Bugsy Siegel and Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux: Difference between pages

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[[Image:Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux's marble sculpture 'Ugolino and his Sons', Metropolitan Museum of Art.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux's marble sculpture 'Ugolino and his Sons', Metropolitan Museum of Art]]
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[[Image:Bsiegel.jpg|thumb|right|Bugsy Siegel]]
[[Image:Jean-Baptiste_Carpeaux_La_Danse.jpg|thumb|right|400px|La Danse (The Dance), Opera Garnier in Paris]]
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'''Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux''' ([[May 11]], [[1827]], [[Valenciennes]] –[[October 12]], [[1875]], [[Courbevoie]]) was a French sculptor and painter. His early studies were under [[François Rude]]. Carpeaux won the [[Prix de Rome]] in [[1854]], and moving to [[Rome]] to find inspiration, he there studied the works of [[Michelangelo Buonarroti|Michelangelo]], [[Donatello]] and [[Andrea del Verrocchio|Verrocchio]]. Staying in Rome from [[1854]] to [[1861]], he obtained a taste for movement and spontaneity, which he joined with the great principles of [[baroque art]]. In [[1861]] he made a bust of [[Mathilde Bonaparte|Princess Mathilde]], and this later brought him several commissions from [[Napoleon III]]. He worked at the pavilion of [[Flora (goddess)|Flora]], and the [[Opéra Garnier]]. His group La Danse (the Dance, [[1869]]), situated on the right side of the façade, was criticised as an offence to common decency.
'''Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel''' ([[February 28]], [[1906]] – [[June 20]], [[1947]]) was an [[Austria]]n-[[United States|American]] [[gangster]], popularly thought to be the [[impetus]] behind large-scale development of [[Las Vegas, Nevada|Las Vegas]].
<!-- Unsourced image removed: [[Image:Bugsypic.jpg|thumb|125px|right|Bugsy Siegel]] -->


He never managed to finish his last work, the famous Fountain of the Four Parts of the Earth, on the Place Camille Jullian. He did finish the terrestrial globe, supported by the four figures of [[Asia]], [[Europe]], [[North America|America]] and [[Africa]], and it was [[Emmanuel Frémiet]] who completed the work by adding the eight leaping horses, the tortoises and the dolphins of the basin.
==Early life ==
'''Benjamin Siegel'''<!-- Please do not restore Hymen unless you can provide proof from a source that could not have been tainted by Wikipedia. The possible vandalism was perpetrated in late 2004 by an anonymous user who edited only this article. Please also see the talk page --> was born in [[Brooklyn, New York]], to a poor [[Austria]]n [[Jew]]ish family, one of five children. As a boy, Siegel joined a street gang on Lafayette Street on the [[Lower East Side]] and first committed mainly [[theft]]s, until, with another youth named [[Moe Sedway]], he devised his own [[protection racket]]: pushcart merchants were forced to pay him five dollars or he would incinerate their merchandise on the spot.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}


== Sculptures by Carpeaux ==
During adolescence, Siegel befriended [[Meyer Lansky]], forming a small gang whose criminal activities expanded to include [[gambling]] and [[car theft]]. Siegel reputedly also worked as the gang's [[hit man]] whom Lansky would sometimes hire out to other gang bosses.


* Ugolin et ses fils - [[Ugolino della Gherardesca|Ugolino]] and his Sons (1861, in the permanent collection of the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]])[[http://www.insecula.com/oeuvre/photo_ME0000009025.html]] with versions in other museums including the [[Musée d'Orsay]]
In 1930 Lansky and Siegel joined forces with [[Lucky Luciano|Charles "Lucky" Luciano]] and [[Frank Costello]]. Siegel became a [[bootlegger]] and was also associated with [[Albert Anastasia|Albert "Mad Hatter" Anastasia]]. Siegel was used for bootlegging operations in [[New York]], [[New Jersey]] and [[Philadelphia]]. During the so-called [[Castellammarese War]] in 1930-1931, they fought the gang of [[Joe Masseria|Joe "The Boss" Masseria]]; Siegel reputedly had a hand in Masseria's 1931 murder in [[Coney Island]] and later had a part in the formation of [[Murder, Inc.]] In 1932 he was arrested for gambling and bootlegging but got away with only a fine. Lansky and Siegel were briefly allied with [[Dutch Schultz]] and killed rival [[loan shark]]s [[Louis Amberg|Louis "Pretty" Amberg]] and [[Joseph Amberg]] in 1935.
* The Dance (commissioned for the [[Palais Garnier|Opera Garnier]])
* Jeune pêcheur à la coquille - [[Naples|Neapolitan]] Fisherboy - in the [[Louvre]], [[Paris]] [[http://www.insecula.com/oeuvre/photo_ME0000034255.html]]
* Girl with Shell
* [[Antoine Watteau]] monument, [[Valenciennes]]


