All language subtitles for Historys.Greatest.Mysteries.S06E15.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[dark dramatic music]
[gunshot]

- Tonight, notorious mobster
Bugsy Siegel is gunned down

in his living room.

- One minute, he's
reading the newspaper,

the next, he's taking
two bullets to the face.

- Nine rounds from
a military rifle

right through a
plate glass window?

That's not a standard mob hit.

- Although Siegel's killing
becomes front page news,

no arrest is ever made.

- Lots of guys had reasons
to want Siegel dead.

Some women had
their reasons, too.

- Now we'll explore the
theories surrounding one

of the most infamous and
unsolved mob murders.

- Bugsy Siegel
basically takes over.

He muscles his way
into the race wire.

He muscles his
way into gambling.

- He's doing his own
thing. He won't listen.

- In the organized crime world,

that type of defiance often
warranted a death sentence.

- The LA DA believed
that there were

at least 100 people
who'd want Bugsy dead.

- Who killed Bugsy
Siegel and why?

[dark dramatic music]

11:00 PM. June 20th, 1947.

The Beverly Hills
police are summoned

to a mansion just south
of Sunset Boulevard.

[sirens wailing]

There's been a murder.

- As the police officers
approach the house,

they can see that the living
room window has been shattered,

and through the window
they can see a body strewn

on a bloodstained sofa.

- Officers observed
that the victim

had been shot several times.

He was shot twice in the head.

One shot actually went
through the bridge of his nose

and took his eye out.

- [Laurence] The victim
is no stranger to police.

It's Bugsy Siegel, the
notorious gangster dead at 41.

- Bugsy Siegel was born in 1906

in the Lower East
Side of New York.

His parents had come

from Eastern Europe
three years earlier.

- He has a pretty
hardscrabble life as a child,

which is very common
of Jewish immigrants

in this time period.

As a teenager,
Siegel gets involved

with another immigrant
named Moe Sedway,

and the two of them start
extorting pushcart vendors.

- If vendors didn't
pay up the first time,

you just get your
stuff knocked over.

The second time, they
would burn down your cart.

[flame bursting]

Benjamin Siegel was quickly
labeled hair trigger,

short tempered, very
violent, and ultimately,

as he grew and became a
teenager, he was dubbed Bugsy.

Why? Because they said he
was crazy as a bed bug.

- Siegel hates the
nickname Bugsy.

He hates it when he's a youth.

He hates it for the
rest of his life.

- There are a few different
avenues for mobsters.

You can be more
of the businessman

or you could be more of the
violent, volatile character,

and that is really the
role that Siegel plays.

- [Laurence] January 1920.

Prohibition brings
Bugsy into partnership

with another childhood friend,

a mobster named Meyer Lansky.

- Lansky is intellectual.

He sees opportunities
where others don't.

He sees opportunities
in prohibition,

but he also recognizes
the need to organize,

that Jewish gangsters should
organize along the lines

of the Italians or the Irish.

And one of the first people
he welcomes into the fold is

an old friend, Bugsy Siegel.

[dark pulsating music]

- [Laurence] During prohibition,

rival gangs led by
Italian boss Lucky Luciano

and Jewish boss Meyer Lansky
both grow rich and powerful,

but the often deadly competition

between the gangs
is bad for business.

- In order to
reduce the conflict

between these rival gangs,

Lucky Luciano and Meyer
Lansky's Jewish mob team up,

and together, they create
this national crime syndicate.

- They're going to
enter into partnerships,

that they're going to
divvy up operations

and divvy up territory,

the thinking being

that if they're not
fighting one another,

they'll all be more successful.

- The National Crime
Syndicate completely changes

the way organized crime operates

because it creates
this set of rules,

and specifically for Siegel,
it gives him opportunity

that he wouldn't have had
in a smaller-time gang.

- [Laurence] Bugsy
Siegel and Meyer Lansky

launch a tough new operation
within the Syndicate,

Murder, Incorporated.

[gunshot]

- If there was a problem
that needed to be sorted out,

maybe the quickest
solution is a hit.

