◆ SpookStack

Declassified Document Archive & Reader
Log In Register
Reader Ad Slot
Reader Ad Slot placeholder
If you would like to support SpookStack without paying out of pocket, please consider allowing advertising cookies. It helps cover hosting costs and keeps the archive free to browse. You can change this choice at any time.

Bugsy Siegel — Part 23

84 pages · May 23, 2026 · Broad topic: Organized Crime · Topic: Bugsy Siegel · 83 pages OCR'd
← Back to feed
‘ : penttes outage Los #uckiks LK M1 MEARS 7 ~ 20-7 ak etna at ey: - - ~— —_—_————— | — — [Isgconp LeTTER— { 1e second letter to Siegel tife same address was dated ber 6, 1937, on the letterh lof the Midway National Bank St. Paul and bore the signature jof the bank's president, A. L. Ritt, It follows: “Dear Mr, Siegel: At the re- quest of Mr. Charles Ward we are enclosing our draft No. 7128 in the amount of $80,000, drawn on the Guarantee Trust - Company of New York, pay- Ie to yourself. Will you kind- acknowledge receipt and for- vard same in the enclosed en- e| elope?” Ward is quoted as explainigg' i that the $100,000 was repaym@nt| of a loan from Siegel. When Siegel was tried at tos} |Angeles in 1940 for the killing of k “Murder, Inc.” gangster sus- ipected of giving information to the law, he was asked if he had] visited Ward at St. Paul at about| the time of the Bigelow death, $100,000 Paid ‘Bugsy’ by Rich Friend Probed| By Ray Richards Les Angeles Examiner Washi ‘Bureau WASHINGTON, July 19.—Payment in 1937 of $1 to Ben “Bugsy” Siegel, gangster, by*Charles Warp, tulti-millionaire president of a St. Paul calendar-mnakifg’ firm, has been placed under in-¢ ———_—_——— vestigation as an aftermath ofjPérforations which some of Siegel's recent gunshot death in/investigating officers insisted iCalifornia. . Jcould have been made only by Letters showing the paymentipunets, probably fired from a made to Siegel in two in-line on the shor iments have been scrutinized on the shore. jw Federal officers and turned| Ward inherited $1,000,000 from]; jover to the Los Angeles Police/Bigelow and soon succeeded him|: (Department, it was learned. as president of the firm, which The investigation has revived] " , the remarkable story of the rela-|25t year did a $21,000,000 busi- tions of Ward and- Herbert H.|PeSS: Bigelow of the big Brown and Bigelow advertising specialty, found by Federal officers in the } firm of St. Paul. investigation of Brooklyn's “Mur- The two met in the early 1920's|4er, Inc.,” of which Siegel was a las fellow convicts in the Federal/™member. penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kan. Bigelow was doing time|Signature | fraud, Ward forithe date of October 14, 1937, of| Fentiee aw Brown and Bigelow letterhead, | When Ward was released, Bige-|Was addressed to the gangster at w sent him to a job with the/328 South McCarty drive, Bev- reotics law violation. The letters to Siege! were The first letter, bearing th “Charles Ward” anj . When Bigelow regained hisjerly Hills, Calif, shortly after freedom, he raised Ward rapidiy|Siegel had become West Coast to a high position in the com-|representative of “Murder, Inc.” pany. BIGELOW KILLED——' In 1933 Bigelow and a woman! companion were killed on a lake jnear Bigelow's North We unting lodge. The bodies were never ed. Accidental drowning w: e final official theory, But th psized canoe was found wit) Ss) The letter follows: “Dear Ben: Enclosed find two Liberty bonds for $20,000, Sorry I couldn't make It $25,- 000, but as you know TI am ‘ort of cash on account of tock deals, Am lucky to hav enough to eat on. Hope tl will help.” He denied it, and the line of ques- tioning was not pursued. Siegel’s killers last month, and the reason for their act, remain’ known. = ‘Ward's career has been widely] blicized as one of the strang- t in American big business. orn at Seattle 60 years ago,| be crossed the Pacific many tim § a seaman, was a flunky in fevolt saloon, and joined th volutionary forces of Panch; ‘ila in Mexico. In 1919 he was arrested for a areotics law violation at Elf Paso and met his benefactor at \Leavenworth as the result of that misadventure. Owner of a big farm at Hudson, ;Wig., Ward was for several years| !to by some publications as polit c boss of St. Paul as well. i ‘JUL 81 i5s pee
OCR quality for this page
Community corrections
First editor: none yet Last editor: none yet
No user corrections yet.
Comments
Document-wide discussion. Follow the Community Standards.
No comments on this document yet.
Bottom Reader Ad Slot
Bottom Reader Ad Slot placeholder
If you would like to support SpookStack without paying out of pocket, please consider allowing advertising cookies. It helps cover hosting costs and keeps the archive free to browse. You can change this choice at any time.

Continue Exploring

Use the strongest next step for this document: continue reading, jump to the topic hub, or move into the matching agency collection.
Continue Reading at Page 72
Jump straight to page 72 of 84.
Reader
Bugsy Siegel — Part 32
Stay inside Bugsy Siegel with another closely related document.
Topic
FBI Documents & FOIA Archive
Open the FBI agency landing page for stronger archive context.
FBI
Bugsy Siegel Topic Hub
See the topic overview, related documents, and linked subtopics.
Hub

Agency Collection

This document also belongs in the FBI Documents & FOIA Archive landing page, which is the stronger starting point for agency-level browsing and for searches focused on FBI records.
FBI Documents & FOIA Archive
Open the agency landing page for introduction text, topic links, and more FBI documents.
FBI

Explore This Archive Cluster

This document belongs to the Organized Crime archive hub and the more specific Bugsy Siegel topic page. Use these hub pages when you want the broader collection context, linked subtopics, and more documents around the same archive thread.
fbi bureau federal bureau
Related subtopics
Al Capone
73 documents · 4896 known pages
Subtopic
Carlo Gambino
28 documents · 3064 known pages
Subtopic
Carmine Galante
24 documents · 2490 known pages
Subtopic
Abner Zwillman
12 documents · 1057 known pages
Subtopic
Albert Anastasia
9 documents · 391 known pages
Subtopic
Arthur Flegenheimer Dutch Schultz
6 documents · 166 known pages
Subtopic