==Neapolitan Fisherboy==
==California==
In 1937, the East Coast mob sent Siegel to [[California]] to develop [[The Commission (mafia)|syndicate]] gambling rackets with [[Los Angeles]] mobster [[Jack Dragna]]. Once in LA, Siegel recruited Jewish gang boss [[Mickey Cohen]] as his lieutenant. Siegel used syndicate money to set up a national wire service to help the East Coast mob quicken their returns.


Carpeaux submitted a plaster version of ''Pêcheur napolitain à la coquille'', the Neapolitan Fisherboy, to the [[French Academy]] while a student in [[Rome]]. He carved the marble version several years later, showing it in the Salon exhibition of 1863. It was purchased for [[Napoleon III]]'s empress, [[Eugénie de Montijo|Eugènie]]. The statue of the young smiling boy was very popular, and Carpeaux created a number of reproductions and variations in marble and bronze. There is a copy, for instance, in the Samuel H. Kress Collection in the [[National Gallery of Art]] in [[Washington D.C.]]
On [[January 28]], [[1929]], Siegel married Esta Krakow, his childhood sweetheart and sister of hit man [[Whitey Krakow]]. Siegel eventually moved Esta and their two daughters to the West Coast. However, Siegel was the least faithful of husbands; four of his mistresses included actresses Ketti Gallian, [[Wendy Barrie]], [[Marie "The Body" MacDonald]], and Hollywood socialite Dorothy DiFrasso. With the aid of DiFrasso and actor friend [[George Raft]], Siegel gained entry into Hollywood's inner circle, allegedly using his contacts to extort the movie studios. At this point in his career, Siegel started living in extravagant fashion; on his tax returns Siegel claimed to earn his living through legal gambling at the [[Santa Anita]] racetrack near [[Los Angeles]].


Some years later, he carved the Girl with a Shell, a very similar study.
Siegel soon started a torrid affair with a sharp-tongued [[Gun moll|moll]] and courier, [[Virginia Hill]]. Wealthy in her own right, the Alabama-born Hill owned a mansion in [[Beverly Hills]] that she had bought from [[Metropolitan Opera]] [[baritone]] [[Lawrence Tibbett]]. Siegel became a frequent guest at the Hill mansion. Later on, there were rumors that the couple had secretly married in Mexico, where Hill help Siegel establish contacts. However, Siegel's relationship with Hill did not detract Siegel from his compulsive womanizing. Hill's reaction to Siegel's infidelities is unknown, but the long-suffering Esta eventually reached her limit; in 1946, she went to [[Reno, Nevada|Reno]] and divorced Siegel.


Carpeaux sought real life subjects in the streets and broke with the classical tradition. The Neapolitan Fisherboy's body is carved in intimate detail and shows an intricately balanced pose. Carpeaux claimed that he based the Neapolitan Fisherboy on a boy he had seen during a trip to [[Naples]].
On [[November 22]], [[1939]], Siegel, Whitey Krakow, and two other gang members killed [[Harry Greenberg|Harry "Big Greenie" Greenberg]]. Greenberg had become a police [[informant]] and [[Louis Buchalter|Louis "Lepke" Buchalter]], boss of [[Murder, Inc.]], ordered his killing. Siegel was arrested and tried for the Greenberg murder. Whitey Krakow escaped prosecution because Siegel had previously murdered him. Siegel was acquitted on the Greenberg murder, but his reputation was in ruins. During the trial, the newspapers revealed Siegel's sordid past and started referring to him as "Bugsy". Siegel was not pleased with the nickname or the notoriety.


==External links==
Driving back East from Los Angeles, Siegel happened to drive through the small railroad town of Las Vegas, [[Nevada]]. Legend has it that Siegel suddenly had a vision of turning Las Vegas into a gambling mecca.


