Jane Russell & Bugsy Siegel

Tonight I was going through my Dad's old papers when I came across the bit of a newsletter from the time we lived in the apartment owned by Jane Russell. The newsletter mentions a play Mrs. Russell will be staring in called, "Catch If You Can".

In my Dad's file were some other papers relating to our time at "Taos West". Before we moved Jane Russell sold the apartment complex to a couple who lived in Beverly Hills. When we moved they tried to retain a pet deposit I had put down for my dog. We filed a claim in small claims court to get the deposit back. Eventually the couple settled and returned the deposit and appears to have covered the court costs as well.

While looking through the court papers, the address of this couple in Beverly Hills jumped out at me, and I proceeded to see if my hunch was right. It was. It turns out the couple lived next door to the house where Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, the infamous Los Angeles gangster was killed.

My connection to old time Los Angeles organized crime continues to grow. In an earlier post I mentioned that when my family moved to Van Nuys, and settled near the corner of Sherman Way and Woodman, we were about two streets away from where the other notorious gangster, Mickey Cohen lived before he went to jail.