Bugsy Siegel: The Dark Side of the American Dream

by Michael Shnayerson

Overview

The story of the notorious Jewish gangster who ascended from impoverished beginnings to the glittering Las Vegas strip

"Fast-paced and absorbing. . . . With a keen eye for the amusing, and humanizing detail, [Shnayerson] enlivens the traditional rise-and-fall narrative."—Jenna Weissman Joselit, New York Times Book Review

"[A] brisk-reading chronicle."—Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal

In a brief life that led to a violent end, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel (1906–1947) rose from desperate poverty to ill-gotten riches, from an early-twentieth-century family of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants on the Lower East Side to a kingdom of his own making in Las Vegas. In this captivating portrait, author Michael Shnayerson sets out not to absolve Bugsy Siegel but rather to understand him in all his complexity.
 
Through the 1920s, 1930s, and most of the 1940s, Bugsy Siegel and his longtime partner in crime Meyer Lansky engaged in innumerable acts of violence. As World War II came to an end, Siegel saw the potential for a huge, elegant casino resort in the sands of Las Vegas. Jewish gangsters built nearly all of the Vegas casinos that followed. Then, one by one, they disappeared. Siegel’s story laces through a larger, generational story of eastern European Jewish immigrants in the early- to mid-twentieth century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300258103
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	02/09/2021
Series:	Jewish Lives
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	248
Sales rank:	831,229
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Michael Shnayerson became a contributing editor at Vanity Fair in 1986 and is the author of eight books on a range of nonfiction subjects, including Boom: Mad Money, Mega Dealers, and the Rise of Contemporary Art. He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Prologue ix

1 The Lure of the Streets 1

2 Marriage and Murder 19

3 Sportsman in Paradise 33

4 The Masterminds of Murder Inc. 49

5 Going After Big Greenie 69

6 The Flamingo 85

7 The Start of an Ill-Starred Romance 100

8 Bugsy Takes Charge 109

9 His Eveiy Red Cent at Risk 124

10 The Flamingo's First Flight 143

11 Time Runs Out 163

Epilogue 186

Notes 189

Selected Bibliography 211

Acknowledgments 215

Index 217

Editorial Reviews

"Fast-paced and absorbing. . . . With a keen eye for the amusing, and humanizing detail, [Shnayerson] enlivens the traditional rise-and-fall narrative."—Jenna Weissman Joselit, New York Times Book Review

 "[A] brisk-reading chronicle of Siegel’s life and crimes."—Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal

“A pacey and thoughtful biography...part of Yale University Press's excellent Jewish Lives series”—The Economist

"A highly readable, fast-moving contribution to the annals of 20th-century organized crime."—Kirkus Reviews

"This is a biography of a man whose life in fact reads like fiction, even like myth. . . . A readable, even riveting account."—Richard Horwich, East Hampton Star

"A short and gripping panorama of life in 1920s-1940s America, that defining epoch of struggle and stardom, hardship and grandeur, fortune and bankruptcy. . . . Shnayerson helps demystify the mythology around Siegel while not making the story any less sublime. . . . In fact, Shnayerson’s biography of Bugsy makes him even more compelling and fascinating."—Paul Krause, Merrion West

“An approachable, well-researched biography of the turbulent, passionate life of Benjamin (Bugsy) Siegel, this sympathetic depiction of one of most notorious members of the Jewish underworld of the 1920s through the 1940s by Shnayerson, (contributing editor, Vanity Fair) reads like an adventure tale of derring-do.”—A. Lieberman Colgan, Choice

“In this captivating portrait of the notorious Jewish gangster who ascended from impoverished beginnings to the glittering Las Vegas strip, author Michael Shnayerson sets out not to absolve Bugsy Siegel but rather to understand him in all his complexity.”— Nyla Arslanian, Discover Hollywood
 

“An amazing job. I learned a lot. A great book about real gangsters when gangsters were real.”—Nicholas Pileggi, author of Wiseguy

“Insightful, well-written, and carefully researched, this is the best and most complete biography of the notorious gangster Benjamin ‘Bugsy’ Siegel in print.”—Robert Rockaway, author of But He Was Good to His Mother: The Lives and Crimes of Jewish Gangsters

