100 Entrepreneurs Who Changed The World
77. Benjamin Siegel (1906-1947)
“Las Vegas turns women into men and men into idiots.”
Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was a Jewish American mobster and the driving force behind the development of the Las Vegas Strip. Bugsy got his start bootlegging booze during prohibition as one of the leaders of Murder, Inc., the press given name to several factions of organized crime during the 1930’s and 40’s. Siegel financed and handled some of the first casinos in Las Vegas along with some of his colleagues from the Italian-Jewish National Crime Syndicate. He envisioned what would become modern day Vegas and was the main force behind its actualization. His life was cut short, however. Siegel was shot and killed outside of his Beverly Hills home in 1947.
