Bugsy Siegel Memorial

Las Vegas, Nevada

For a long time the only place in Las Vegas formally acknowledging The Mob was this, a bronze plaque at the end of an open-air fuchsia canopy, set in front of the Flamingo Hotel-Casino wedding chapel -- a unique spot for a bridal party portrait. Today Vegas offers mob museums and tours, but this is still an important landmark.

Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel opened the original Flamingo in 1946, which stood where the garden and swimming pool of the new Flamingo now sprawl. It was the most luxurious and large -- 77 rooms -- Las Vegas resort of its day, and its eventual success helped pave the way for the 4,000+ room behemoths that currently line The Strip.

Bugsy was no fool; he stayed in a "Presidential Suite" outfitted with bulletproof windows and a secret ladder that led from the closet to the underground garage, where a getaway limo was always waiting. But he let his guard down eventually, and it was during one of those moments that he was gunned down in his girlfriend's Beverly Hills home, only six months after the Flamingo had opened.