The number of people hit

by Murder, Inc. depends
upon the source.

It could be in the dozens.
It could be in the hundreds.

- And Bugsy Siegel
personally is attributed

to between anywhere
from 10 to 30 murders.

[dark droning music]

- Siegel begins to amass
a collection of enemies,

and this is something that
Lucky Luciano recognizes,

so he sends him to California.

- Sometime between
1936 and 1937,

Bugsy Siegel moves to LA.

He basically takes over.

There are already
organized crime groups

in Southern California,

and he pretty much treats
them as nonentities.

- So Siegel came to Hollywood

and immediately fell
in love with it.

He just became
this super playboy.

- He really attracts
a lot of the ladies.

He's known for his philandering,

but one woman in particular
really attracts his attention.

- And that is Virginia Hill.

They have a tumultuous,
tempestuous relationship.

They are violent
with one another.

Hill is able to give
it back to Siegel

in a way that few others can.

- [Laurence] By 1947, there
are reports that Bugsy

and Virginia's
relationship has become

even more volatile than usual.

- Sources say that
on June 19th of 1947

that they have a very
public fight in Las Vegas,

and she takes a plane to Europe
and he takes a plane to LA.

[eerie droning music]

- His good friend Allen Smiley

suggested they go out to dinner.

So they went to dinner with
Virginia Hill's brother, Chick,

and Virginia's
secretary, Jerri Mason.

Hill and Mason were
engaged to be married.

- The four of them
finish dinner.

They come back to the house.

Chick and Jerry head
upstairs to bed,

and Smiley and Siegel
stay in the living room.

They're reading the newspaper.

- [Laurence] Bugsy is
unaware of the danger lurking

just outside his bay window.

- Just before 11:00 PM, the
shooter fires nine rounds.

[rapid gunshots]

Two hit him in the head,
the other two to the chest.

He pretty much died instantly.

- Neighbors hear shots fired.

They see a car speeding off

toward Sunset
Boulevard to the north.

They don't see who's in the car.

No one sees the license plate.

- The murder weapon
is never recovered,

but forensics quickly determines

that it was an M1 carby,

which was a standard issue
semi-automatic rifle issued

to soldiers during World War II.

- The LA DA believed that
there were at least 100 people

who'd want Bugsy dead,

but the Beverly Hills
police Department believed

that the person that killed
Bugsy Siegel was someone

within his inner circle,
a known associate.

- [Laurence] For many experts,
the key to Bugsy's murder

lies in the desert
south of Las Vegas.

It's here, in the 1940s,

he builds what will become
the Flamingo Casino.

- And this is, of course, being
bankrolled by the Syndicate,

who begin to raise
questions about

just what Siegel is doing
in the Nevada desert.

- They believe that he
is making a lot more

on the take than he says he is.

- And if there is one thing
that you do not do in the mob,

it is steal from the mob.

[eerie dramatic music]

- By the early 1940s, the state
of Nevada is the only state

in the union that
has legal gambling.

And so the Syndicate is like,

"How do we get in on
the ground floor?"

Mobsters aren't the only
people turning to Las Vegas

and looking at casinos as
a really great investment.

Billy Wilkerson is the publisher
of the Hollywood Reporter.

He's also a developer.

He purchases land,

and he begins work
on the Flamingo.

This is his dream.

- Post-war cost of
material is so high that

within about a month and a half,

he's already run out of money.

- So the story is that
Wilkerson looks to Siegel,

and at first, Siegel and
Wilkerson do work side by side.

Siegel then scares him
so far off the project

that he leaves Las Vegas and
pretty much doesn't come back.

- Siegel may be great
at murdering people,

but what he is not great
at is managing them.

- There are plumbing problems.

There's problems with
delays in the construction.

- The budget for the
Flamingo balloons

from 1.2 million to 6 million,

and the Syndicate has to float
him a million plus dollars

to get this project completed.

- They're wondering is he
skimming some of the money

that they're giving
him that's to be used

on the Flamingo Hotel and Casino
for his own personal gain?

- Shortly before Christmas 1946,

Lucky Luciano convenes a meeting

of Syndicate bosses
in Havana, Cuba.

