When mobster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was murdered on June 20, 1947, the Beverly Hills Police Department (BHPD) collected approximately 30 personal effects from his pockets as crime scene evidence. The Mob Museum recently acquired 22 of these items, and will place them on public display beginning Friday, Nov. 13, 2026.
“There’s nothing mysterious about any of these items or anything like that,” Geoff Schumacher, VP of research and collections for the Mob Museum, told Casino.org. But, he added, they “open a window on who Bugsy Siegel was and what kind of stuff he had going on at the time.”
The exhibit, titled “What Bugsy Left Behind,” includes:
- Siegel’s Social Security card
- Meyer Lansky’s business card, which identifies him as a distributor of Wurlitzer jukeboxes in New York
- Photograph of Virginia Hill: The wallet-sized snap bears the handwritten message: “Sweetheart Benny I love you Pup,” on the back
- Nevada certificate of vehicle ownership: Issued less than two months before Siegel’s death, the document identifies him as the owner of a 1946 Chrysler Windsor convertible coupe and lists the Flamingo Hotel as his address
- Photos of Siegel’s daughters Barbara and Millicent Siegel, including a photograph of the sisters as teenagers shortly before their father’s death
- 1947 American Red Cross membership card
- Automobile Club of Southern California membership card
- Handwritten address note: A note reminding him of Virginia’s home address, 810 North Linden Drive, a house she rented from her friend, former Hollywood agent Juan Romero
- Personal calling cards: Printed cards bearing the names “Ben Siegel” and “Mr. Benjamin Siegel,” reflecting the social customs of the era
- Yellow Cab Company receipt: A faded receipt for a 50-cent taxi fare in L.A. from January 1947, when Siegel frequently traveled between L.A. and Las Vegas
- The Dixie Shops business card: A business card bearing Siegel’s name, for the national chain of women’s apparel stores. Schumacher said he suspects this was a ruse intended to create the appearance that Siegel had a legitimate occupation.
The items, either from Siegel’s pockets or wallet, came from Wendy Rosen, Siegel’s granddaughter. She approached the Mob Museum via her attorney earlier this year, after successfully suing the BHPD to obtain them last year. Police kept them under wraps for almost 80 years, though Siegel’s murder remains unsolved.
“A judge ruled that these items should be returned to the family,” Schumacher said, adding that the museum permanently acquired them for an undisclosed sum.
Schumacher said he does not believe any of these artifacts has ever been seen before.
“Certainly, there are people within that department who saw them, but I don’t think the general public knew anything about this material,” he said.
(Last) Day in the Life
When semiautomatic gunfire shattered the front window of 810 Linden Drive in Beverly Hills at 10:45 p.m. on that fateful night, Siegel sat on the living-room couch in his girlfriend Virginia Hill’s house reading the next day’s L.A. Times.
In a few hours, that edition would be replaced by one splashing news of his own death across its front page.
Siegel picked up his newspaper at the Santa Monica restaurant where he ate his last meal. And the Mob Museum’s new collection also includes the card attached to that paper, which read: “Good Night … Pleasant Reading Compliments of Jack’s at the Beach.”
Earlier Effects
Other personal effects were found on Siegel’s body, but those were returned shortly after his murder to his brother, Dr. Maurice Siegel, executor of his will.
The items, photographed and cataloged by the BHPD, included his watch, wallet, a keychain with keys, cufflinks, a money clip, and a gold plunger with a needle—which may have been a medical device, a weapon, or a good luck charm.
Schumacher said he believes those items were subsequently sold to memorabilia collectors, though the police kept the contents of Siegel’s wallet and pockets.
None of Siegel’s personal effects was ever expected to help identify the murderer, since witnesses say the gunman never entered the house. Yet the Beverly Hills Police Department held onto them.
“These personal effects perhaps should never have been in evidence in the first place because they don’t give us great insights on who killed him,” Schumacher said.
Mystery Still Unsolved
According to Schumacher, there are many theories about that. A leading one points to Hill’s brother, Charles “Chick” Hill, whose motive was supposedly that Siegel was an abusive boyfriend.
According to another theory, Siegel’s control of the race wire (the system bookmakers used to obtain horseracing results) in Vegas angered the Chicago mob.
A third claims that Moe Sedway, his wife Bee Sedway, and Bee’s lover, “Moose” Pandza, conspired to kill Siegel for threatening to kill Sedway.
“I’m intrigued by the race wire theory, I’m intrigued by the brother theory,” Schumacher said. “But, in the end, I still think money tends to be the reason for things. And his management of the Flamingo was something that his mob brethren were frustrated by.
“That’s the most likely scenario—that the mob did it.”
If Siegel’s murderer were only 20 at the time, he would now be 99. So it’s highly unlikely that any breakthrough in one of the most famous unsolved murders in American history could result in an arrest.
However, Schumacher says the public has the right to know the truth. He believes that every last investigative report and document associated with the case should be released, so other sleuths can get their crack at it.
“The Beverly Hills police are not releasing those,” he said. “My understanding is that the case is still open and that, in theory anyway, they’re still investigating. But they really ought to release these investigative files. Give historians a chance to take a look.
“What’s the secret at this point?”
A night before the public debut of “What Bugsy Left Behind,” from 7-8 p.m. on Nov. 12, Mob Museum members will receive a sneak peek, during which Schumacher will interview Rosen about her grandfather. Though she was born after his murder, Schumacher said, she grew up “hearing stories” from her mother, Millicent, who was 16 when her father was murdered.
Annual Mob Museum memberships start at $55. For more information, click here.
Rephrased by The Mystic Gambler