- Virginia Hill
Virginia Hill (
August 26 ,1916 -March 24 ,1966 ) was aChicago Outfit courier who was famous for being the steady girlfriend ofLos Angeles mob boss andGenovese crime family associateBugsy Siegel , following the breakdown of his marriage.Early life
Virginia Hill was born 1916 in
Lipscomb, Alabama , one of 10 siblings. The family later moved toMarietta, Georgia , and her mother later left her to take care of other children.Mob Girl
At the age of 17, Hill moved to
Chicago , allegedly to work as aprostitute at the 1933 World's Fair and later became a waitress. During this time, she met a mobster named Joseph Epstein, a ranking associate ofChicago Outfit political corruptorJake Guzik . Hill allegedly became Epstein's mistress, party hostess, and a co-conspirator in hisbookmaking ring. In the process she became a close associate of several high-ranking Outfit mobsters. She was eventually the mistress ofFrank Costello ,Frank Nitti ,Charles Fischetti andJoe Adonis . She also became a "bag woman," and funnelled Outfit funds intoSwiss bank accounts.She later denied it, but it is known that she bought a new home for her family in Marietta for $10,000 - in cash.
Bugsy
In the 1940s Hill moved to
California , metBugsy Siegel , and, in turn, became his most steady mistress. Reputedly they fought as much as they made love, but Siegel did not stop his womanizing. There are rumors that they were secretly married inMexico but Siegel never divorced his wife Esta. Siegel's nickname for Hill was "The Flamingo," reputedly for her long legs.Hill maintained a lavish lifestyle also in
Hollywood , bought her own mansion inBeverly Hills and entertained Hollywood celebrities there. Reputedly Hillblackmailed several Hollywood celebrities with information about their private vices.Las Vegas
Siegel got into trouble with his superiors in
New York City 'sGenovese crime family when his Las Vegas project, "The Flamingo," did not turn a profit fast enough.Meyer Lansky allegedly suspected that Siegel was engineering construction woes in order to rip off hisMafia investors for millions of dollars. It was further believed that he was using Hill to transfer the money toSwiss bank account s, serving as only his courier this time.Murder in LA
After one of their many fights, Hill left for
Paris onJune 10 ,1947 . Ten days later, Siegel was shot to death inside herLos Angeles mansion. Reputedly, when she heard of the murder, she fainted. When police later questioned her, she denied that she was his mistress or that she was aware of his ties to theGenovese crime family . She claimed that "His mistress was that Las Vegas Hotel." When someone later suggested that she had helped the Genovese Family to engineer his murder, she was indignant.The Kefauver Hearings
In 1951, Hill was subpoenaed to testify before the
Kefauver hearings and denied having any knowledge oforganized crime . She told investigators that her income came from gifts her boyfriends gave her due to her sexual prowess. [ Time magazine reported in its obituary of Hill on 1 April 1966, that Hill spent her time on thewitness stand "bogglingSenator s with her full-grown curves and succinct explanation of just why men would lavish money on a hospitable girl from Bessemer, Ala."]Later life
The IRS determined that Hill had spent $500,000 without paying taxes and sued her. Hill proceeded to marry a well-known Sun Valley ski instructor
Hans Hauser (né Norman Johann Hauser, 1911-1974) and moved with him toEurope . The IRS seized her house and property and auctioned them off for back taxes.Death
Hill spent her remaining years in Europe. In her last years, when she was separated from her husband, she was supported by their only child, Peter Hauser, who worked as a waiter. She died of an overdose of
sleeping pill s, an apparentsuicide , inKoppel , nearSalzburg, Austria on24 March 1966 . Her body was found in a lone area by a bridge crossing the "Alterbach," a small stream. She was 49 years old.Murder victim?
According to
Andy Edmonds ' biography "Bugsy's Baby: The Secret Life of Mob Queen Virginia Hill", Hill's death was suspicious, since her body was found outdoors, near a brook, two days after she met with a former lover, former Genovese family bossJoe Adonis , who reportedly had her escorted home with two of his bodyguards.It was highly speculated by the Austrian media, which were rather exactly informed about her former relationship with Siegel, that she tried to get money by using her knowledge of the
Italian-American Mafia and theMexican drug cartels . [ Compare the "Salzburger Nachrichten ", "Salzburger Volksblatt" (defunct since 1979) and the illustrated newspaper "Bunte " made by Burda - Offenburg inGermany from spring 1966.]She is buried in Aigen Cemetery in
Salzburg ,Austria .In Popular Culture
Hill is played by
Annette Bening in the film "Bugsy ."References
Further reading
*Edmonds, Andy. "Bugsy's Baby : The Secret Life of Mob Queen Virginia Hill". Secaucus, New Jersey: Carol Publishing Group, 1993. ISBN 1559721642
External links
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=hill&GSfn=Virginia&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=11213& Virginia Hill] at
Find A Grave
* [http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1393340] atExcerpt of testimony
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