Bugsy Siegel - Murder, Inc.

Murder, Inc.

In the late 1920′s, Lansky and Siegel built ties to Charles "Lucky" Luciano and Frank Costello, future bosses of the Genovese crime family. Siegel became a bootlegger and was associated with Albert "Mad Hatter" Anastasia. Siegel was involved in bootlegging in New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. Siegel and Anastasia, together with Vito Genovese and Joe Adonis, were the four gunmen who shot New York mob boss Joe Masseria to death on Luciano's orders on April 15, 1931, formally ending the Castellammarese War. On September 10th of that year, Luciano hired four trigger men from the Lansky-Siegel gang (according to the Lansky biography, Siegel was one of the alleged trigger men) to murder Masseria's rival, Salvatore Maranzano, establishing Luciano's rise to the top of the U.S. Mafia and marking the beginning of modern American organized crime.

It was with these associates that Siegel formed Murder, Inc.; credited with carrying out many contract killings throughout the country. The service was very profitable and soon the men were gaining more money and power through fencing operations. Within this time, Luciano and Lansky formed the National Crime Syndicate, an umbrella organization of crime families that brought unprecedented power to the underworld. After Siegel and Lansky moved on to other, larger pastures, control over Murder, Inc. was ceded to Lepke Buchalter and Albert Anastasia. Siegel ran afoul of the law eight times but his only conviction was in Miami. On February 28, 1932, he was arrested for gambling and vagrancy, and, from a huge roll of bills, paid a $100 fine.

Siegel got into an entanglement with associates of Waxey Gordon, the Frabrazzo brothers. He had allegedly vowed to hunt them all down and, making sure they didn't fill out another contract, kill them after their assassination attempt on Lansky and Siegel. After the deaths of his two brothers, Tony Frabrazzo began writing memoirs and planned on giving them to an attorney. One of the longest chapters of the book was going to be a section on the nationwide kill-for-hire squad led by Benjamin Siegel. The mob eventually discovered Tony's plans before he had a chance to execute his ideas. In the fall of 1932, Siegel checked into a hospital and later on that night he sneaked out. Siegel and two of his accomplices approached Tony's house and, reportedly posing as detectives to lure him out, gunned him down (Tony's parents would later describe witnessing the murder). According to the hospital records, Siegel's alibi for that night was that he checked into a hospital due to an illness. Lansky and Siegel also assisted in Luciano's brief alliance with Dutch Schultz and killed rival loan sharks Louis "Pretty" Amberg and Joseph Amberg in 1935.