The Williamsburg section of Brooklyn in the early part of the 20th Century was the known melting pot of America. Within its tight confines lived thousands of Irish, Italian and Jewish immigrants all struggling to make a life for themselves in the New World. This was the world to which Benjamin Siegelbaum was born in 1902. His poor immigrant parents raised five children, including Ben, on the meager wages that a day laborer could bring in. Ben saw how hard his Russian-born father worked for pennies and vowed that

te to have him at their parties (Carpozi).

The Las Vegas that Bugsy Siegel knew doesn't really exist anymore. The hotel chains and developers moved in and made offers to the mobsters that they couldn't refuse. For many years, the Flamingo flourished as one of the top hotels in Vegas, and with more than 3,500 rooms, is the fourth-largest hotel in the world. But the Flamingo of Bugsy disappeared for good in the 1980s, when the current owner, Hilton Corporation, tore down "the Bugsy bungalow," a fortified cottage with 3-inch thick concrete walls. Even the memory of Bugsy Siegel is anathema to the current owners of the Flamingo. In 1997, Hilton celebrated the 50th anniversary of the opening of the hotel with a word about Ben. "The Bugsy image was not something that was particularly endearing to the Flamingo or Hilton," said a spokesman for the hotel. "This was not George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. We're talking about a robber, rapist and murderer. Those are not endearing qualities (A&E)."

Christmas came and went, and as he had promised, Siegel opened the Flamingo's casino for action. He pulled out all the stops, hiring George Jessel as emcee and Rose Marie, George Raft and Jimmy Durante as entertainment. Xavier Cugat's orchestra provided the music (A&E). It was a disaster. Siegel certainly was making a grand show of things, according to those in attendance. "That was the biggest whoop-de-do I ever seen," said Benny Binion, the downtown gambler who stopped by to check out the competition. "There were 30 or 40 big stars, people like Clark Gable, Lana Turner, Joan Crawford, Anne Jeffreys, Caesar Romero," Rose Marke recalled on the 50th anniversary of the Flamingo's opening. "The show was spectacular, everything was great, but no locals came (A&E)." With no hotel rooms, Siegel's guests gambled at his casino and took their winnings back to the Frontier or the other downtown hotels. Most of the celebrities left after the second day, leaving a vacant showroom and emp!

Who killed Bugsy Siegel has never really been answered, but there are no shortage of theories. Almost before the law was called to Hill's Hollywood home, two of Meyer Lansky's top operatives, Maurice Rosen and Gus Greenbaum, walked into the Flamingo and announced that the Syndicate was taking over. Rosen and Greenbaum had worked for Lansky in his casinos in Miami, Havana and New York, which led many to believe that Meyer had finally succumbed to mob pressure and ordered his friend killed (Cohen). Uri Dan, who had the opportunity to question Lansky extensively about Siegel's last days, reported that Meyer told him, "if it were in my power to see Benny alive, he would live as long as Methuselah (Lacey)."

After unsuccessfully trying to buy into a couple of already established gambling joints in the city, Bugsy finally managed to scare up a partner who shared his dream of Las Vegas as a gaming paradise, Billy Wilkerson. Siegel had it in mind to create an oasis in the desert where travelers from both coasts could come for sun, fun, gambling and entertainment. Ben called his dream "The Flamingo." Sources differ as to whether this was a reference to his girlfriend, Virginia Hill, or something else (Edmonds). Regardless of where the name came from, the image of the Flamingo was a garish pink, with the most grandiose and lavish decorations imaginable. The Flamingo was star-crossed from the start. In post-war America, construction materials were hard to come by and were very expensive. Transportation to and from Vegas was difficult and it took all the muscle Bugsy had. Bugsy was a gangster, not an architect, and some of the builders working on the project were stealing him blind. Lege!

So Bugsy, his wife and their two daughters showed up in California and immediately rented a 35-room mansion owned by singer Lawrence Tibbet that was valued at the then-astronomical price of $200,000. The white brick palace in the upscale Hollywood suburb of Holmby Hills was complete with

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3239
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page double spaced)