Virginia Hill
Virginia Hill (1916-1966) was a US mob courier famous for being the only steady girlfriend of Hollywood gangster Bugsy Siegel.
Virginia Hill was born 1916 in Lipscomb, Alabama, to a large family with 10 children. The family later moved to Marietta, Georgia. Her mother later left her to take care of other children.
At the age of 17, Hill moved to Chicago to work as a dancer for 1933 World's Fair and later became a waitress. Later she met a gangster Joseph Epstein, lieutenant of mafia financier Jake Guzik, and became his mistress and party hostess. In the process she met the members of the gang of Al Capone. She also became a "bag woman", who traveled all over the country as a courier to move illegal money between mafia gangs. She later denied that but she bought a new home for her family in Marietta for $10.000 - in cash.
Later Hill became a mistress of Joe Adonis and organized extravagant parties in Mafia-owned Manhattan nightclubs.
In the 1940's 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 did not divorce his wife in States.
Hill maintained a lavish lifestyle also in Hollywood, bought her own mansion in Beverly Hills and entertained Hollywood celebrities there. Reputedly Hill blackmailed Hollywood celebrities to pay her to keep their private vices secret.
Siegel got into trouble with East Coast bosses when his Las Vegas project, The Flamingo, did not turn profit fast enough. East coast mob also suspected that he used Hill to transfer the money to Swiss bank account, serving as only his courier this time. After one of they fights, Hill left for Paris in June 10 1947 - ten days before Siegel was shot to death in her 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 would be aware of his mob connections. She claimed that "His mistress was that Las Vegas Hotel". When someone later suggested that she had helped Mafia to engineer his murder, she was indignant.
In 1951 Hill was summoned to testify for Kefauver hearings and denied having knowledge of mafia deals. She told investigators that her income come from gifts her boyfriends gave her because her prowess in oral sex. IRS determined that Hill had spent $500.000 without paying taxes and sued her. Hill proceeded to marry Sun Valley ski instructor Hans Hauser and moved with him to Europe. The IRS auctioned her house and property to pay for back taxes. Hill was later separated from her husband.
Hill spent her remaining years in Europe. In her last years her young son Peter, who worked as a waiter, supported her. She died of an overdose of sleeping pills, an apparent suicide, on Salzburg, Austria in March 1966.
