What do you think?
Rate this book
Bugsy's Baby: The Secret Life of Mob Queen Virginia Hill
Reveals the real Virginia Hill, mob mistress and crafty gangster, examining the extent of her mob connections, her role in "Bugsy" Siegel's murder, her part in the Mob's expansion westward, and the mystery surrounding her death.
260 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1993
2 people are currently reading
145 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 10, 2013
On the night of June 20, 1947 notorious gangster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel died in a hail of bullets at 810 North Linden Drive in Beverly Hills—the house was being rented, by mob moll Virginia Hill, a fast-talking, foul-mouthed goddess of glamour, with a penchant for dangerous liaisons. But who was this gangster groupie, and how did a poor girl from rural Alabama get to hang with the mafia in the ritziest neighborhood in America?
Bugsy’s Baby—The Secret Life of Mob Queen Virginia Hill, is an in-depth work by investigative journalist Andy Edmonds. It traces the origins of Hill, focusing on her associations with the Capone era Chicago mob and the New York Syndicate of Charles “Lucky” Luciano. Bugsy’s Baby provides a fascinating insight to the structure of the American Mafia and it’s major players, and relates how a bad girl from deepest Alabama ran rings around all of them.
Young Hill, carried cash for the mob, placing racetrack bets and acting as bagman for their myriad dealings—who would suspect a cute little redhead fresh out of her teens—of such nefarious dealings?
The trouble with fast company is it burns through convention, until morality is fused into a permanent state of overload. The claxon voiced Hill, coming from a life of poverty and abuse, in the depression era south, quickly became addicted to a life of fast cash, diamonds and dangerous sex—a lifestyle that most Americans could only stare at on a movie screen.
Bugsy’s Baby follows Virginia Hill as she heads west to Los Angeles—where the psychopathic Siegel is tasked with monopolizing the west-coast wire [bookmaking] service, and extorting money from movie studios. It is here that we find out just how weak and despicable Bugsy Siegel was—a hair-trigger killer, rapist, and inveterate gambler, who beat and swindled everyone he met.
Then of course there was Las Vegas—a town Siegel was credited with kick starting.
Andy Edmonds is to be commended, as Bugsy’s Baby gives the fullest account yet, of Bugsy Siegel’s misadventures in Las Vegas, including the building of the famous Flamingo Hotel and Casino—named after Hill and her long-legs. We also get a blow-by-blow account of the famous Siegel murder that explains just who killed the mobster and why.
Virginia Hill courted notoriety, she dressed like a film star, had relationships with Errol Flynn and George Raft and many, others, drawing ever more attention, until eventually, she was called before Estes Kefauver’s committee on organized crime, a Mafia show trial that was televised across America.
When asked by the committee how she got “all that money” Hill responded live on television “Because I am the best cocksucker in town!” needless to say Senator Kefauver nearly popped a gasket, as did irate viewers across America. Infamy is no friend of the criminal, as Hill and many others found to their cost.
Hill’s decline and fall is described in detail. This book is a historical testament, cautionary tale, and fast punching crime thriller all rolled into one. For Crimeziners who love stories about the mafia, Bugsy’s Baby is a must.
For committed crime fans with deep pockets, 810 North Linden Drive currently on the market for $4.3 million. Tell ’em Crimezine sent you.
Bugsy’s Baby—The Secret Life of Mob Queen Virginia Hill, is an in-depth work by investigative journalist Andy Edmonds. It traces the origins of Hill, focusing on her associations with the Capone era Chicago mob and the New York Syndicate of Charles “Lucky” Luciano. Bugsy’s Baby provides a fascinating insight to the structure of the American Mafia and it’s major players, and relates how a bad girl from deepest Alabama ran rings around all of them.
Young Hill, carried cash for the mob, placing racetrack bets and acting as bagman for their myriad dealings—who would suspect a cute little redhead fresh out of her teens—of such nefarious dealings?
