Benjamin Siegel, born in Brooklyn in 1906, hated his nickname, that derived from his volatile temper. He was on the path to organized crime from a very young age on, demanding protection money from pushcart vendors . Halfway through his teen years he met Meyer Lansky, with whom he formed the Bug & Meyer Mob, a gang that dealt in gambling and car theft. The Bug & Meyer Mob teamed up with Lucky Luciano and his gang in 1930, who used Siegel to kill Joe "The Boss" Masse ria, thereby ending the Castellammarese War. Soon after this, having won the respect of many gangland bosses, he established Murder, Inc. with Lansky's help. Essentially, this was a squad of hitmen that supported and enforced Luciano's newly founded natio nal syndicate. Siegel himself also continued to carry out murders for Luciano and by 1937 there were a number of contracts out on him because he had angered several bosses. Luciano and his cartel decided that it would be best for Siegel to leave for the W est Coast to escape the wrath of several of his enemies, and to set up new syndicate rackets in California. There he met a large number of Hollywood stars, as well as a studio owners such as Jack Warner and Louis B. Mayer, who he would both contact later to extort money from. He also met Virginia Hill, a money runner for the Chicago mob who had a penchant for blackmailing Hollywood stars. While he was the main man for Luciano's syndicate on the West Coast, Lansky and Luciano continued to call on him for e limination purposes.
In the mid 40's Siegel used about $5 million of syndicate money to construct the first super-casino/hotel, the Flamingo, in Las Vegas. When the opening of the casino turned out to be a fiasco, and the money did not start flowing in as expected, Luciano de manded that Siegel return the $5 million of syndicate money he had used. Siegel, figuring himself as big and powerful as Luciano, told him to "go to hell". In reaction, Luciano ordered to have Siegel killed. Supposedly Lansky called Siegel to warn him, a nd to convince him to repay some of his debt, but he refused. So, on June 20, 1947, as Siegel sat in Hill's living room, he was shot three times in the head. Neither Hill, nor any of his Hollywood friends attended his funeral.