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ROOM BONUSES Home : Poker News : Men Of Action -- Bugsy Siegel, Billy Wilkerson and the Flamingo Hotel Search Go

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Siegel was a dark, hansom blue-eyed Jew with a short fuse. By the time he was 21, he owned 7 Jaffee Wins 2017 WSOP Circuit
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an apartment in the Waldorf-Astoria hotel. His hair was as black as motor oil in the crankcases
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All sources say he was a fearless, aggressive, and unremorseful criminal with no qualms
about ending a persons life. He had no fear of death. He was a bully. These sociopathic
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qualities brought him the attention of fellow Brooklynite Meyer Lansky, who recruited him as hit
man and muscle for his newly-formed Jewish gang. 10 PokerStars $9 Million-Added
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The Poker Academy The Bugs and Meyer Mob opened a truck rental shop in New York during Prohibition, where they
supplied stolen trucks and drivers to bootleggers. Lansky managed the business with such
skill that it was profitable as a legitimate rental company. They also worked as an independent
contractor for other New York gangs, and that included hits. They grew rich.

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Bugsy never hesitated when danger threatened," said Joseph Stacher, fellow Bugs and Meyer
Mob member. While we tried to figure out what the best move was, Bugsy was already
shooting. When it came to action there was no one better. Ive never known a man who had
more guts

In the late 1920s, a war broke out between rivals Joe the Boss Masseria and Salvatore
Maranzano. Siegel and Meyers associate, Lucky Luciano, was also an associate of Masserias
gang, and his side was losing.

Luciano recognized his chance and made an offer to Maranzano: Masserias death. On April 15,
1931, Luciano set up the hit. Siegel was part of a team of four that gunned-down Masseria in a

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Brooklyn restaurant. Siegel was 25 year-old.

Five months later, Luciano would again use Siegel as part of an assassin team to complete his
plan. Siegel and two others left Maranzano bleeding to death in his Manhattan office.

Luciano formed the National Crime Syndicate out of the ashes of the two gangs, and Siegel
would be a founding member of its strong-arm cabinet, Murder Inc. Lansky served as business
manager and accountant. But Siegels time in New York was about to come to an end.

A potential informant, Tony Frabrazzo, was gunned down in the doorway of his parents house.
His parents both saw Siegel pull the trigger, but Siegel had an alibi. He was in the hospital.
Months after the murder, Siegels alibi began to unravel and as the heat increased, Siegel was
sent to southern California.

There, he infiltrated the unions, starting with Hollywood extras. He had the power to order the
extras to strike and forced studios and directors to pay him to keep them working. He also
became the darling of the vapid celebrity set, partying with the stars, bedding many starlets, and
shaking-down many more actors by asking and receiving loans from movie stars that he simply
refused to repay.

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William Wilkerson, born in 1890, was the publisher of the Hollywood Reporter and owned
several clubs in L.A. He was also a compulsive gambler who scheduled his day around horse
races, poker, and crap games, a habit that pushed him to the brink of bankruptcy several times.

Wilkerson, a small man with a large head, owned some of the nicest restaurants in L.A. but
preferred canned sardines and deviled egg sandwiches. He was a chain smoker who drank 15
to 20 cokes a day and rarely slept. He wrote a daily column for the Hollywood Reporter for 33
years, starting with the first issue, Sept. 3, 1930.

On Sundays and Thursdays, Wilkerson most likely would be found playing poker at Samuel
Goldwyn or Irving Thalbergs homes. These games used $20,000 chips and Wilkerson was
often the loser. According to the New York Times and other sources, Goldwyn won the rights to
Bette Davis from Jack Warner in one of these games, who used the superstar actress to pay off
a $425,000 debt.

Many times Wilkerson tried to destroy his Hollywood

empire by compulsively gambling, an affliction that
ruined his father. He often took day trips to Las Vegas by
chartering a plane. He carried a pair of dice and a pack
of cards in his pockets. And he lost.

After a wrenching loss that went into the hundreds of

thousands, a friend told him something obvious: If
youre going to gamble, build a casino. Take the bets,
dont make them. Own the house.

In 1944, Wilkerson bought 33 acres of an old ranch

William 'Billy' Wilkerson
several miles southeast of downtown Vegas for
$84,000. He hated the sawdust joints downtown. He
envisioned a resort, with air conditioning, that would
appeal to and attract not only the Hollywood
cosmopolitan crowd, but people from all over America
who was looking for exotic luxury that didnt exist in
Vegas.

He wanted the casino to be the centerpiece. Guests would not be able to go anywhere without
passing through the games. No clocks, no windows. The property would have bars and
nightclubs and shops and spas. He demanded the resort have a golf course, tennis courts, a
swimming pool, a shooting range, a horse stable, and squash courts.
He named it the Flamingo because he loved exotic birds. It had nothing to do with Bugsys
mistress, Virginia Hill, as Siegel would later claim.

