Murder of Bugsy Siegel

Date: June 20, 1947 • Location: Beverly Hills, United States

A Mafia hitman murdered gangster Bugsy Siegel, one of the driving forces in the development of the Las Vegas Strip, in Beverly Hills, California.

Informally or generally, a mafia is any of various criminal organizations that include, or bear a strong similarity to, the original Sicilian Mafia, the Italian-American Mafia, or other Italian organized crime groups. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of disputes between criminals, as well as the organization and enforcement of illicit agreements between criminals through violence. Mafias often engage in secondary activities such as gambling, loan sharking, drug trafficking, prostitution, and fraud.