Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel 1906 – 1947) was an American GANGSTER who was a driving force behind the development of the Las Vegas Strip.] Siegel was influential within the Jewish Mob, , and he also ASSOCIATED within the Italian-American Mafia and and National Crime Syndicate. BUGSY was very charismatic, and he became one of the first celebrity gangsters. Siegel WAS A FOUNDER Murder, Inc and was a bootlegger during American Prohibition. when Prohibition was repealed in 1933 he turned to gambling. In 1936, he left New York and moved to California. His time as a mobster during this period was mainly as a hitman and muscle, as he was noted for his use guns and violence to settle disputes Siegel traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada where he handled and financed some of the original casinos. He assisted developer William R. Wilkerson's in the building of the Flamingo Hotel after Wilkerson ran out money to complete the casino.[8] Siegel assumed control of the project and managed the final stages of construction. The Flamingo opened on December 26, 1946 in a driving rainstorm, resulting in a poor reception and technical difficulties, and it soon closed. It reopened in March 1947 with a finished hotel, but by then his mob partners were convinced that an estimated $1 million of the construction budget overun had been skimmed by Siegel AND HIS girlfriend Virginia Hill On June 20, 1947, Siegel was shot TO DEATH BY A SNIPER dead through the window of Hill's Linden Drive mansion in Beverly Hills, California.