Bugsy Siegel: The Man Who Didn't Invent Las Vegas. Myth vs Record

On June 20, 1947, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel was shot dead in a rented house in Beverly Hills. Six months earlier he had opened the Flamingo, and ever since, one story has followed him: that he invented Las Vegas. The record says otherwise. A railroad company founded the town in 1905. Nevada made casino gambling legal in 1931. The first Strip resorts opened in 1941 and 1942. The idea, the land and the name of the Flamingo belonged to a Hollywood publisher, Billy Wilkerson. This documentary follows Siegel from Brooklyn to Los Angeles and the Nevada desert, looks at who actually paid for the Flamingo, and goes through the five theories about his murder, labelling what is documented, what is reported and what is unproven. CHAPTERS 0:00 Beverly Hills, June 1947 1:07 The town before the mobster 3:19 Brooklyn 4:51 California 6:25 Vegas before the Flamingo 7:10 Wilkerson's idea 9:04 Who paid for the Flamingo 11:44 December 26, 1946 13:35 Virginia Hill 15:06 June 20, 1947 16:12 Who killed Bugsy Siegel? 18:34 Who built Las Vegas? 20:11 Next episode SOURCES The Mob Museum, Separating fact from fiction on the Flamingo Hotel's 75th anniversary: https://themobmuseum.org/blog/separat... The Mob Museum, Wilkerson's idea, Bugsy's baby: https://themobmuseum.org/blog/flaming... The Mob Museum, June 1947: Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel murdered: https://themobmuseum.org/blog/killed-... The Mob Museum, Seventy-five years later, debate over Bugsy Siegel murder still rages: https://themobmuseum.org/blog/seventy... The Mob Museum, Virginia Hill: https://themobmuseum.org/blog/virgini... The Mob Museum, Nevada marks 90th anniversary of legal gambling: https://themobmuseum.org/blog/nevada-... Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel and financing the Flamingo Hotel, 1946-1947 (single secondary account; figures narrated as "reportedly"): https://werehistory.org/bugsy-siegel/ UNLV Special Collections, early Strip resorts: https://special.library.unlv.edu/node... Historical marker, Las Vegas auction site, May 15, 1905: https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=47732 ARCHIVE Photos: Library of Congress (New York World-Telegram & Sun collection); NYPD and Alcatraz booking photographs; El Rancho Vegas postcards (public domain); Fremont Street postcard, Tichnor Bros., via Digital Commonwealth (CC BY-SA 4.0); Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Thumbnail photo: Benjamin Siegel with his attorneys, c. 1944, Los Angeles Daily News, UCLA Library Special Collections (CC BY 4.0), cropped and retouched. Film: Boulder Dam (1931) and Wathen Collection home movies (late 1940s), Prelinger Archives; Las Vegas home movie (1944), Prelinger Archives; Reclamation in the Arid West (1936); The Airport (1948), Encyclopaedia Britannica Films; Universal Newsreel, March 1951, National Archives; Hearst Metrotone News (1933). All via Internet Archive. Some scenes are AI-generated illustrations; archive material is marked on screen with its source. Narration is AI-generated. Previous episodes: Al Capone    • Al Capone: Brought Down by Taxes, Not Guns...   · Meyer Lansky    • Meyer Lansky: The Mob's Money Man. Myth vs...   · Lucky Luciano    • Lucky Luciano Got 30-50 Years. Why Was He ...   Next episode: Mickey Cohen (October 23) Subscribe for new episodes:    / @aetherionxx   Instagram:   / aetherion789   #bugsysiegel #lasvegashistory #documentary