- Lucky Luciano says, "We think
Bugsy is stealing from us,

and it's time for
him to be taken out."

But Meyer Lansky, who is
one of the crime bosses,

he pleads for his old
friend's life, and he says,

"Let's at least wait until
the Flamingo Hotel is open

before we decide what to do."

[thunder rumbles]

- [Laurence]
December 26th, 1946.

The Flamingo's much-
anticipated opening

does not go according to plan.

- There is a rainstorm
that prevents many

of Siegel's high-rolling friends

from Los Angeles
from driving out.

- The hotel rooms are not ready,

and those who come to
gamble take their winnings

and go either to
the El Rancho Vegas

or to the Hotel Last Frontier.

- He loses $300,000
in the first few weeks

of operations at the Flamingo.

[dark tense music

- [Laurence] The opening of
the Flamingo is a disaster,

but despite all of the
setbacks, Bugsy doesn't give up.

- In March of 1947,
they reopen, and by May,

they are already
turning a profit,

which is a huge deal in casinos.

- [Laurence] But
Siegel won't have long

to enjoy the Flamingo's
newfound success.

- The casino turning a profit
was the first good news

that Siegel really got.

I think there was a false
sense of security there.

Meyer Lansky protected Siegel,

but there were members
in the Syndicate

who wanted Siegel dead.

- Within minutes
of Siegel's murder,

a number of Syndicate henchmen,

including Siegel's old
compatriot Moe Sedway,

march onto the casino floor

and announce that the Flamingo
is under new management.

[dark tense music]

- [Laurence] When Bugsy
Siegel first moves

to California in the late 1930s,

he sets his sights on one

of the West Coast mob's
most lucrative rackets.

- [Commentator] And
here comes Rosemont!

It's gonna be a
photograph finish!

- Horse racing is big
business in the thirties.

This is the era of Seabiscuit.

The Santa Anita race
track is a huge deal.

It's really like a cultural
touchstone at this period.

- [Commentator] What a
triumph for Seabiscuit.

[camera shutter clicks]

- In the days before
you had the internet,

you could legally
bet at the tracks.

Now if you couldn't be there

and you were doing
off-track betting,

you would have to
go through a bookie.

- Gambling bookmakers need to
share information about races

before they happen,

but that's illegal.

You can't use Western Union

to send information
about a horse race

or any kind of sporting
event until after it's over.

Now this, of course,
it doesn't work

if you wanna run a
gambling operation.

- So what they're looking
for is that information

before the race happens.

The illegal wire
service provides that,

and bookies are paying anywhere

from 100 to $250 a week
for that information.

- There are two competing race
wire services at this point.

Continental, which is
owned by James Ragen

and is organized crime but
not a part of the Syndicate.

- The second, Transamerica,
is run by Al Capone

with the support
of the Syndicate.

The Syndicate wants to take
over all wire services,

so they set their
eyes on Continental.

[dark dramatic music]

- So Bugsy's part
is that if he's able

to take over the
illegal wire service

in the southwest United
States, then he gets to run it,

and he gets to keep a
part of the profits.

And he does just that.

By the early 1940s, Bugsy,
through various means of charm,

intimidation, and
outright violence,

he wipes out Continental
Wire Service.

- Transamerica now controls

the entire wire
service operation,

and Continental fold up.

- [Laurence] Bugsy might be
the big man in LA for now,

but his Hollywood lifestyle

is making his East
Coast backers uneasy.

- As Siegel rises in
power on the West Coast,

he also rises in prominence.

He becomes something
of a minor celebrity.

- He loved the celebrity life.

Hollywood crowds
absolutely loved him.

Frank Sinatra, he told friends

that this guy has this
charisma that's so appealing.

He's so good looking
and he's so tough.

- He is a public
figure in the way

that mob bosses are
not supposed to be.

You are not supposed to
draw attention to yourself

or anything that you're doing.

This begins to rub his bosses
back east the wrong way.

[ominous music]

By '46, Bugsy's wire racket
is incredibly lucrative.