*[http://cartelfr.louvre.fr/cartelfr/visite?srv=rs_display_res&critere=jean+baptiste+carpeaux&operator=AND&nbToDisplay=5&langue=fr A page on the official Louvre site giving access to some of Carpeaux's works (French language only)]
==Las Vegas==
*[http://www.insecula.com/contact/A005511_oeuvre_1.html A page from insecula.com listing more views of Carpeaux's works (also in French;] it may be necessary to close an advertising window to view this page)
According to popular myth, Siegel envisioned building a large casino and hotel in the desert that would attract gamblers from around the country. His vision was fueled by the fact that gambling had been legalized in Nevada in 1931 to entertain the influx of construction workings building [[Hoover Dam]] on the [[Colorado River]] 48 km (30 miles) to the southeast. This had launched a population boom, giving the Valley's economy a significant boost during the [[Great Depression]]. In [[Las Vegas, Nevada|Las Vegas]], at this time, gambling was concentrated in several downtown casinos along Fremont Street that catered to these workers. The famous Las Vegas Strip was just desert.
*[http://www.studiolo.org/MMA-Ugolino/Ugolino.htm A page analysing Carpeaux's ''Ugolino'', with numerous illustrations]

Bugsy came to Las Vegas in 1941, backed by the [[Chicago Outfit]] to establish the '''Trans America race wire service'''.

Back East, Siegel sold his fellow mobsters on the dream of building a legal gambling mecca in the Nevada desert, complete with a casino, hotel, and entertainment. The crime bosses agreed to back this venture. Siegel returned to the West Coast and began work. Siegel decided to call the new hotel and casino "[[Flamingo Las Vegas|The Flamingo]]", after his pet name for [[Virginia Hill]].
[[Image:Bugsymemorial.jpg|thumb|125px|right|Bugsy Siegel's memorial in the [[Flamingo Las Vegas|Flamingo Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas]] near the wedding chapel]]

==The Flamingo==
Although a successful gangster, Bugsy Siegel knew very little about construction. Many of Siegel's plans were unreasonably lavish, such as his insistence that each room have its own private sewer line. Under his oversight, the construction costs ballooned from $1 million to $6 million. Siegel was also cheated by his contractors. The [[Del Webb]] company, which was in charge of construction, allegedly would haul building materials in the front gate of Flamingo work site and out the back gate without unloading. The hapless Siegel was then billed for their delivery. The Flamingo project was also hampered by building materials shortages and increased costs due to the post-World War II building boom. Nervous about the project's problems, Del Webb told Siegel that he was afraid of mob retribution. Siegel reputedly joked: "Don't worry, Del. We only kill each other."

The Flamingo problems were no joke to Mafia leaders on the East Coast. They began suspecting that Siegel was embezzling their money. These suspicions were heightened by Virginia Hill's frequent trips to [[Zurich]], Switzerland, where they worried she was depositing mob money into Siegel's Swiss bank accounts.

In December 1946, the Flamingo problems reached crisis state. Several of Siegel's business and crime partners flew to [[Havana, Cuba]], for a meeting with mob boss [[Charles "Lucky" Luciano]]. Luciano had been directing American Mafia operations from Italy after being deported from the US. However, he was making a clandestine visit to Cuba when the Flamingo meeting was called. One of the main topics for discussion at the [[Havana Conference]] was ordering a hit on Siegel (who was unaware of this meeting). [[Meyer Lansky]], who several times owed his life to Siegel when they were young, took a stand against the hit. He begged the attendees to give Siegel a chance by waiting until after the casino opening. Luciano, who believed that Siegel could still make a profit in Las Vegas and pay back what he owed the Mafia investors, agreed to postpone the hit.

To placate his investors, Siegel opened his still-unfinished casino on the star-studded night of [[December 26]], [[1946]] (although he did not have as many [[Hollywood]] celebrities with him as he had hoped). Soon the Flamingo ran dry of entertainers and customers; it closed after only two weeks in order to resume construction. The fully operational Flamingo re-opened in March of 1947. Still dissatisfied, the casino's gangster investors once again met in Havana in Spring 1947 to decide whether to "liquidate" Siegel. Luckily for Siegel, the Flamingo had just turned a profit that month. Lansky again spoke up in support of his old friend and convinced Luciano to give Siegel one last chance.

==Death==
[[Image:Bugsydead.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Bugsy Siegel, supposedly shot cleanly through the eye, but actually shot in the cheek and nose.]]
Eventually, the world collapsed around Bugsy Siegel. The Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, his pet project, failed financially. Girlfriend Virginia Hill stole the money Siegel owed the mob and fled to [[Paris]], then [[Sweden]]. Unlike previous occasions, [[Meyer Lansky]] could no longer protect his dear friend Siegel from angry mob investors.

