Auction Name: 2026 February 26 Historical Manuscripts & Texana Signature® Auction

Lot Number: 47278

Shortcut to Lot: HA.com/6328*47278

Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel Legal Document Signed. Two typed pages, 8 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches (sight), [Nevada]; March 19, 1947. A legal document releasing Wilkerson from the Flamingo. "RELEASE OF ALL DEMANDS", stating that Ben Siegel and G. Harry Rothberg "jointly and severally...release and discharge W.R. Wilkerson his agents, employees, and representatives, of and from all demands, and all manner of actions and causes of actions, suits, debts, sums of money, accounts, reckonings, bonds, bills, specialties, covenants, controversies, agreements, promises, variances, trespasses, damages, judgements, executions, claims and demands whatsoever, in law or in equity...Any or all claims or obligations arising under those certain agreements heretofore executed between the undersigned and said W.R. Wilkerson...ever had or now has...or may have against the said W.R. Wilkerson..." Signed by Siegel and Rothberg at the bottom of the document. The second page, also dated March 19, 1947, is a signed statement by the Los Angeles, California Notary Public, N. Joseph Ross. The two pages have been stapled together to a slightly larger sheet of blue paper for records, with typed identification information on verso. Measures 9 x 13 3/4 inches in total.

An entrepreneur of the more questionable type, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel (1906-1947) is popularly thought to be the impetus behind large-scale development of Las Vegas. Fueled by the fact that Nevada had legalized gambling in 1931, Siegel envisioned building a large casino and hotel to which gamblers would flock by the hundreds. Siegel captivated his fellow mobsters on the East Coast with the idea of building a gambling mecca in the middle of the desert, complete with a casino, hotel, and live entertainment. He returned to Nevada and set to work on his dream to construct a hotel-casino complex that came to be called the "Flamingo." In fact, the swank Flamingo was actually conceived and started by Los Angeles businessman and Hollywood Reporter publisher Billy Wilkerson, who turned the project over to Siegel after running short of funds. Harry Rothberg had organized the original agreement for the Flamingo in 1946, so when Siegel decided to take over full control the next year Rothberg made sure to sign his name to the release as well. This signed document is evidence of this deal, completed in 1947. Siegel would subsequently mismanage the project and earn the ire of his mob cohorts, who in turn had the famous gangster killed just three months later.

Condition: Flattened folds and faint creasing. Light soiling. Toning to the bottom right corner of the blue paper.

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