By some accounts, he's making
as much as 25 grand a month

on his Las Vegas
operation alone.

Siegel is consistently failing

to report profits from his
various rackets on time.

First of all, it's
just disrespectful,

but where's all the money going?

Some begin to
perceive him as being

too big for his britches,

that he's acting less
like a loyal lieutenant

and more like a boss himself.

And one person who is
especially upset about this,

story goes, is none other

than the actual
boss, Lucky Luciano.

- In the mob, time
and time again,

if you don't follow
their definition

of the straight and
narrow, you're out.

- So they decide to take this

whole West Coast wire
operation away from Bugsy,

and that's when Bugsy loses it.

- Siegel is expectedly furious.

He'll tell anyone who will
listen that it's his racket,

he'll run it how he wants.

They gotta keep their
hands off of the profits.

It is yet another open display

of not only arrogance,
but defiance.

And in the organized
crime world,

that type of defiance often
warranted a death sentence.

- [Laurence] According
to one source,

the New York mob may have
asked the Chicago Outfit

for help with their
Bugsy problem.

It's likely the
Chicago Outfit had

some inside information
on Bugsy's movements

that would help them
to pull off the hit.

- There are theories that
the Syndicate reaches out

to the Chicago Outfit and says,

"Look, this is a
problem for all of us,

and if you wanna have more
control over the race wire,

you need to help us take
care of this problem."

I think the Outfit did
stand to gain a lot

if they got Siegel
out of the way.

- When Bugsy is killed, the
horse racing wire issue is one

of the first ideas floated
for why he is murdered.

- There are some
reports of Siegel

and some of his associates
having arguments

at the Flamingo about
this very subject.

- [Laurence] On June 26th,
1947, less than a week

after his murder, Bugsy
Siegel is laid to rest

in a $5,000
silver-plated casket.

- Typically, when someone
who was a prominent figure

in the mafia or the
Syndicate passed away,

you had this lavish funeral
with hundreds of guests,

and that wasn't the
case with Ben's funeral.

[somber music]

- This man who had
so much notoriety

and so many people
knew about him

attracted almost no
attention for his funeral.

- Reportedly, there
were six guests.

There's no Virginia Hill.

Meyer Lansky doesn't fly out.

None of his
associates are there.

They say that his funeral
took about five minutes.

Meyer Lansky and any of
his other compatriots know

that once you cross the mob,
everyone has to cut you off.

[tense music]

- As he's being laid to rest,
gossip is already fomenting

about who killed Siegel and why.

- There's a lot of people
who think maybe this wasn't

an inside job,

that maybe it's all the
enemies he made in LA

rather than the tension that
he had with the Syndicate.

- His ego knew no bounds,

and he started to muscle in
on other people's territory.

[intense dramatic music]

- Jack Dragna is once described

in a state crime
commission report

as the Al Capone of Los Angeles.

- He was involved in Los
Angeles for four decades,

kind of helped establish that
mafia organization there.

He made the bulk of his
money during prohibition.

- He runs an illegal
wire service,

transmits information about
horse races, betting purposes.

He runs a number of
casinos 12 miles off shore,

making it perfectly legal,
and he enjoys a degree

of autonomy from his
bosses on the East Coast.

- He was a native
of Corleone, Sicily,

and was often back and forth
between Italy and America.

- He is very much a
honor-bound mafioso,

and Siegel doesn't
respect that at all.

- So when Bugsy
arrives in Los Angeles,

there are really big
changes in the works.

- Siegel sends people

to essentially tear
apart Dragna's offices,

and so, this is
a direct affront.

- Worst thing that you can do

to a mobster is
humiliate him publicly,

but that is exactly
what Siegel has done,

but Dragna is the type
of guy who understands

that, in the mob world, what
goes around comes around.

Power ebbs and flows.

- Dragna doesn't do
anything initially

because he understood
that Lucky Luciano had

to give the okay for
all of this to happen,

so I think he was
just biding his time

and waiting until the right
moment to take Bugsy out.

- In the days after
Bugsy's murder,

there's a lot of gossip
amongst gangsters

and the police that
Jack Dragna is the one

that ordered the hit.

