Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was shot dead on the night of June 20, 1947, while sitting on a living room couch at 810 North Linden Drive in Beverly Hills. The Bugsy Siegel death scene, still one of the most famous unsolved gangland killings in American history, involved a single gunman firing nine rounds from a .30-caliber military carbine through a front window, killing Siegel instantly. More than seven decades later, the case remains open with the Beverly Hills Police Department, and no one has ever been charged.1The Mob Museum. Seventy-Five Years Later, Debate Over Bugsy Siegel Murder Still Rages
The Night of June 20, 1947
Siegel had traveled from Las Vegas to the Spanish Colonial mansion he leased for his girlfriend, Virginia Hill, to pick up clothing and personal items. He was waiting for his daughters to fly in from New York for a planned vacation to Canada.2The Mob Museum. Bugsy Siegel Death House for Sale in Beverly Hills Hill was not home. She had left for Paris around June 8, roughly two weeks earlier, after receiving instructions from the Chicago Outfit to get out of Las Vegas. She told Siegel she was going to buy wines for the Flamingo Hotel.3The Mob Museum. Virginia Hill
Shortly before 11 p.m., Siegel sat on the living room couch reading the Los Angeles Times and talking with his friend Allen Smiley. Smiley later described the two of them as “chinning and skimming” newspapers on the sofa.1The Mob Museum. Seventy-Five Years Later, Debate Over Bugsy Siegel Murder Still Rages Three other people were in the house but had gone to other rooms for the evening: Hill’s cook, E.S. Lee; her brother, Charles Hill; and her secretary, Jerrie Mason.4Los Angeles Public Library. A Quiet Evening, a Quick Death: The Demise of Bugsy Siegel
The Shots
Outside, an unidentified gunman rested a .30-caliber military carbine on a lattice trellis just below the front window. The muzzle was less than 14 feet from where Siegel sat. The shooter fired nine rounds through the glass.1The Mob Museum. Seventy-Five Years Later, Debate Over Bugsy Siegel Murder Still Rages
Four bullets hit Siegel. Two struck his chest. One passed through the bridge of his nose and dislodged his left eye. One went through his right cheek. The remaining five rounds hit the wall behind him. He died instantly. Smiley, right next to him, heard the window shatter and ducked. One round passed through his jacket sleeve, but he was not seriously wounded. “I heard the glass shattering, and I ducked,” Smiley later said. “When I looked at Siegel, I could see he had taken most of them.”1The Mob Museum. Seventy-Five Years Later, Debate Over Bugsy Siegel Murder Still Rages
The Crime Scene and Investigation
Detectives recovered nine shell casings scattered across the driveway of the neighboring property.1The Mob Museum. Seventy-Five Years Later, Debate Over Bugsy Siegel Murder Still Rages Bullet holes pocked the front window and the wall behind the sofa. The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner photographed the scene the next day, June 21, 1947, capturing the body, the shattered window, and the occupants of the house. A coroner’s jury convened on June 25, 1947, while Siegel’s body lay in the Los Angeles County morgue.4Los Angeles Public Library. A Quiet Evening, a Quick Death: The Demise of Bugsy Siegel
The investigation drew in the Beverly Hills Police Department, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, the Sheriff’s Department, and the State Department of Justice. An “information pool” was formed to share leads, with participants including District Attorney William E. Simpson, Sheriff Eugene W. Biscailuz, and Chief Special Agent Walter H. Lentz.5Los Angeles Public Library. A Quiet Evening, a Quick Death: The Demise of Bugsy Siegel Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Ernest Roll acknowledged the scale of the problem early on, noting that there were “a hundred different people who wanted him out of the way” and conceding that the shooter might “never be identified.”1The Mob Museum. Seventy-Five Years Later, Debate Over Bugsy Siegel Murder Still Rages
The killing was filed as Crime Case #46176 with the Beverly Hills Police Department. Because it remains open, the full investigative file is not available for public review.1The Mob Museum. Seventy-Five Years Later, Debate Over Bugsy Siegel Murder Still Rages
Why Siegel Was Killed
The dominant motive theory centers on the Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Siegel had taken over construction of the resort after Meyer Lansky provided the money to buy out its original developer, Billy Wilkerson.6The Mob Museum. Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel A project originally budgeted at roughly $1.5 million ballooned to $6 million, most of it funded by syndicate investors in the East. The overruns were blamed on Siegel’s extravagant tastes, his inexperience, and suspicions he was skimming construction money. Siegel reportedly used Virginia Hill to move diverted funds into European bank accounts.7Britannica. Flamingo Las Vegas
The Flamingo’s grand opening on December 26, 1946, was a disaster. The hotel lost money and closed within a month. It reopened in March 1947 and started turning a modest profit, but by that point Siegel’s mob partners, among them Meyer Lansky, Moe Sedway, and Gus Greenbaum, had sunk millions into it and suspected him of stealing.8UNLV Special Collections. Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel
Six months before the shooting, Siegel’s future was already on the table. The Havana Conference, held the week of December 22, 1946, at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, was organized by Charles “Lucky” Luciano and drew more than 20 senior mobsters. The Flamingo’s cost overruns were a central topic. According to attendee Doc Stacher, Lansky “passionately defended Siegel at the Havana meeting and asked that he be spared.” Siegel got a temporary reprieve.9The Mob Museum. The Havana Conference The Flamingo’s failed opening weeks later apparently exhausted it.