“A wonderful exploration of the dark side of the American dream via Bugsy Siegel, the personification of the dark side and the dream. Just as stylish as Bugsy himself. A fabulous book.”—Rich Cohen, author of Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons, and Gangster Dreams

From the Publisher

02/19/2021

Though other entries in the "Jewish Lives" series have celebrated lauded figures—Emma Goldman, Irving Berlin, Steven Spielberg—this one focuses on gangster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel (1906–47). Yet Shnayerson's (Boom: Mad Money) richly reported narrative is more than the portrait of a criminal; it's a reminder of the lengths to which children of immigrants have gone in pursuit of the elusive American dream. Growing up in the tenements of New York City's Lower East Side, Siegel, whose parents had emigrated from what was then Austria-Hungary, formed rudimentary gangs with other kids. As an adult, he and childhood friend Meyer Lansky joined with Charles "Lucky" Luciano to establish the National Crime Syndicate, a large underworld of Jewish and Italian American crime families. In the 1930s, Siegel relocated to Hollywood; despite some talent, his acting aspirations went nowhere—though criminal enterprises such as racketing and extortion thrived. Hoping to become a legitimate businessman, he opened a hotel, the Flamingo, in Las Vegas. But fellow Syndicate members were incensed to discover that he was stealing from the operation. In 1947, Siegel was murdered, and Shnayerson proposes a plausible theory for the killer, but readers will be more interested in learning about Siegel's life and crimes. VERDICT True crime fans and history lovers will appreciate this well-researched and nuanced biography of one of America's most notorious gangsters.—Mattie Cook, Flat River Community Lib., MI

Library Journal

Shnayerson’s brisk and absorbing profile of the brief, violent life of Bugsy Siegel, son of Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants, is afforded a warm, sensitive narration by Steven Jay Cohen. Siegel—gangster, bootlegger, and murderer—is humanized by Cohen’s youthful, quiet performance. His narration is intoned with the occasional Yiddish accent, presented subtly. Insightful research on the suspects who may have murdered Siegel at his home in Beverly Hills in 1947 is discussed. Listeners will learn a lot about the relatively unknown roles of twentieth-century Jewish gangsters whose deeds and misdeeds led to business innovations such as the luxurious casinos and affiliated hotels of Las Vegas. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2021 - AudioFile

2020-12-12
The gangland father of Las Vegas comes in for a fresh appraisal.

Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel (1906-1947) is the first gangster to be included in the Jewish Lives series, now more than 50 titles strong. As Vanity Fair contributing editor Shnayerson notes, Siegel had the “dubious distinction” of representing four broad classes of criminality: bootlegger, racketeer, gambler, and murderer. His career began in the tenements of New York, where some of the children of immigrant Jews pulled away from traditions and formed gangs. Siegel was an enforcer, shaking down street vendors for protection money. As he entered adulthood, he and fellow kid gangster Meyer Lansky aligned with Sicilian immigrant Lucky Luciano to form an underworld army. “The Syndicate, as it became known,” writes the author, “would be American in the truest sense: an amalgam of immigrants making their way in the New World,” helmed and staffed by people practicing capitalism in its purest form. Smart and good looking, Siegel took his criminal gains to Hollywood, becoming a celebrity, “Gatsby with a penchant to kill.” He also had a grand vision: Jews were frozen out of Reno, where gambling was legal, but the Las Vegas of the 1930s was wide open, and he foresaw a time when casinos on the Monte Carlo model would lure visitors from all over the world. Building one such casino, the Flamingo, eventually brought him afoul of Luciano and the Syndicate, for construction costs ballooned, with much of the difference skimmed. Even when the Flamingo began to turn a profit thanks to busy tables and acts like Lena Horne and the Andrews Sisters, the heat didn’t get turned down. Siegel was infamously gunned down at home. The author’s theory about the killer’s identity is novel but perfectly plausible—and in any event, “Ben Siegel’s imprint on Vegas grows with each next brand-new super resort.”

A highly readable, fast-moving contribution to the annals of 20th-century organized crime.

Kirkus Reviews