On the night of [[June 20]], [[1947]], Siegel was home alone at the Hill Mansion at 810 N. Linden Drive in Beverly Hills, reading the Los Angeles Times near the front window. Unknown to Siegel, a mob hit-man, (allegedly [[Eddie Cannizzaro]]), was hiding outside the mansion. At 10:45 pm the gunman shot through window many times with a U.S. military [[M1 carbine|M1 Carbine]], killing Bugsy Siegel. One of the .30-caliber bullets smashed the bridge of Siegel's nose, the impact and pressure blowing Siegel's left eyeball out of socket. The eyeball was intact, 14 feet away from the body. Though there were no witnesses to the shooting, the physiology of the wounds suggests that the 41-year-old Siegel died instantly.

The Siegel killing went unpunished; no one was ever charged with this bloody and much-photographed mob murder (newspaper standards of the time allowed the bodies of "mob" murder victims to be photographed in ways not allowed for the deaths of "respectable" citizens).

Though Siegel was actually not shot exactly through the eye (the eyeball would have been destroyed if this had been the case), the bullet-through-the-eye style of killing became popular in Mafia movies, called the "Moe Greene special"<ref>[http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/mob_bosses/the_godfather/7.html Crime Library]</ref> after the character [[Moe Greene]] was killed in this manner in ''[[The Godfather]]''. Siegel was hit by many other bullets from the 15 round carbine magazine, however, including shots through his lungs. A second bullet to his head which passed through his right cheek and through the back of his neck, would almost certainly have been fatal by itself. <ref>[http://www.americanmafia.com/Feature_Articles_166.html American Mafia Website]</ref><ref>[http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/s/bugsy/bugsyslab.jpg Bugsy's Bugsy's Death Picture]</ref>.

==Cultural references==
*In 1991, the life of Bugsy Siegel was the subject of the highly accurate motion picture ''[[Bugsy]]'', with [[Warren Beatty]] in the title role.

*Also in 1991, there was a film, [[Mobsters (film)|''Mobsters'']], about the early years of Bugsy Siegel, [[Lucky Luciano]], [[Meyer Lansky]], and [[Frank Costello]] starring [[Christian Slater]] as Lucky and with [[Richard Grieco]] as Bugsy.
[[Image:Bugsy'sPlaque.JPG|thumb|250px|right|Bugsy's memorial plaque in the [[Bialystoker Synagogue]] - On the plaques above see the name Max Siegel, Bugsy's father, whose Hebrew name is "Mordechai Dovid "Bar" (son of) Beirush HaLevi" (from the Hebraic tribe of the [[Levites]]) and the one for Bugsy whose Hebrew name is "Bairush HaLevi "Bar" Mordechai Dovid HaLevi"; implying that Bugsy was named after his grandfather who predeceased his birth.]]
*In the [[Bialystoker Synagogue]] on Manhattan's Lower East Side, Benjamin (Bugsy) Siegal is memorialized by a [[Bereavement in Judaism|Yartzheit]] (remembrance) plaque that marks his death date so mourners can say [[Kaddish]] for the anniversary of his passing. Bugsy's plaque is right below that of his father Max, who died just about two months prior to Bugsy's murder.
*In the song Do It Now by [[Mos Def]] and [[Busta Rhymes]], Mos mentions Bugsy when he says "Hotter than Reno when discovered by Bugsy Siegal"
*The character of [[Moe Greene]] in ''[[The Godfather]]'', who was murdered by a clean shot to the eye, was based on Siegel.

*In the show [[The Sopranos]], [[Brendan Filone]] is also executed with a bullet clean through the eye.

*[[Auric Goldfinger]], the villain of the Bond novel and film, personally is fond of shooting his victims exactly through the ''right'' eye, and does so with four organized crime leaders, at the end of the novel.

*In the movie ''[[Once Upon a Time in America]]'' (1984), the character of Joe Minaldi ([[Burt Young]]) is killed after being shot in the eye, similar to Siegel (the death scene was based on a postmortem photograph of Bugsy). Also, the character of Max ([[James Woods]]) reacts violently whenever someone calls him "crazy", similar to Siegel's reaction to his nickname of Bugsy. There is also a minor character named Bugsy (played by James Russo).

*Siegel was also portrayed by [[Harvey Keitel]] (who himself appeared in the ''[[Bugsy]]'' film as Mickey Cohen), in the 1973 TV movie ''[[The Virginia Hill Story]]'' and by [[Armand Assante]] in the 1991 film ''[[The Marrying Man]]''.

*The title of the song ''Mr. Siegal'' from the album [[Heartattack and Vine]] by [[Tom Waits]] refers to Bugsy Siegel.

*[[Tim Powers]] imagined Siegel as a modern-day [[Fisher King]] in his award-winning novel ''[[Last Call (novel)|Last Call]]''.

*In the 1981 NBC mini-series, ''The Gangster Chronicles'', [[Joe Penny]] was cast as Bugsy Siegel.