One detail suggests the killing was arranged in advance: within minutes of Siegel’s death, Lansky associates Gus Greenbaum, Morris Rosen, and Moe Sedway moved in to take control of the Flamingo.10The Mob Museum. Gus Greenbaum, Las Vegas Casino Operator
Suspects and Theories
No one has ever been charged with the murder. The list of plausible shooters has grown over the decades rather than narrowed.
Jack Dragna and the Commission
The most widely cited theory holds that senior Mob figures authorized Southern California Mafia boss Jack Dragna to organize the hit. Potential triggermen named under this theory include Frankie Carbo, Eddie Cannizzaro, and Robert McDonald.1The Mob Museum. Seventy-Five Years Later, Debate Over Bugsy Siegel Murder Still Rages Cannizzaro reportedly claimed before his death that he was the shooter, though researchers have disputed it.11NBC Los Angeles. Family Secret May Finally Explain Infamous Mobster’s Murder
Robert MacDonald
Warren Hull, an executive assistant at a Nevada law enforcement agency, has argued the triggerman was Robert MacDonald, a troubled World War II veteran and expert marksman. Under Hull’s account, MacDonald owed a $30,000 gambling debt to the Mob and was coerced by Jack Dragna to carry out the killing. MacDonald allegedly confessed to his parents afterward. Three months after Siegel’s murder, MacDonald used his Army-issued .30-caliber carbine to kill his wife, Betty Ann, and then himself. Hull found no evidence that ballistics were ever run on MacDonald’s carbine to test whether it was the weapon used at Linden Drive.11NBC Los Angeles. Family Secret May Finally Explain Infamous Mobster’s Murder
Tony Brancato and Tony Trombino
Clark Fogg, a former senior forensic specialist in the Beverly Hills Police Department lab, has argued that two shooters were likely involved, on the theory that the facial shots would have been very difficult after a moving target had already been struck. Fogg has suggested Joe Adonis hired Tony Brancato and Tony Trombino for the job.1The Mob Museum. Seventy-Five Years Later, Debate Over Bugsy Siegel Murder Still Rages Brancato was a Kansas City mobster involved in gambling, narcotics, and prostitution who had previously robbed the Flamingo. He was killed in a gangland-style shooting in August 1951.4Los Angeles Public Library. A Quiet Evening, a Quick Death: The Demise of Bugsy Siegel
Mathew “Moose” Pandza
The most detailed alternate theory emerged decades later from Beatrice “Bee” Sedway, the wife of Siegel’s business partner Moe Sedway. In an unpublished 79-page book proposal titled Bugsy’s Little Lunatic and in a 1993 taped interview, Bee reframed the motive entirely.12Los Angeles Magazine. The Mobster, the Murder, the Moll, and Her Secret
According to Bee, Siegel had discovered Moe Sedway was reporting the Flamingo’s problems to Meyer Lansky and threatened to kill him, allegedly saying he would “chop up his body and feed it to the Flamingo Hotel’s garbage disposal.”13People. Bugsy Siegel’s 1947 Murder: Has It Finally Been Solved? Bee said Moe got authorization from Lansky to have Siegel killed first, and that the triggerman was her own lover, Mathew “Moose” Pandza, a 6-foot-3, 250-pound crane operator and truck driver who was also an avid hunter. In her telling, Pandza obtained a .30-caliber M1 carbine from a friend, tracked Siegel’s movements on June 20, timed local police patrols on Linden Drive, and fired the nine rounds through the front window. He then fled to a Santa Monica alley, broke the rifle down, threw the barrel into the ocean, and left the stock on a rooftop.12Los Angeles Magazine. The Mobster, the Murder, the Moll, and Her Secret
Some circumstantial support: immediately after the shooting, Allen Smiley contacted an individual later identified in FBI reports as a “super informant” for the Bureau, believed to be Moe Sedway himself, to report Siegel’s death.1The Mob Museum. Seventy-Five Years Later, Debate Over Bugsy Siegel Murder Still Rages Sedway and his associates then took the Flamingo. The story became public in 2014 when Amy Wallace reported on it in Los Angeles Magazine, drawing on Bee’s manuscript and family interviews. Bee’s son Robbie Sedway confirmed his mother had told him the killer’s identity when he was 16 but had spent decades staying quiet out of fear of Mob reprisal.13People. Bugsy Siegel’s 1947 Murder: Has It Finally Been Solved?
Where the Case Stands
The Beverly Hills Police Department has declined to comment substantively on the Pandza theory, saying only that the case has never been closed.13People. Bugsy Siegel’s 1947 Murder: Has It Finally Been Solved? No arrests. No charges. The physical evidence, nine shell casings and a shattered window on Linden Drive, has never been publicly matched to a weapon. The competing accounts of who fired the shots and why continue to circulate, and the file stays open.