye of these two men, Meyer Lansky and Benjamin Bugsy Siegel.
speaker_4NARRATOR
Siegel.Siegel had earlier run a race wire service out of Las Vegas catering to illegal bookmakers in the East.
speaker_4NARRATOR
Lansky and Siegel had come up the hard way, in Hell's Kitchen and on New York's Lower East Side, bootlegging, gambling, racketeering.
speaker_4NARRATOR
The Flamingo Hotel was built, and Meyer Lansky's vision became a glitzy, glamorous reality.
speaker_4NARRATOR
Las Vegas as we know it was born.
speaker_4NARRATOR
And the brash, handsome Bugsy Siegel, with his silent partners Lansky and Costello, thus became the casino industry's very first mob frontman.
speaker_6SOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Well, if, uh, you didn't know his background, you would think that he was a character actor in the movies.
speaker_3SOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
In 2006, Don Wolfe publishes a book in which he advances the theory, what if somebody with a hair-trigger temper, some infamous, violent mobster, killed Elizabeth Short? And not only that he killed her, but he did it at the behest of a famous and powerful person.
speaker_1NARRATOR
Leading to theory number four: she was murdered by Bugsy Siegel.
speaker_4SOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Bugsy Siegel is infamous mafia figure, one of the people associated with the foundation of Murder, Inc. in New York, which is not a reputation you develop unless you have hurt people.
speaker_1NARRATOR
Siegel moves to California in the mid-1930s to set up a West Coast criminal empire.
speaker_1NARRATOR
Despite his track record as a merciless hitman, he soon finds himself hobnobbing with celebrities.
speaker_3SOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
One of the power players that Bugsy Siegel is known to associate with is Norman Chandler, who is at the time the publisher of the Los Angeles Times.
speaker_3SOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Chandler is the civic leader in the second-largest city in the US.
speaker_5SOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
The rumor is that Norman Chandler got Elizabeth Short pregnant, and that could not be.
speaker_2SOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
In 2006, Don Wolfe publishes a book in which he advances the theory, what if somebody with a hair-trigger temper, some infamous, violent mobster, killed Elizabeth Short? And not only that he killed her, but he did it at the behest of a famous and powerful person.
Vanessa RichardsonHOST
Leading to theory number four: she was murdered by Bugsy Siegel.
speaker_3SOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Bugsy Siegel is infamous mafia figure, one of the people associated with the foundation of Murder, Inc. in New York, which is not a reputation you develop unless you have hurt people.
Vanessa RichardsonHOST
Siegel moves to California in the mid-1930s to set up a West Coast criminal empire.
Vanessa RichardsonHOST
Despite his track record as a merciless hitman, he soon finds himself hobnobbing with celebrities.
speaker_2SOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
One of the power players that Bugsy Siegel is known to associate with is Norman Chandler, who is, at the time, the publisher of the Los Angeles Times.
speaker_2SOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Chandler is the civic leader in the second-largest city in the US.
speaker_4SOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
The rumor is that Norman Chandler got Elizabeth Short pregnant, and that could not be.
GarySOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
You've got migration from China increasing demand, civil war increasing demand, boys down in Sinaloa bumping up production.
GarySOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
The guy overseeing the operation in LA was a guy named Bugsy Siegel.
GarySOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
At that point, it was five, if not six, cartels.
Bubba the Love Sponge ClemHOST
Is that not good?
Nghi VoGUEST
...
Nghi VoGUEST
Bugsy Siegel raising Las Vegas as a for example, or, um-
Abel MonteroGUEST
Mm-hmm
Nghi VoGUEST
...
Tim HixonGUEST
It's just a casino there, right? It's not...
Tim HixonGUEST
[laughs]
Beth TablerMODERATOR
Yeah, local Native Americans, and they would water their horses and stuff, and then they would move on Well, in the early 1900s it became, you know, Bugsy Siegel and stuff.
Beth TablerMODERATOR
Well, let's look into this.
Conan NeutronHOST
is yeah
Forrest MillerHOST
last time that he allowed himself to play a gangster because he had this like very close childhood friendship with uh bugsy siegel he was so like in like in this criminal world that he was he was uh paranoid that if he started being in crime movies they were gonna come after him because they're like oh this guy is clearly like a criminal scumbag and he only got uh he's so good at playing gangsters He's only good at pretty much playing a gangster.
Forrest MillerHOST
I mean, he's good at playing, you know, leaves.
Forrest MillerHOST
Like, how much can he really be, like, the romantic in a movie? And he's such a, like, kind of strange-looking guy.
Forrest MillerHOST
He's been in the mafia.
Forrest MillerHOST
All his friends are in the mafia.
Forrest MillerHOST
Bugsy Siegel's like his childhood best friend.
Forrest MillerHOST
He was his wheel
Ivan LopezGUEST
And yes, I mean, who knows what she's doing right now? I know
Alisa DonovanHOST
she could be like Bugsy Siegel.
Alisa DonovanHOST
Didn't they catch him like 30 years later or something? I remember going to in L.A.
Alisa DonovanHOST
like he was in Santa Monica at the like that bar on Second Street.
Ivan LopezGUEST
And yes, I mean, who knows what she's doing right now? I know
Elisa DonovanHOST
she could be like Bugsy Siegel.
Elisa DonovanHOST
Didn't they catch him like 30 years later or something? I remember going to in L.A.
Elisa DonovanHOST
like he was in Santa Monica at the like that bar on Second Street.
Ivan LopezGUEST
And yeah, it's, I mean, who knows what she's doing right now? I know
Elisa DonovanHOST
she could be like Bugsy Siegel.
Elisa DonovanHOST
Didn't they catch him like 30 years later or something? I remember going to LA, like he was in Santa Monica at the, like, uh, that bar on second street.
Elisa DonovanHOST
I'm like, wait, what? He was like shooting darts in there or something.
Ivan LopezGUEST
And yeah, it's, I mean, who knows what she's doing right now? I know
Elisa DonovanHOST
she could be like Bugsy Siegel.
Elisa DonovanHOST
Didn't they catch him like 30 years later or something? I remember going to LA, like he was in Santa Monica at the, like, uh, that bar on second street.
Elisa DonovanHOST
I'm like, wait, what? He was like shooting darts in there or something.
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