Virginia Hill
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Virginia Hill (August 26, 1916 - March 24, 1966) was a Chicago Outfit courier who was famous for being the steady girlfriend of Los Angeles mob boss and Genovese crime family associate Bugsy Siegel, following the breakdown of his marriage.
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[edit] Early life
Virginia Hill was born 1916 in Lipscomb, Alabama, one of 10 siblings. The family later moved to Marietta, Georgia. Her mother later left her to take care of other children.
[edit] Mob Girl
At the age of 17, Hill moved to Chicago, allegedly to work as a prostitute at the 1933 World's Fair and later became a waitress. During this time, she met a mobster named Joseph Epstein, a ranking associate of Chicago Outfit political corruptor Jake Guzik. Hill allegedly became Epstein's mistress, party hostess, and a co-conspirator in his bookmaking ring. In the process she became a close associate of several high-ranking Outfit mobsters. She was eventually the mistress of Frank Costello, Frank Nitti, Charles Fishetti and Joe Adonis. She also became a "bag woman", and funnelled Outfit funds into Swiss 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.
[edit] Bugsy
In the 1940s Hill moved to California, met Bugsy 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 in Mexico 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 in Beverly Hills and entertained Hollywood celebrities there. Reputedly Hill blackmailed several Hollywood celebrities with information about their private vices.
[edit] Las Vegas
Siegel got into trouble with his superiors in New York City's Genovese 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 his Mafia investors for millions of dollars. It was further believed that he was using Hill to transfer the money to Swiss bank accounts, serving as only his courier this time.
[edit] Murder in LA
After one of their many fights, Hill left for Paris on June 10, 1947. Ten days later, Siegel was shot to death inside her Los 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 the Genovese 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.
[edit] The Kefauver Hearings
In 1951, Hill was subpoenaed to testify before the Kefauver hearings and denied having any knowledge of organized crime. She told investigators that her income came from gifts her boyfriends gave her due to her sexual prowess. [1]
[edit] 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 to Europe. The IRS seized her house and property and auctioned them off for back taxes.
[edit] 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 pills, an apparent suicide, in Koppel, near Salzburg, Austria on 24 March 1966. Her body was found in a lone area by a bridge crossing the "Alterbach", a small stream. She was 49 years old.
[edit] 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 boss Joe 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 the Mexican drug cartels. [2]
She is buried in Aigen Cemetery in Salzburg, Austria.
[edit] In Popular Culture
Hill is played by Annette Bening in the film Bugsy.
[edit] References
- ^ Time magazine reported in its obituary of Hill on 1 April 1966, that Hill spent her time on the witness stand "boggling Senators with her full-grown curves and succinct explanation of just why men would lavish money on a hospitable girl from Bessemer, Ala."
- ^ Compare the Salzburger Nachrichten, Salzburger Volksblatt (defunct since 1979) and the illustrated newspaper Bunte made by Burda - Offenburg in Germany from spring 1966.
[edit] Further reading
- Edmonds, Andy. Bugsy's Baby : The Secret Life of Mob Queen Virginia Hill. Secaucus, New Jersey: Carol Publishing Group, 1993. ISBN 1559721642
[edit] External links
- Virginia Hill at Find A Grave
- [1] at Excerpt of testimony