Dragna is essentially
able to regain control

of all of the Southern
California rackets.

And so, for Luciano, if
someone else is willing

to take out Siegel and he
doesn't have to be the one

to order that hit,

I think it weighs a little
less on your conscience.

- [Laurence] The Dragna
theory gets a boost in 1987

when his former
chauffeur and bodyguard,

Eddie "The Catman" Cannizzaro,

confesses that he shot
Bugsy on his boss's order.

- And according to
Eddie Cannizzaro,

Jack Dragna got word
from Meyer Lansky,

"Hey, we'd like this to
happen in your territory,"

and he gave the assignment
to Eddie Cannizzaro.

- In his confession,
Cannizzaro says, quote,

"I moved up on the lawn

and could see clearly
through the bay window.

I nestled the barrel on
a branch and took my time

before I squeezed off
the shots in rapid fire.

I was picked
because I knew Siegel

and wouldn't make a mistake."

It was no secret to the
police who Cannizzaro was,

so the fact that he
was a known associate

of Dragna lends some
plausibility to this theory.

[suspenseful music]

- But there is this
strain of mobsters who,

at the end of their life, they
like to claim certain deaths.

- Why would Cannizzaro lie?

Well, to elevate himself in
the annals of mob history.

- And there are
inconsistencies with his story.

For instance, he says
that when he left,

he drove southbound
towards Wilshire.

Witnesses said, "No, no, no.

"We saw the car drive off
northbound towards Sunset."

- We also know that
Cannizzaro is, in some sense,

is a bit of a strange guy.

He's called The
Catman for a reason,

that at this time he's
living with his mother

in a house with 30 cats.

- Whether Jack Dragna
hired Cannizzaro

to take Bugsy Siegel
out can't be ruled out.

He was certainly somebody
who knew that world,

understood that world,
and would act on behalf

of his boss, Jack Dragna,

who had, after all,
been humiliated

and probably, at some
point, in front of Catman.

- Bugsy Siegel

was one of America's
first celebrity mobsters.

He may have been
vicious and ruthless

when it came to business,

but his good looks and
charismatic personality

also made him a
Hollywood legend.

Perhaps all that adulation
and celebrity had gone

to Bugsy's head,
leading him to bet

that he was too
important and big

to bow down to his
Syndicate bosses.

Whatever his reasoning, Siegel
acts like he's untouchable

and he does so at his own peril.

- By 1947, Siegel
knows there are lots

of people out to get him.

He's making a ton of money in
both California and Las Vegas,

but he's also widely perceived
to be skimming profits.

He's also defiant in
the face of his bosses

when they tried to take
away the wire racket,

but it could also be the case

that there was a
threat literally right

by his side the whole time.

[dark dramatic music]

In 1937, the Syndicate

sends Siegel some help,

a former boxer turned mob
enforcer named Mickey Cohen,

who is notoriously violent
both with his fists

as well as his guns,

and Cohen is maybe
one of the few people

who could stand up to Siegel

because he knew he
could back it up.

- [Laurence] Bugsy
makes Mickey Cohen

his personal bodyguard,
and before long,

Cohen's a trusted associate.

- Cohen was very loyal.

In fact, Cohen is
the kind of guy

who really does fit the mold

of what organized crime
wants in a soldier.

He was willing to take
the rap for Bugsy.

He spent time in jail and
in prison taking the fall,

many believe, for things

that Siegel's actually
responsible for.

- [Laurence] With Mickey
Cohen as his strong right arm,

Bugsy is the major underworld
player on the West Coast,

but are his bosses back east

considering a change
of management?

- One of the key
questions at the heart

of the Siegel
mystery is the degree

to which he was or was
not expendable, right?

How far could he push it
as a valuable lieutenant

before people would
crack down on it?

- The mob have really lost trust

in his ability to turn a profit.

[tense music]

- An FBI agent came to Ben
before he was murdered and said,

"I have intel saying that people
back east want to kill you.

You know, I just
want you to know."

- Reportedly,
Siegel's final days

in Las Vegas are not pretty.

