Esta Krakower

Esta Siegel (born Krakower) (1911–1982) was the wife of gangster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel.

She was the sister of alleged hitman Whitey Krakower, who was also a suspect in the Harry Greenberg murder for which Siegel was tried and acquitted.

She married Siegel on January 27, 1929 in Brooklyn, NY at the age of 17. She bore two daughters, Millicent and Barbara who were ages 16 and 14 at the time of their father's death. She divorced her husband in Reno, Nevada in December 1946, prior to the opening of the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas and about a year before he was killed in Beverly Hills. She then returned to New York City to raise their two daughters. She never remarried.

She passed away in January 1982, shortly before her 70th birthday, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. She was interred in a mausoleum at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, close to her ex-husband.

She was portrayed in the Barry Levinson film Bugsy by actress Wendy Phillips.

References

* Cite book
publisher = Carol Publishing Corporation
isbn = 1559721642
pages = 260
last = Edmonds
first = Andy
title = Bugsy's Baby: The Secret Life of Mob Queen Virginia Hill
date = 1993-04
* Cite book
publisher = Buccaneer Books
isbn = 089966783X
last = Reid
first = Ed
title = Green Felt Jungle
date = 1963-02
* Cite book
edition = Mti
publisher = Pocket
isbn = 0671770349
pages = 256
last = Jennings
first = Dean
title = We Only Kill Each Other
date = 1992-01-01