The trouble with fast company is it burns through convention, until morality is fused into a permanent state of overload. The claxon voiced Hill, coming from a life of poverty and abuse, in the depression era south, quickly became addicted to a life of fast cash, diamonds and dangerous sex—a lifestyle that most Americans could only stare at on a movie screen.
Bugsy’s Baby follows Virginia Hill as she heads west to Los Angeles—where the psychopathic Siegel is tasked with monopolizing the west-coast wire [bookmaking] service, and extorting money from movie studios. It is here that we find out just how weak and despicable Bugsy Siegel was—a hair-trigger killer, rapist, and inveterate gambler, who beat and swindled everyone he met.
Then of course there was Las Vegas—a town Siegel was credited with kick starting.
Andy Edmonds is to be commended, as Bugsy’s Baby gives the fullest account yet, of Bugsy Siegel’s misadventures in Las Vegas, including the building of the famous Flamingo Hotel and Casino—named after Hill and her long-legs. We also get a blow-by-blow account of the famous Siegel murder that explains just who killed the mobster and why.
Virginia Hill courted notoriety, she dressed like a film star, had relationships with Errol Flynn and George Raft and many, others, drawing ever more attention, until eventually, she was called before Estes Kefauver’s committee on organized crime, a Mafia show trial that was televised across America.
When asked by the committee how she got “all that money” Hill responded live on television “Because I am the best cocksucker in town!” needless to say Senator Kefauver nearly popped a gasket, as did irate viewers across America. Infamy is no friend of the criminal, as Hill and many others found to their cost.
Hill’s decline and fall is described in detail. This book is a historical testament, cautionary tale, and fast punching crime thriller all rolled into one. For Crimeziners who love stories about the mafia, Bugsy’s Baby is a must.
For committed crime fans with deep pockets, 810 North Linden Drive currently on the market for $4.3 million. Tell ’em Crimezine sent you.
June 2, 2016
Another great book about the Mafia, but this time the main focus is on Benjamin 'Bugsy' Siegel's infamous girlfriend Virginia Hill, whose Los Angeles home was the site of Bugsy's eventual mob hit. There's plenty about Bugsy, but the story is mainly about Virgina's life and her relationship with Siegel. Fascinating read!
September 7, 2014
I didn't really know anything about Virginia Hill, pretty much the only woman to get that close to the Chicago and New York families. The book was very engaging and well-written, chronicling her beginnings as a poor girl in small-town Alabama to her tragic ending in Austria.
March 4, 2019
Virginia Hill was born in Alabama in 1916, the seventh of 10 children, into a poor family. She was an early bloomer and discovered the power over men that came with it. She was beaten by her alcoholic father, but one day she discovered she could fight back. After that, she vowed that no man would have power over her or use her. She left home at a young age and got a job at an Italian restaurant at the Chicago fair in 1933, a mob meeting place. Big-time mobsters discovered the beauty and tried to make it with her, only to be rebuffed. One mobster by the name of Joe Epstein, a homosexual, offered her jobs as a money courier, bet fixer, stolen goods courier. She began to run around with Epstein, because he was undemanding and let her do as she wanted with other men. In this way, she began to be trusted and to rise in the ranks of the Chicago mob. She lived a glamorous party-girl life, and was the mistress of "Bugsy" Siegel for many years. She traveled between the West coast, the East coast, and Mexico, partying with a seemingly endless supply of cash, until she was in her 40s, when she began to lose ground. Unable to accept that she didn't command the same attention from men that she had always counted on, her life went spiralling down.
This book, while having an interesting subject, and educating the reader about the extreme power that the Mafia in New York, and the outfit in Chicago, had over a multitude of businesses in the U.S. in the 1920s until the 1950s, dragged on at times, and suffered from some rather pedestrian writing.
This book, while having an interesting subject, and educating the reader about the extreme power that the Mafia in New York, and the outfit in Chicago, had over a multitude of businesses in the U.S. in the 1920s until the 1950s, dragged on at times, and suffered from some rather pedestrian writing.
February 5, 2023
Good book
September 11, 2025
Pulls you in from page one!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews