Free Houses of Death (True Crime) by Gordon Kerr

become a major movie star. Raft provided Bugsy with a ticket into the high-octane world of Hollywood’s movie stars and starlets. With his suave good looks, he began to occupy the gossip columns, attending parties and premieres.
    But, Bugsy was also busy during the day. He infiltrated the unions and began to make serious money for the Mob. However, he could not be kept away from the action and, on more than one occasion, became more involved in a situation than a man of his high status should have been. In 1939, when Harry ‘Big Greenie’ Greenberg was eliminated in California, Bugsy was in it up to his neck. As one of his cohorts said, ‘We all begged Bugsy to keep out of the shooting. He was too big a man by this time to become personally involved. But Bugsy wouldn’t listen.’
    He had got under the Syndicate’s skin once too often, but Las Vegas was his last hurrah. In 1931, the Nevada legislature had legalized gambling to raise revenue. In the 1940s, it also legalized off-track betting on horse races. This was what interested Bugsy. Opening a legitimate casino in Vegas had unlimited of potential for making money for the Mob. He resolved to open a casino-hotel in the one-horse town of Las Vegas. He called it the Flamingo.
    Right from the beginning, the Flamingo proved to be a money-pit. He was ripped off by construction workers and the money he needed to complete the hotel grew from $1 million (£500,000) to $6 million (£3 million). His Mob investors became twitchy.
    By 1946, the hotel had still not opened its doors and Bugsy was asking for even more money. Finally, at a Mafia conference in Havana, Cuba, on 22 December that year, Meyer Lansky delivered some bad news. Bugsy had been skimming from the cash provided by the Mob for the Flamingo. He was thought to be depositing it in Swiss bank accounts, ready to flee if all did not go according to plan. The Syndicate turned to Lansky and asked him what they should do. He reluctantly told them that Bugsy had to be hit, a motion that was passed unanimously, and the contract was given to Charlie Fischetti. Lansky, nonetheless, provided his old friend with a stay of execution, persuading them that the contract should be delayed until after the opening of the casino – Boxing Day – to see what happened. Who knows, he suggested, it might even be a huge success and they could get Siegel to pay back the money.
    In spite of top-notch entertainment – George Raft, Jimmy Durante, Xavier Cugat’s orchestra, all big names back then – and the presence at the opening of movie stars Clark Gable, Lana Turner, Joan Crawford and many more, the Flamingo was a flop.
    It was with a heavy heart that Lansky reported the troubling situation in Las Vegas, and the Syndicate demanded the fulfilment of the contract. Nonetheless, he gained another stay of execution and the Flamingo limped along until Bugsy closed it to enable the hotel part of his complex to be finished.
    It reopened in March and by May it had returned a healthy profit of $250,000 (£125,000). But it was all too late for the Syndicate.
    Charlie Fischetti’s first bullet hit Bugsy Siegel in his handsome head as he lolled on his sofa and another four rammed into him in quick succession, smashing his ribs and destroying his lungs.
    Aged 42, Benjamin ‘Bugsy Siegel’ Siegelbaum, who had been born in the slums of Brooklyn, and had once owned a 35-room mansion in Hollywood, was dead.
    His memorial stands, shimmering to this day, in the Nevada desert – the gambling capital of the world – the city of Las Vegas.

Pentonville Prison 
    Caledonian Road, North London, England

Pentonville Prison was built in the style of Eastern State Penitentiary, and had the same effect on many of its inmates. Some went mad, some became delusional and some committed suicide. The dehumanizing tactics used by the prison authorities were simply too much for some people to bear.
     
    The bad news