![]() ![]() Among his many “activities” in Los Angeles, Siegel threw lavish parties at his mansion. He and his family lived in luxury in Beverly Hills. In California, he built a career and lifestyle from gambling, prostitution, drugs, and bookmaking ventures. Westward Expansionīy 1937, Siegel, tired of the East Coast, moved shop to the West. ![]() As a hitman, Siegel “disposed of” a number of New York’s prominent mobsters. In the 1920s, he worked with Mafia boss Charles “Lucky” Luciano’s syndicate. His “Bugsy” moniker evidenced his brutal, unpredictable behavior, prone to “bugging out” at will. Siegel established himself as a formidable mastermind of organized crime, forging an underworld empire from bootlegging, gambling, and assassinations. The Bugs-Meyer Gang even reportedly oversaw a subgroup of contract killers known as Murder, Inc. The pair formed their own criminal collective, the Bugs-Meyer Gang, of Jewish mobsters. In 1918, Siegel made an important friend: Meyer Lansky, another young street rough. He soon fell in with the neighborhood’s culture of crime. No matter their ethnicity or national origin, everyone in Williamsburg was poor and hungry. His parents were Jewish immigrants, but Siegel was raised in Williamsburg, a troubled neighborhood that, at the time, had been home to many Irish and Italian gangs. The Flamingo’s founder, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, was born in Brooklyn, New York on February 28, 1906. ![]() The Man Behind the Flamingo: Early History Bugsy Siegel in 1928. It’s not the new ownership’s fault, though-it isn’t easy to shake the legacy of the larger-than-life Bugsy Siegel… especially when his spirit refuses to leave the premises. Though the Flamingo has since tried to minimize Siegel’s legacy, its many renovations haven’t managed to remove the mobster from the resort. After all, the Flamingo was the brainchild of Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, one of America’s most infamous gangsters. Plenty of photo ops abound, and visitors can even get a unique souvenir in the form of a picture with the habitat’s resident parrots.The legendary Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, in the heart of the Strip, is notorious for its checkered history. And while it’s a blast to watch the pelicans hungrily eye their fishy neighbors, the real stars of the show here are the Chilean flamingos - which are known to live to the ripe old age of 30 - that reside in the gardens. Gardens, ponds, streams, and plenty of waterfalls greet wildlife lovers as they walk through the habitat at their own pace. In fact, two of the original pelicans here are named “Bugsy” and “Virginia” after the late mobster and his girlfriend.Īs visitors enter the habitat, they’re immediately struck by how different this place is from anywhere else on the Las Vegas Strip. In 1995, when zoos in Ohio and Texas could no longer sustain the environments needed to house these birds safely, they were shipped west, where the Flamingo Habitat was created on the property that was famously dreamed up by gangster Bugsy Seigel. It is quite the attraction for families and those looking to slow their roll after a busy day of sightseeing in Las Vegas. Located on the south side of the Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, this four-acre wildlife habitat sits adjacent to the casino’s 15-acre Caribbean water park and play area. Offering up a relaxing respite in the heart of the Entertainment Capital of the World, discover a serene world of Chilean flamingos, parrots, turtles, fish, and more at the Flamingo Las Vegas. Home to nearly two dozen species of ducks, swans, parrots, koi fish (and let’s not forget those flamingos), the Flamingo Wildlife Habitat is an unlikely oasis of tranquility in the middle of an otherwise bustling stretch of the Entertainment Capital of the World. No, the Las Vegas Flamingos aren’t a new pro sports team, but they sure bring a lot of game to the sizzling Las Vegas Strip, nonetheless. ![]()
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