A Mafia hitman murdered gangster Bugsy Siegel, one of the driving forces in the development of the Las Vegas Strip, in Beverly Hills, California.

"Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other organized crime groups from Italy. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of disputes between criminals, as well as the organization and enforcement of illicit agreements between criminals through violence. Mafias often engage in secondary activities such as gambling, loan sharking, drug-trafficking, prostitution, and fraud.

Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel was a Jewish-American mobster who was a driving force behind the development of the Las Vegas Strip. Siegel was influential within the Jewish Mob, along with his childhood friend and fellow gangster Meyer Lansky; the Italian-American Mafia; and the largely Italian-Jewish National Crime Syndicate. Described as "handsome" and "charismatic," Siegel became one of the first front-page celebrity gangsters.

The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about 4.2 mi (6.8 km) long, and is immediately south of the Las Vegas city limits in the unincorporated towns of Paradise and Winchester, but is often referred to simply as "Las Vegas".

Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately 12.2 miles (19.6 km) northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hills' land area totals 5.71 square miles (14.8 km²) and is entirely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population of 32,701, marking a decrease of 1,408 from the 2010 census count of 34,109.