Editing Bugsy Siegel (section)

==Early life==
Benjamin Siegel<ref name='Gragg, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel'>{{cite book|first=Larry|last=Gragg|title=Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel: The Gangster, The Flamingo, and the Making of Modern Las Vegas|publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group|Praeger]]|location=Santa Barbara, California|year=2015|pages=1–2|isbn=9781440801853}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.biography.com/people/bugsy-siegel-9542063|title=Bugsy Siegel |website=Biography.com|publisher=A&E Television Networks|access-date=May 15, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180422174529/https://www.biography.com/people/bugsy-siegel-9542063 |archive-date=April 22, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> was born on February 28, 1906, in the [[Williamsburg, Brooklyn|Williamsburg]] neighborhood of [[Brooklyn]] in [[New York City, New York]], the second of five children of a poor [[Ashkenazi Jewish]] family that had emigrated to the U.S. from the [[Galicia (Eastern Europe)|Galicia]] region of what was then [[Austria-Hungary]].<ref name='Gragg, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel'/><ref>"Mobsters: Bugsy Siegel". 2 minutes in. Broadcast: April 3, 2007, [[The Biography Channel]].</ref><ref name="Biography of a Gangster">{{cite web|title=Biography of a Gangster|url=http://www.essortment.com/benjamin-bugsy-siegel-biography-gangster-20596.html|work=Essortment.com|access-date=May 31, 2012|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120705023658/http://www.essortment.com/benjamin-bugsy-siegel-biography-gangster-20596.html|archive-date=July 5, 2012}}</ref> His parents, Jennie (Riechenthal) and Max Siegel, constantly worked for meager wages.<ref>{{cite book|first=Paul|last=Donnelley|title=Assassination! |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HLCXAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA162 |publisher=Dataday|location=London |year=2012 |pages=162–165|isbn=9781908963031}}</ref> As a boy, Siegel left school and joined a gang on [[Lafayette Street]] on the [[Lower East Side]] of [[Manhattan]]. He committed mainly thefts until he met [[Moe Sedway]]. Together with Sedway, he developed a [[protection racket]] in which he threatened to incinerate pushcart owners' merchandise unless they paid him a dollar.<ref>{{cite news |first=Ed |last=Koch |date=May 15, 2008 |title='Bugsy' Siegel – The mob's man in Vegas |work=[[Las Vegas Sun]] |url=https://lasvegassun.com/news/2008/may/15/mobs-man-vega/ |access-date=May 20, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721191857/https://lasvegassun.com/news/2008/may/15/mobs-man-vega/ |archive-date=July 21, 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfnp|Jennings|1992|p=25}} He soon built up a lengthy criminal record, dating from his teenage years, that included armed [[robbery]], rape and murder.<ref>{{cite book |first=Alton |last=Pryor |title= Outlaws and Gunslingers |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ty-j92yWtQ0C&q=bugsy%20siegel%20robbery%20rape&pg=PA29 |publisher= Stagecoach Publishing |location= Roseville, California |year=2001 |page=29 |isbn= 978-0966005363}}</ref>

===The Bugs and Meyer Mob===
{{Main|The Bugs and Meyer Mob}}
During adolescence, Siegel befriended [[Meyer Lansky]], who applied a brilliant intellect to forming a small mob whose activities expanded to gambling and [[Motor vehicle theft|car theft]]. Lansky, who had already had a run-in with [[Lucky Luciano|Charles "Lucky" Luciano]], saw a need for the Jewish boys of his Brooklyn neighborhood to organize in the same manner as the [[Italian diaspora|Italians]] and [[Irish diaspora|Irish]]. The first person he recruited for his gang was Siegel.{{sfnp|Eisenberg|Dan|Landau|1979|pp=55–56}}

