LAS VEGAS – October 29, 2026 -- Starting Friday, Nov. 13, visitors to The Mob Museum can see the personal items Bugsy Siegel carried on the day he was shot, after nearly 80 years in police custody. The new exhibit, "What Bugsy Left Behind," pairs the never-before-seen collection with the competing theories about his unsolved murder.
Siegel was shot at his girlfriend's Beverly Hills home in 1947
On June 20, 1947, the 41-year-old mobster was killed at the Beverly Hills home of Virginia Hill while she was traveling in Europe. Siegel had come from Las Vegas to Southern California to meet his two daughters for a planned vacation, but he died before they could see him. He was shot while reading an early edition of the Los Angeles Times. The case remains one of the Beverly Hills Police Department's oldest cold cases.
Three theories on who ordered the killing
The exhibit examines several explanations. One holds that Charles "Lucky" Luciano and other powerful Mob figures ordered the hit over Siegel's handling of the Flamingo Hotel, where lavish spending, disappointing early returns and suspected skimming had reportedly angered his underworld investors. Another points to a rival seeking control of the race wire, which supplied horse-racing results to bookmakers across California, Arizona and Nevada. A third names one of Hill's brothers, who may have sought revenge for Siegel's abusive treatment of his sister.
A wallet-sized photo, a Red Cross card and a 50-cent cab receipt
The items found on Siegel include:
- Meyer Lansky's business card, listing him as a Wurlitzer phonograph distributor in New York
- A wallet-sized photo of Hill, inscribed on the back "Sweetheart Benny I love you Pup"
- A Nevada certificate of ownership for a 1946 Chrysler Windsor convertible coupe, issued less than two months before his death and listing the Flamingo Hotel as his address
- A Social Security card naming him "Ben Siegel"
- A Jack's at the Beach advertisement from the Santa Monica restaurant he visited hours before the murder with companions including Hill's brother Charles "Chick" Hill
- Photographs of his daughters, Barbara and Millicent
- A 1947 American Red Cross card documenting a $500 donation in Las Vegas
- An Automobile Club of Southern California card
- A handwritten note about the house at 810 North Linden Drive, which Hill rented from Juan Romero
- Calling cards reading "Ben Siegel" and "Mr. Benjamin Siegel"
- A Dixie Shops business card, for reasons the museum says are unknown
- A Yellow Cab Company receipt for a 50-cent fare from January 1947
A granddaughter's 2025 lawsuit freed the evidence
The Beverly Hills Police Department kept the belongings as evidence after Siegel's death. In 2025, his granddaughter Wendy Rosen filed a lawsuit seeking their return to the family. After a judge ordered their release, The Mob Museum acquired the collection from Rosen.
Geoff Schumacher, the museum's Vice President of Research, Collections and Programs, said the items now help educate the public about organized crime's history rather than serve a murder investigation.
The opening coincides with the Flamingo Hotel's 80th anniversary on Dec. 26, 2026, and the approaching 80th anniversary of Siegel's murder.