He's suspicious.

He's lashing out at
longtime associates,

accusing them of
planning against him.

One story has it
on June 20th, 1947,

just hours before
Siegel is killed,

he's asking Cohen
for some equipment.

- Cohen later says,

"It sounds like Bugsy knew
he was gonna be taken down,

and he wasn't going
down without a fight."

- Saying this to Mickey Cohen

and trusting him as
a valued lieutenant

wasn't really the
best thing to do.

- I think a man like Cohen
looks at Siegel and thinks,

"You know, maybe I'll
get my opportunity.

Maybe I'll get this racket,
maybe I'll get this cut."

But Siegel doesn't
really have that in mind.

He wants to control
everything on the West Coast.

So would Cohen have
gotten fed up about that?

- It's quite possible
that, at some point,

Mickey Cohen had got tired
of resting in the shadow

and being his fall guy.

[intense dramatic music]

- Cohen is Siegel's
right hand man in LA,

which means he knows
his comings and goings.

He knows this mansion.

This is exactly
the type of person

and the type of inside
knowledge that you need

if you're trying to
take down a person

who is already fearful,
is already suspicious,

and already knows
how the mob operates.

- Hours after Siegel's murder,

Cohen reportedly drives
to the Roosevelt Hotel,

where he believes the
killers are staying,

marches into the lobby,

fires several rounds
into the ceiling,

and demands that the
killers present themselves.

And after 10 minutes
when they don't,

police are on their
way, and he drives out.

[sirens wailing]

It is a very theatrical
display of grief

for his deceased friend.

Boss?

- Bystanders suggest that Cohen
puts on this dramatic show

because he's trying
to cover up the fact

that he's responsible
for Bugsy's death.

- Mickey Cohen really benefits
from the death of his boss.

Bugsy Siegel's death
leads him to gain control

of the majority of
the rackets in LA,

and Cohen becomes known as
pretty much the boss of LA.

This is an opportunity
that I don't think

most people would've
anticipated for Cohen.

I think it's possible that
this was quid pro quo.

I think it's also possible
that the Syndicate

wanted someone a little
easier to control,

maybe not as smart
or as charismatic.

- Cohen never admits any
involvement in Siegel's murder.

The closest we maybe come
is an interview he gave

between prison stints
in 1957 to Mike Wallace.

- Whether one of those deserved
men was Siegel is something

that Cohen took to his grave.

[intense dramatic music]

- [Laurence] Bugsy
Siegel was many things,

a pathological killer with
a hair-trigger temper,

a risk-taking high
stakes gambler,

a handsome, charming
social climber,

and a notorious womanizer.

- Siegel is someone
people get attracted to

because he doesn't
look like a gangster.

He looks like a Hollywood star.

- In the late twenties,

Bugsy Siegel marries his
childhood sweetheart,

a woman named Esta.

He had affairs throughout

the duration of his marriage.

She actually divorces him

on the grounds of
his unfaithfulness.

- [Laurence] But some say
it's the way Bugsy treated

another woman that may
have led to his murder.

[calm pulsating music]

- Where everyone looks
between 1942 and 1947

with Ben Siegel, one almost
always sees Virginia Hill.

- Hill was not a conventional
beauty by Hollywood standards,

but she was still an
impressive, attractive woman.

She had red hair,
she was vivacious,

she had a big personality,

and she also had her
own criminal backstory.

- Virginia Hill is
born in Alabama.

She moves as a teenager
to Chicago around 1933

when Chicago is host
to the World's Fair.

The only thing we
know for certain is

that she starts
working as a waitress

at the San Carlo Italian Village

in the Italian section
of the World's Fair.

And who's hanging out there?
Capone's Chicago Outfit.

So she starts serving and

then working for mobsters

within Capone's outfit.

- She would transport
illicit materials,

which would range from anything,
from just letters to cash

to narcotics around the country.

You have to show up on time,
you have to deliver as promised

and you need to keep
your mouth shut.

She is reportedly
very good at this.

