Organized Crime in America

Benjamin Siegelbaum was born on 1902 in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. His parents (dad Russian immigrant) raised five children, including Ben. Ben’s father was a day laborer in the garment industry, and his mother was a .

The Williamsburg section of Brooklyn in the early part of the 20th Century was the proverbial melting pot of America. Within its tight confines lived thousands of Irish, Italian and Jewish immigrants all struggling to make a life for themselves in the New World. Push car vendors and crime ruled the streets.

Ben Siegel began his life of crime at a young age. His best friend, Moey Sedway, was willing to assist with any plan Ben came up with. To pass the time they would launch a racket against the street vendors. Ben would ask a vendor for a dollar. If they vendor refused to pay Ben a dollar Moey would douse the vendors cart with kerosene and set it on fire. The next time that Ben would ask that same vendor for a dollar they usually paid it. After word spread that someone was setting carts on fire for money, Ben and Moey offered protection for money from all vendors to ensure that it did not happen to them.

During the same time period of the protection racket, Ben met his lifelong friend Meyer Lansky. Together Meyer and Ben would create the underworld’s first murder-for-hire squad. Out of many stories of how Ben and Meyer met these two are the most popular;

The first, probably apocryphal, is that Bugsy had been enjoying the unpaid favors of a prostitute in the employ of a young Charlie Luciano and that Lucky was none too happy about her extracurricular activities. He began to beat the hooker and Siegel after catching them in the act and Meyer, then a tool-and-die