Siegel became involved in [[rumrunning|bootlegging]] within several major [[East Coast of the United States|East Coast]] cities. He also worked as the mob's [[Contract killing|hitman]], whom Lansky hired out to other [[Crime family|crime families]].<ref name="First 100 Persons..." /> The two formed [[the Bugs and Meyer Mob]], which handled hits for the various bootleg gangs operating in New York and [[New Jersey]], doing so almost a decade before [[Murder, Inc.]] was formed. The gang kept themselves busy by hijacking the liquor cargoes of rival outfits,{{sfnp|Sifakis|2005|p=68}} and were known to be responsible for the killing and removal of several rival gangland figures.<ref name="Bugsy Siegel Part 3">{{cite web|title=Bugsy Siegel Part 3|url=http://vault.fbi.gov/Bugsy%20Siegel%20/Bugsy%20Siegel%20Part%203%20of%2032/view|work=FBI Records: The Vault|publisher=Federal Bureau of Investigation|access-date=September 21, 2012|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120916071135/http://vault.fbi.gov/Bugsy%20Siegel%20/Bugsy%20Siegel%20Part%203%20of%2032/view|archive-date=September 16, 2012}}</ref> Siegel's gang-mates included [[Abner Zwillman|Abner "Longie" Zwillman]], [[Louis Buchalter|Louis "Lepke" Buchalter]], and Lansky's brother, Jake; [[Joseph Stacher|Joseph "Doc" Stacher]], another member of the Bugs and Meyer Mob, recalled to Lansky biographers that Siegel was fearless and saved his friends' lives as the mob moved into bootlegging:
{{blockquote|"Bugsy never hesitated when danger threatened," Stacher told Uri Dan. "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. I've never known a man who had more guts."{{sfnp|Eisenberg|Dan|Landau|1979|p=57}}}}
Siegel was also a boyhood friend to [[Al Capone]]; when there was a warrant for Capone's arrest on a murder charge, Siegel allowed him to hide out with an aunt.{{sfnp|Tereba|2012|pp=24–25}}

He first smoked [[opium]] during his youth and was involved in the [[illegal drug trade|drug trade]].{{sfnp|Tereba|2012|pp=172–173}} By age 21, he was making money, and flaunted it. He bought an apartment at the [[Waldorf Astoria New York|Waldorf Astoria Hotel]] and a [[Tudor Revival architecture|Tudor]] home in [[Scarsdale, New York]]. He wore flashy clothes and participated in [[New York City]] night life.<ref name="Biography of a Gangster" /><ref>{{cite web |author=Jack Zelig |title=But He Was Good to His Mother|url=http://www.aj6.org/jpbo/411/page2.html|work=The Jampacked Bible|access-date=June 28, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320015810/http://www.aj6.org/jpbo/411/page2.html|archive-date=March 20, 2012}}</ref>

From May 13 to 16, 1929, Lansky and Siegel attended the [[Atlantic City Conference]], representing the Bugs and Meyer Mob.<ref>{{cite news|first=Derek|last=Harper|url=http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/atlantic_city/years-ago-the-mob-came-to-atlantic-city-for-a/article_3d2aedaa-856e-5e81-8e5a-9db020bed549.html?mode=image&photo=0|title=80 years ago, the Mob came to Atlantic City for a little strategic planning|newspaper=The Press of Atlantic City|date=May 13, 2009|access-date=August 6, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304071104/http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/atlantic_city/years-ago-the-mob-came-to-atlantic-city-for-a/article_3d2aedaa-856e-5e81-8e5a-9db020bed549.html?mode=image&photo=0|archive-date=March 4, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Luciano and former [[Chicago Outfit|Chicago South Side Gang]] leader [[Johnny Torrio]] held the conference at the [[Ritz-Carlton Atlantic City|Ritz-Carlton Hotel]] in [[Atlantic City, New Jersey]]. At the conference, the two men discussed the future of organized crime and the future structure of the [[American Mafia|Mafia]] [[crime family|crime families]]; Siegel stated, "The yids and the dagos will no longer fight each other."

===Marriage and family===
On January 28, 1929, Siegel married Esta Krakower, his childhood sweetheart. They had two daughters, Millicent Siegel (later Millicent Rosen) and Barbara Siegel (later Barbara Saperstein).<ref name=nytobit /> He had a reputation as a womanizer and the marriage ended in 1946.{{sfnp|Tereba|2012|pp=76–77}} His wife moved with their teenage daughters to New York.