- [Laurence] According
to the National Museum

of Organized Crime
and Law Enforcement,

Virginia Hill rises higher
than any other woman

in the national underworld.

- Bugsy Siegel falls
for Virginia Hill.

There's no doubt in my mind
that he really does love her

and is really attracted to her.

He lavishes her with furs.

He rents this gorgeous house
for her in Beverly Hills.

This is not just any old affair.

- I think they legitimately
loved each other,

but just because
you love someone

doesn't mean it's a
healthy relationship.

- They're said to have
had very violent fights.

They are flinging insults
and furniture at each other.

- We know that Hill often
gave as much as she took,

but she's taking it from a
man who's twice her size.

Maybe after years of this
abuse, she's had enough.

[dramatic music]

- Bernie Sindler is an
associate of Meyer Lansky's

who later writes a memoir,

and in it, he talks about
a meeting that he had

with Virginia Hill in 1946.

He's in Las Vegas.
He's at the Flamingo.

- He claims that she
was having something

of an argument with a gentleman.

When he approached, she
introduced the gentleman

as another brother.

This one is a marine stationed
nearby at Camp Pendleton.

Hill is telling
her brother about

yet another violent
confrontation.

This one's so violent that
it left Hill with bruises.

And she says to her brother

that she's now
fearing for her life.

She thinks that Siegel
is going to kill her.

- And Sindler recalled that
her brother said something like,

"I oughta kill that
son of a bitch."

[suspenseful music]

- [Laurence] On June 20th, 1947,

six months after Bernie
Sindler sees Hill

and her alleged Marine
brother at the Flamingo,

her other brother,
Chick, is upstairs

in the Beverly Hills mansion
she shared with Bugsy

when the shots ring out.

[wind blowing]

- Why were the curtains open
if it was late at night?

Somebody must have opened them.

- Sindler drew what he thought

was the appropriate conclusion.

Chick had opened a curtain
before he went upstairs

so that his brother would have
a clean shot at Ben Siegel.

- Hill's brother,
being a Marine,

would be very familiar
with an M1 Carbine.

He'd be probably
proficient with it.

- [Laurence] Sindler
also claims the M.O.

in Bugsy's murder is
inconsistent with a mob hit.

- A typical mob hit is
when you go up to a guy

with a handgun up to his
head and you shoot him

because you're not gonna miss.

- [Laurence] The fact that
Virginia Hill suddenly flew off

to Paris the day
before Bugsy's murder

also raises questions.

- The timing of the travel

gives Hill a perfect alibi.

They had a fight, so she needed
some time away, so she left,

nowhere near the
Beverly Hills mansion

when Siegel was killed.

- When Virginia
Hill is questioned,

she says that she can't imagine

that Bugsy Siegel is involved
in all this criminal activity.

And she says, "Well,
I'm not his mistress.

If anything, his mistress
is the Flamingo Hotel."

- Hill is a old school
mobster in her own right.

She's not gonna squeal.
It's just not in her nature.

- 19 years later in 1966,
Virginia Hill tragically dies

of an overdose of
sleeping pills,

allegedly committing suicide,

and she takes all of her
secrets to the grave.

- But she wasn't the only woman
who might have had a reason

to want Bugsy killed and
the means to make it happen.

- [Laurence] 2014,
71-year-old Robbie Sedway,

the second son of Bugsy Siegel
associate Moe Sedway is dying

of throat cancer when he reveals
a long held family secret

to Los Angeles Magazine
writer Amy Wallace,

a secret that Sedway
believes solves the mystery

of Bugsy's killing
once and for all.

- Robbie says his mother
told him who killed Bugsy.

It's a love story,
he tells Wallace,

and it's a story with his
mother, Bee, at the center.

- All of this was
revealed in a memoir,

and Robbie had not published
his mother's memoir

because he thought
it was too hot.

There might be some problems

if he made that
information known.

- On his deathbed, he
has a change of heart

and sees it as
his responsibility

to reveal the answer

to one of the greatest
mysteries of the 20th century.

[intense dramatic music]

- [Laurence] Moe Sedway was
one of Bugsy Siegel's oldest

and closest friends from
their juvenile delinquent days

in the street gangs
of Brooklyn, New York.