*The [[1999]] HBO made-for-TV movie [[Lansky_(film)|Lansky]], the character of Bugsy Siegel as an adult was played by [[Eric Roberts]].

*In the [[DC Universe|DC Comics universe]] Siegel killed the young partner of the first hero called [[Vigilante (comics)|The Vigilante]] and was pursued by him for years; it was Vigilante who finally shot him dead.

*Rapper [[Beanie Sigel]], government name Dwight Grant, is named after Siegel, in addition to the fact that he was born on Sigel St.

*In the Florentin area of [[Tel Aviv]], [[Israel]], a restaurant/bar called Bugsy is a popular restaurant and bar at night, and a cafe during the day.

*He hated the [[nickname]], '''Bugsy''' (said to be based on the [[slang]] term "bugs", meaning "crazy", and used to describe his sometimes erratic behavior), and wouldn't allow anyone to call him that to his face. His extraordinary partying earned him the title "King of the Sunset Strip."

*There is currently an online poker site, [[Bugsy's Club]], that is named after Siegel. The theme of the site is taken from his lifestyle.

*In the song [[2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted]] [[Snoop Dogg]] mentions Seigel saying "But my dream is to own a fly casino, like Bugsy Siegel and do it all legal"

==References==
<references />

==External links==
*[http://www.bugsysiegel.net/lair www.bugsysiegel.net], various information including a copy of Siegel's [http://www.bugsysiegel.net/deathcert.html death certificate]
*[http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/siege.htm FBI files on Siegel (2,421 pages, heavily censored)] From the FBI Freedom of Information Act.
*[http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=954 Bugsy Siegel] at [[Find-A-Grave]]
*[http://www.rest.co.il/sites/Default.asp?txtRestID=4904 Bugsy Restaurant]
*[http://www.roadsideamerica.com/sights/sightstory.php?tip_AttrId=%3D13488 Bugsy Siegel memorial in Las Vegas]


[[Category:French sculptors|Carpeaux, Jean-Baptiste]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Siegel, Benjamin Bugsy}}
[[Category:American murderers]]
[[Category:1827 births|Carpeaux, Jean-Baptiste]]
[[Category:Contract killers]]
[[Category:1875 deaths|Carpeaux, Jean-Baptiste]]
[[Category:Deaths by firearm in the United States]]
[[Category:Jewish American mobsters]]
[[Category:Murdered mobsters]]
[[Category:People from Brooklyn]]
[[Category:Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery]]
[[Category:1906 births]]
[[Category:1947 deaths]]


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Revision as of 01:07, 19 June 2007

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux's marble sculpture 'Ugolino and his Sons', Metropolitan Museum of Art
La Danse (The Dance), Opera Garnier in Paris
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux.

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (May 11, 1827, Valenciennes –October 12, 1875, Courbevoie) was a French sculptor and painter. His early studies were under François Rude. Carpeaux won the Prix de Rome in 1854, and moving to Rome to find inspiration, he there studied the works of Michelangelo, Donatello and Verrocchio. Staying in Rome from 1854 to 1861, he obtained a taste for movement and spontaneity, which he joined with the great principles of baroque art. In 1861 he made a bust of Princess Mathilde, and this later brought him several commissions from Napoleon III. He worked at the pavilion of Flora, and the Opéra Garnier. His group La Danse (the Dance, 1869), situated on the right side of the façade, was criticised as an offence to common decency.

He never managed to finish his last work, the famous Fountain of the Four Parts of the Earth, on the Place Camille Jullian. He did finish the terrestrial globe, supported by the four figures of Asia, Europe, America and Africa, and it was Emmanuel Frémiet who completed the work by adding the eight leaping horses, the tortoises and the dolphins of the basin.

Sculptures by Carpeaux

Neapolitan Fisherboy

Carpeaux submitted a plaster version of Pêcheur napolitain à la coquille, the Neapolitan Fisherboy, to the French Academy while a student in Rome. He carved the marble version several years later, showing it in the Salon exhibition of 1863. It was purchased for Napoleon III's empress, Eugènie. The statue of the young smiling boy was very popular, and Carpeaux created a number of reproductions and variations in marble and bronze. There is a copy, for instance, in the Samuel H. Kress Collection in the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.

Some years later, he carved the Girl with a Shell, a very similar study.

Carpeaux sought real life subjects in the streets and broke with the classical tradition. The Neapolitan Fisherboy's body is carved in intimate detail and shows an intricately balanced pose. Carpeaux claimed that he based the Neapolitan Fisherboy on a boy he had seen during a trip to Naples.

External links

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