Original subtitles

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? Not

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

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 LADA believed that there were at least 100 people.

Who'd want Bugsy dead?

Who killed Bugsy Siegel, and why?

11 p .m., June 20th, 1947.

The Beverly Hills Police are summoned to a mansion just south of Sunset

Boulevard.

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

a blood -stained sofa.

Officers observed that the victim had been shot several times. He was shot

in the head. One shot actually went through the bridge of his nose and took

eye out.

The victim is no stranger, 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.

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.

Benjamin Siegel was quickly labeled hair trigger.

Short -tempered, very violent, and ultimately, as he grew and became a

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 youth. He hates it

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.

January 1920.

Prohibition brings Bugsy into partnership with another childhood

mobster named Meyer Lansky.

Lansky is intellectual.

He sees opportunities where others don't. He sees opportunities in

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.

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.

They're going to divvy up operations, divvy up territory.

The thinking being that if they're not fighting one another, they'll all be

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

in a smaller time gang.

Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky launch a tough new operation within the

Murder Incorporated.

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 ink 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

murders.

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 L .A. He basically takes

over. There are already organized crime groups in Southern California, and he

pretty much treats them as non -entities.

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.

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

Vegas and she takes a plane to Europe and he takes a plane to L .A.

His good friend Alan Smiley suggested they go out to dinner.

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

And Virginia's secretary, Jerry Mason.

Hill and Mason were engaged to be married. The four of them finish dinner.

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.

Bugsy is unaware of the danger lurking just outside his bay window.

Just before 11 p .m., the shooter fires nine rounds.

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 determined that it

was an M1 carbine, which was a standard -issue semi -automatic rifle issued to

soldiers during World War II.

The L .A .D .A. believed that there were at least 100 people who would 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

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

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.

By the early 1940s... The state of Nevada is the only state in the union

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 is also a developer. He purchases land, and he begins work on the

This is his dream.

Post -war cost of material is so high that within about a month and a half,

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.

Their plumbing problem.

There's problems with delays in the construction.

The budget for the Flamingo balloons from $1 .2 million to $6 million, and

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

be taken out.

But Meyer Lansky, who is one of the crime bosses, he pleads for his old

life and he says, let's at least wait until the Flamingo Hotel is open before

decide what to do.

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 Hotel Last Frontier.

He loses.

$300 ,000 in the first few weeks of operations at the Flamingo.

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.

But Siegel won't have long to enjoy the Flamingo's newfound success.

Casino turning a profit was the first good news that Siegel really got. I

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.

When Bugsy Siegel first moves to California in the late 1930s, he sets

sights on one of the West Coast mob's most lucrative rackets.

Horse racing is big business in the 30s. 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.

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

But that's illegal.

You can't use Western Union to send information about a horse race or any

of sporting event until after it's over.

Now, this, of course, doesn't work if you want to 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

There are two competing race wire services at this point.

Continental, which is owned by James Reagan and is organized crime but not a

part of the syndicate.

The second, Transamerica, is run by Al Capone with the support of the

The syndicate wants to take over all wire services, so they set their eyes on

Continental.

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

of the profit.

And he does just that.

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

outright violence, he wiped out Continental Wire Service.

Transamerica now controls the entire wire service operation and Continental

fold up.

Bugsy might be the big man in L .A. 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.

The Hollywood crowd 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...

He is a public figure in the way that mob bosses are not supposed to be. You

not supposed to draw attention to yourself or anything that you're doing.

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

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

making as much as $25 ,000 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

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's especially upset about this, story goes, is none other

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,

that's when Bugsy loses it.

Siegel is expectantly furious.

They'll tell anyone who will listen that it's his racket, he'll run it how he

wants. Keep their hands off 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.

According to one source, the New York mob may have asked the Chicago outfit

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 want to 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

the Flamingo about this very subject.

On June 26, 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

passed away, you had this lavish funeral with hundreds of guests, and that

wasn't the case with Ben's funeral.

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

everyone has to cut you off.

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 L .A. 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.

Jack Dragnet 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 offshore, 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 an 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

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

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 is 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

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

on your conscience.

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

Cannizzaro. In his confession, Cannizzaro says, quote, I moved up on

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

known associate of Dragna lends some plausibility to this theory.

But there is this strain of mobsters who, at the end of their life,

they like to claim certain death.