Early in the prohibition era,

Bugsy brings Moe
into the Jewish mob,

formed by Meyer Lansky.

- Whereas Siegel is violent
and confrontational,

Moe is more of the numbers guy.

He's quiet and
more intellectual.

- [Laurence] In 1936,
41-year-old Moe Sedway

marries 17-year-old
Beatrice "Bee" Kittle.

Bugsy is the best
man at their wedding,

but by the 1940s
the relationship

between the two old friends
is starting to fracture.

- [Commentator] And
here comes Rosemont!

It's gonna be a
photograph finish!

- I think Sedway sees himself
as subordinate to Bugsy

in a way that he doesn't
believe that he should be.

There's a lot of
tension between them.

Sedway's really
in charge of a lot

of the Las Vegas
race wire operations,

and Siegel sees himself as
the king of this operation.

He does not think that anyone
should have any control

over what is his cash cow.

- [Laurence] In her 2014
article in Los Angeles Magazine,

Amy Wallace details the events

in Bee Sedway's
unpublished book.

- Bee writes that
Siegel becomes aware

that Moe is not only
keeping his own set

of financial records, he's
communicating directly

with Meyer Lansky about
the financial condition

of the Flamingo.

Bugsy is so enraged that he
decides to have Moe killed.

[tense music]

In the manuscript, Bee says
that Siegel convenes a meeting

of all of his
associates in Las Vegas

where he makes clear what he
wants to happen to Moe Sedway.

- He's said, "I want Moe
out. I want him dead.

I wanna feed him

to the Flamingo Hotel
garbage disposal."

- Moe, he heard about
this, called Beatrice,

and being the good wife, she
came rushing to Las Vegas,

and they had a conversation
out in the desert.

He said, "I don't
wanna talk in town.

We need to talk out
where no one can hear us."

And she and Moe hatched an idea

that they needed
to eliminate Ben.

They contacted Meyer Lansky
and got his endorsement

to do this even though
this was his best friend.

[dark eerie music]

- Robbie Sedway, Moe's son,

says that he asked his mom Bee
one night when he was young

if she knew who
killed Bugsy Siegel.

His mother's response?

"Moose, and don't tell
anybody I told you that."

- Moose Pandza, six feet
three, maybe 230, 240 pounds,

a construction worker
and a truck driver.

- Moe and Bee have kind of an
unconventional relationship

because Moe is significantly
older than her,

and she is having an open affair

with this truck driver Moose.

And weirdly, Moe even
becomes friends with Moose.

He treats him as a trusted
confidant in a lot of ways.

- Robbie Sedway
claims that his father

and mother asked
Moose to kill Bugsy

before Bugsy killed Moe.

- Moose has a reputation
as an avid hunter,

and so the story is that he
gets access to this rifle,

that he shoots Bugsy, and
because he's so comfortable

with firearms that
he leaves the scene,

[car buzzes past]

he breaks down his weapon,

and he tosses parts
into the Pacific Ocean.

- Bugsy's death allows
Moe Sedway to flourish.

He and another associate
take over the Flamingo,

and they make it
far more profitable

than it ever was under Bugsy.

- Robbie Sedway also said
that his mom told him,

"Listen, Bugsy's murder had
nothing to do with money.

It was because he betrayed
his friend. Be clear."

- Bugsy's death can be
seen as poetic justice,

a violent death for a
man who rose to fame

and fortune through
violent means.

- Siegel made so many
enemies that we are unlikely

to ever know for certain
who killed him and why.

- Bugsy Siegel's life
will always be defined

by two contrasting images,
the glitz and glamour

of the Vegas nightlife
he helped to create

and his bullet-riddled body
on a blood-soaked couch

in Beverly Hills.

Regardless of why Bugsy's
life was cut short

and at whose orders,

he remains one of the
most iconic mobsters

in American history,
and his unsolved murder

one of the mob's most
enduring mysteries.

I'm Laurence Fishburne.

Thank you for watching
"History's Greatest Mysteries."

[dark dramatic music]