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Construction started in 1945, but Wilkersons $1.2 million cost estimate didnt account for the
severe construction cost increases that existed in post-WWII America. By December 1945,
Wilkerson was out of money.

The banks wouldnt loan him anymore, even with a third of the site completed, partially because
Wilkerson used $200,000 of the loans to pay off gambling debts. The fact he couldnt drum up
any investors among those he knew in the film industry says something about what they

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thought of Wilkerson and his ambitious project.

Through his Las Vegas connections, word got back to Lansky. He eventually agreed that the
Flamingo would be a good investment. They approached Wilkerson through an attorney, who
said he represented businessmen from the east coast who knew of his predicament.

Wilkerson said he needed $1 million to complete the Flamingo. In exchange, Wilkerson would
own one-third of the Flamingo and retain total control of construction and management. The
businessmen would only be silent partners. By the end of February, 1946, he had the money,
which came from Lansky and other members of the Lucianos Syndicate.

But gangsters get nervous when theres money involved. They needed someone to watch over
the project, to make sure Wilkerson was spending their money wisely.

In March, Siegel made his introduction as partner to Wilkerson.

After a few weeks of cooperation with Wilkerson, the psychotic and paranoid Siegel began to
resent his role. He saw himself as a mere go-fer and hated it. He started showing up on site
and changing construction plans that had been committed to blue-print a year before Siegel
even heard about the project. He started telling people he was now in charge.

By April, each man had his own contractor and their own budget and worked independently on
their portions. By May, Bugsy had spent the entire budget for hotel construction and demanded
Wilkerson give him money from his budget. Wilkerson refused.

In June, Wilkerson lost control of the project when Siegel formed the Nevada Project
Corporation of California, named himself president, and bought enough shares to become
principal stock-holder. Wilkerson took five-percent stock in exchange for creative control and left
Las Vegas.

The Flamingo project was now essentially controlled by the mob.

Siegel immediately fired all of

Wilkersons men, tore up a good portion
of the blue-prints, and went on a
spending spree to complete his vision
of Vegas opulence, which, ironically,
looked a lot like Wilkersons.

Siegel was not a good manager. As

costs rose into the stratosphere, Siegel
became unhinged and belligerent,
threatening his workers with physical
harm, only to apologize and supposedly An Aerial View of the Flamingo Hotel, Completed In 1946
tell them, Dont worry we only kill
each other.

He had a terrible temper. If he got mad at you, you could hear him, God-knows-where, said his
daughter in an interview with Clark County Television in 2009. But basically he was very soft-
spoken.

In August, Wilkerson again owned a majority of the projects stock after Siegel purchased the
land for another five-percent. Wilkerson desperately wanted Siegel out. He knew if Bugsys
unsavory silent partners back east knew exactly how much Siegel was spending, they would
react.

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So Wilkerson began printing the construction costs and overruns in the Hollywood Reporter.
This made Bugsys face turn as a red as a firecracker and probably felt to Wilkerson like putting
$50,000 on black.

At a stock holder meeting in December, Siegel demanded Wilkerson let go of his stock for
nothing. When he refused, he threatened to kill him in front of several people. Construction
costs were approaching $6 million. Wilkerson went hiding in Paris.

The boys in the Syndicate were getting antsy, and a majority had enough of Bugsy. They had
read the Hollywood Reporter. They saw the numbers. They were convinced that Siegel was
stealing from them. Lansky, Bugsys childhood friend, stood up for Siegel, and encouraged
them to wait and see if the project would be profitable, and if it was, then Siegel could pay them
back.

Bugsy was feeling the heat, so, despite the hotel being months away from completion, he held
its grand opening in late December. All of Bugsys Hollywood friends were scheduled to attend.

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 It was going to show his mob partners that all the money and risk was worth it.

It was a total disaster. Storms kept the chartered flights grounded in L.A. It was miserable in
Vegas, too. Record rainfall turned the grounds into a muddy mess. Also, during those first few
weeks, the casino took a severe beating that went against all odds. The house actually was
being beat.

Somewhere (but probably not), Tommy Fabrazzo was smiling.

Bugsy shut down the casino to complete construction in January, and reopened in March as the
Fabulous Flamingo. By May, the casino showed a $250,000 monthly profit. It wasnt enough.

Lansky must have decided that stealing from friends is a crime that couldnt be tolerated. On
June 20, while reading a newspaper in his mistress Virginia Hills Hollywood home, someone
shot Siegel in the face with a powerful rifle.

A bullet hit him in the nose and blew his eyeball 15 feet across the room. Not one of his friends
attended his funeral.

Wilkerson returned to California June 23. In 1960, he sold his shares of the Fabulous Flamingo
for to group of men involved in organized crime in Miami. Lansky facilitated the $10.5 million
sale and received $200,000.

Wilkerson died in 1962.

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Tags: Men Of Action, Bugsy Siegel, Benjmain Siegel, Billy Wilkerson, William Wilkerson, The Flamingo
Hotel, Las Vegas History

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