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

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 Cat Man for a reason. But 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,

he's also widely perceived to be skimming profits.

He's also defiant in the face of his bosses when they try to take away the

racket. But it could also be the case that there was a threat literally right

his side the whole time.

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.

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

taking the fall, many believe, for things that Siegel's actually

for.

With Mickey Cohen as his strong right arm, Bugsy is the major underworld

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.

How far could he push it as a valuable lieutenant before people would crack

on him?

The mob have really lost trust in his ability to turn a profit.

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 plotting 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 going to be taken down and

wasn't going down without a fight.

Saying this to Mickey Cohen and trusting him, you know, 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

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 ball guy.

Cohen is Siegel's right -hand man in L .A., which means he knows his comings

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

suspicious, and already knows how the mob operates.

Hours after Siegel's murder, Cohen reportedly drives to the Roosevelt

where he believes the killers are staying, marches into the lobby, fires

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. 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

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

L .A.

And Cohen becomes known as pretty much the boss of L .A. This is an opportunity

that I don't think most people would have 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

or as charismatic.

Cohen never admits any involvement in Siegel's murder.

The closest we may become is an interview he gave between prison stints

to Mike Wallace.

I have killed no man that in the first place didn't

deserve killing.

Whether one of those deserved men, Siegel, is something that Cohen took to

grave.

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

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 20s, Bugsy Siegel marries his childhood sweetheart.

A woman named Esther, he had affairs throughout the duration of his marriage.

She actually divorces him on the grounds of his unfaithfulness.

But some say it's the way Bugsy treated another woman that may have led to his

murder.

Wherever one looked, 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

impressive, attractive woman. She had red hair. She was vivacious. She had a

personality. And she also had her own criminal backstory.

Virginia Hill is born in Alabama.

She moved as a teenager to Chicago around 1933 when Chicago was 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.

He would transport illicit materials, which would range from anything from

letters to cash, narcotics, around the country. You have to show up on time,

have to deliver as promised, and you need to keep your mouth shut.

She is reportedly very good at this.

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

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

They're said to have 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.

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

Siegel is going to kill her.

And Sindler recalled that her brother said something like, I ought to kill

son of a bitch.

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.

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

Somebody must have opened them.

The senator 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.

You'd be probably proficient with it.

Zindler also claims the M .O. in Bugsy's murder is inconsistent with a mob hit.

Typical mob hit is when you go up to a guy with a handgun up to his head and

shoot him because you're not going to miss.

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 needs 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 an old -school mobster in her own right. She's not going to squeal.

not in her nature.

Nineteen years later, in 1966, Virginia Hill tragically dies of an overdose of

sleeping pills, allegedly committing suicide, and she takes all of her

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.

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, Bea, at the center. All of this was revealed

in a memoir. And Robbie had not published his mother's memoir because he

it was too hot. There might be some problems if he made that information

On his deathbed, he has a change of heart and sees it as his responsibility

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

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

He's quiet and more intellectual.

In 1936, 41 -year -old Moe Sedway marries 17 -year -old Beatrice B.

Bugsy is the best man at their wedding.

But by the 1940s, the relationship between the two old friends is starting

fracture. 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

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.

In her 2014 article in Los Angeles Magazine, Amy Wallace details the events

B. Sedway's unpublished book.

Bee writes that Siegel becomes aware that Moe is not only keeping his own set

financial records, he's communicating directly with Meyer Lansky about the

financial condition of the flamingo. Bugsy is so enraged that he decides to

Moe killed.

In the manuscript, B says that Siegel convenes a meeting of all of his

associates in Las Vegas where he makes clear what he wants to happen to Mo

Segway. He's said, I want Mo out. I want him dead.

I want to feed him to the Flamingo Hotel garbage disposal.

Mo, we 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.

She said, I don't want to 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 Lanphie and got his endorsement to do this, even though

this was his best friend.

Robbie said way.

Moe's son said that he asked his mom B 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, panza, 6 '3", maybe 230, 240 pounds, a construction

worker and a truck driver.

Moe and Bea have kind of an unconventional relationship because Moe

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 Fedway 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, he breaks down his weapon and he tosses parts into 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

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

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

of the most iconic mobsters in American history. And his unsolved murder, one of

the mob's most enduring mysteries.

I'm Lawrence Fishburne.

Thank you for watching History's Greatest Mysteries.