The Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas has a documented history of owners and key operators dying within a decade of ending their connection to the property, a pattern that has held across eight decades. The first owner, mobster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, was shot to death in 1947 less than a year after opening the resort he bankrolled with organized crime money. Siegel’s vision transformed the dusty Nevada railroad town into a destination for luxury gambling. He promised investors a $1 million project, but construction costs spiraled past $4 million.
The casino’s rough December 1946 opening lost money heavily, though a March 1947 reopening finally made it profitable. Two months later, Siegel was killed by nine gunshots fired through a window of his girlfriend’s Beverly Hills home. The murder was never officially solved. Gus Greenbaum, who took over operations for the mob, ran the Flamingo successfully for more than a decade.
He developed a heroin addiction, began skimming, and was killed along with his wife in Phoenix in 1958. Other early investors tied to the property died of heart attacks or other causes within years of taking a stake, including Moe Sedway in 1952 and Morris Rosen in 1956. When the property moved into corporate ownership, the nature of the deaths shifted but the timeline did not. Kirk Kerkorian bought the Flamingo in 1967 and sold it five years later.
He lived until age 98, dying nine years after severing his final business ties connected to the property in 2006. Henry Gluck, Caesars World CEO, died in 2008, nine years after the company’s connection to the Flamingo ended. Phil Satre, who negotiated Harrah’s purchase of the property, died in 2012, nine years after leaving his post. More recent figures connected directly to daily operations also fit the pattern.
John Unwin, general manager from 2006 to 2011, died in 2019 of a stroke, eight years after leaving. Eileen Moore, a senior vice president overseeing the property from 2008 to 2014, died in 2022 of breast cancer, also eight years later. A former assistant general manager who worked at the Flamingo from 2012 to 2015 died in 2023 of a brain aneurysm. Proposed explanations range from the paranormal to the methodological.
Some point to possible burial grounds on the site, or to Siegel’s ghost. A statistical analysis cited in the material suggests the mortality rate among those who directly owned or operated the Flamingo within 10 years of leaving is over 70 percent, far above normal expectations. The property is still owned by Caesars Entertainment, though industry observers note that general managers now serve much shorter tenures than at other Las Vegas casinos. A rumored $3.
2 billion sale to a Chinese consortium fell through in 2017 after the lead investor toured the property, with the buyer later saying only that some opportunities are too expensive even when the price seems right.