Whatever Happened To The Beverly Hills House Where Bugsy Siegel Was Murdered?
Benjamin "Bugsy” Siegel sat on a couch reading. He and several friends had just returned from an outing to Ocean Beach for dinner and now the infamous gangster was perusing a copy of The Los Angeles Times, according to "L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City." Suddenly, the quiet Beverly Hills evening shattered with a burst of automatic gunfire and blood. Bullets ripped into Siegel, hitting him in the head, and killing him instantly. The murder of the Jewish gangster from New York who helped turn Las Vegas into Sin City has never officially been solved, per Biography.
The mansion where Siegel died still stands today and went up for sale in December 2022 with an asking price of nearly $17 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter, but Zillow shows that as of June 2023, the listing was taken down. The Spanish-style home boasts many of its original details, including the majestic foyer and stairway leading to the second floor where Siegel spent time with his girlfriend, Virginia Hill, for whom he leased the stunning property before his bloody demise.
Bugsy and Virginia
Born Benjamin Siegelbaum in Brooklyn in February 1906, he earned the nickname "Bugsy" — which he detested — from his fellow gang members for his notoriously short fuse, according to American Experience. After joining forces with a fellow Jewish mobster, Meyer Lansky, they began bootlegging and moved onto to murder. Siegel eventually headed to the West Coast, where he focused on illegal gambling, prostitution, and drugs as his main rackets. He began seeing Virginia Hill in the 1930s while still married. The pair went to Las Vegas in 1945, where Siegel oversaw the construction of the Flamingo Hotel and Casino, per Biography.
Like Siegel, Hill had a long history tied to the mob. She was a money launderer and courier, according to The Mob Museum. In Hollywood, she was known for the lavish parties she threw at her Beverly Hills home, per the Associated Press. It was there, at 810 North Linden Street, where Siegel met his end when an assassin, hiding in the bushes outside the home's living room, let loose with nine shots from a .30 rifle, according to "Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel: The Gangster, the Flamingo, and the Making of Modern Las Vegas."
The mansion today
Virginia Hill wasn't at her mansion that night. She was in France when she learned of her lover's murder. "The last time I saw Ben was three weeks ago at his brand new gambling casino in Las Vegas, Nevada," she told the United Press. "I can't believe he's dead." After Hill vacated the Beverly Hills home it had several other tenants before its current owners, a plastic surgeon and his wife, bought it in 2003, per The Hollywood Reporter.
"Unlike so many others of that era, it has been beautifully preserved with original details, like hand-painted tiles and iron railings, yet complemented with modern amenities including a new pool and state-of-the-art appliances," realtor Myra Nourmand told People. While much of the mansion's interior remains as it was during Hill's residency, the bullet-pocked walls of its living room following Siegel's murder appear to have been filled in and any other remnants of Siegel's unsolved murder more than 75 years ago are long gone.