Martin Parelman, former owner of the house where Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel purportedly lived during construction of the Flamingo, talks with neighbor Mark Alexander at the house, now on Helm Drive. Siegel was the famed gangster who developed the Flamingo. Photo by K.M. Cannon. A rear view of the Helm Drive property, now in disrepair. The small room protruding from the back is consistent with an old photo depicting what some say was Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel's bungalow. Photo by K.M. Cannon. The interior of the house is shown on Wednesday. Vandals have defaced the property, and thieves have stolen copper piping from inside. Photo by K.M. Cannon. Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel Gangster played key part in development of Las Vegas

If Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel could see what vandals had done to the house he is said to have once lived in on the Flamingo hotel grounds, including ripping the copper piping out of the walls to sell for scrap, Don Taylor is certain what the late mobster would do: "Shoot them and then throw them into a copper-smeltering vat so their bodies would never be found."

What the Flamingo's gangster developer, who was gunned down in his girlfriend's living room in 1947 at the age of 41, might do if he came back to life has become a point of interest for Taylor and other Bugsy aficionados now that his Las Vegas party house is about to be rubbed out just as he was.

How imminent is the demise of the house that the mobster purportedly lived in as the Flamingo was being built?

A spokesman for the new owners of the property, New York-based Restaurant Depot, a food wholesaler catering to restaurants, thought the execution already had been carried out.

But asbestos, often a killer in its own right, has caused a stay.

"We haven't torn it down yet because we have to carefully get rid of the asbestos first," said demolition expert Steve Hbizdos, stressing that the asbestos building material used in the house, now near McCarran International Airport, can cause serious diseases, including cancer, if inhaled.

Taylor can't believe the house once occupied by a man who killed and raped and robbed and dreamed his way to fame and fortune is on its deathbed.

"Why would Las Vegas let the place where one of its founders once lived just die?" he said.

Taylor said he once lived in Bugsy's bungalow, which he said his late father, George, moved from the Flamingo in 1983 to a spot near the airport, 1500 Helm Drive.

"This is part of the story of Las Vegas," he said.

Although that's not in doubt, whether this part of the Las Vegas story is historical fact can't be determined by official records. Mark Schofield, the Clark County assessor, notes the house "never shows up" as owned by Siegel in county records.

Al Alexander, a 75-year-old former Clark County building inspector, doesn't care what the records don't reveal.

"I know what I saw with my own eyes," Alexander said as he stood last week outside the dilapidated residence now encircled by warehouses and office buildings.

"When I was a teenager, I had a friend whose dad put in plaster at the Flamingo. We went over there frequently in 1946 with his dad and got to go swimming because of Mr. Siegel. He told the guys in security to let us swim or they might have a problem.

"I personally watched Mr. Siegel take beautiful women in and out of this house. He knew how to have a party. And then years later I saw George Taylor, who once worked with me in inspections at the county and later for the Flamingo as its construction coordinator, move this house on his property off of Helm Drive. George liked the fact that Mr. Siegel once lived in that house. I know what I saw."

Schofield said there is no reason to disbelieve Alexander.

"Whether we like what he was or not, Siegel helped put Las Vegas on the map," Schofield said. "The house should be part of a historical site."

Officials at the Flamingo Las Vegas, which has gone through several owners and is now run by Harrah's Entertainment, don't appear to be interested in pushing for any more of a historical connection between Siegel and the South Strip property.

Currently, there is a stone memorial and a plaque recognizing Siegel near a rose garden in the back of the hotel.

"I've never heard that story (about Siegel living in a bungalow on the Flamingo grounds)," said Deanna Pettit, the Flamingo's director of public relations.

She advised the Review-Journal to consult historians.

David Millman, curator of history at the Nevada State Museum and Historical Society, said it is difficult for historians to know just how much credence to put in claims that the bungalow belonged to Siegel.

"There's no record of it happening," he said. "There's no deed that he bought a house. There's no listing in a phone book.

"That doesn't mean it didn't happen. There's no official record to verify it. We had one or two people to say that was the case, but there is no way to verify it."

Millman suggested that Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, once the mob's top lawyer, probably would be interested in saving the house for a planned new museum.

"The mayor wants to note the mob's part in helping building Las Vegas," Millman said.

Goodman has pushed for a downtown museum highlighting the city's colorful history at the Post Modern building, a historic post office west of City Hall that is under renovation.

Although options for the building include a "behind the scenes" look at gambling and a museum dedicated to icons such as Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra, Goodman long has said he believed a historical tribute to the Mafia would be most successful.

Jace Radke, a spokesman for Goodman, said the mayor probably would be interested in the house but was too busy with other projects to comment.

Martin Parelman, who purchased the property from the Taylor family in 1996 and sold it to Restaurant Depot last year, said he finds it incredible that lovers of Las Vegas history would be too busy to try to save Siegel's house.

As he stood outside the house, he showed a picture from the 1950s of the Flamingo complex that he says shows where Siegel lived and partied.

From a distance, the two structures appear dissimilar.

The original, old photo of the Flamingo grounds appears to show a two-story structure while the Helm Drive building is one story.

But Parelman looked at an enlarged image of the house as it was at the Flamingo and pointed out that it indeed is a single story and has similar features, including the shape of the main residence and a front awning.

He also pointed out that there is a back room protruding from the rear of both houses.

"I'm tired of revisionist historians trying to deny that Bugsy played a large role in making Las Vegas what it is," he said.

Just how big a role Siegel played in creating the Las Vegas of today is open to debate.

The Flamingo wasn't even his brainchild. Nor was the house that Al Alexander saw him living in on the Flamingo grounds as the hotel was being built.

The entire complex was the idea of Hollywood nightclub owner Billy Wilkerson, one of the founders of "The Hollywood Reporter." But by the mid-1940s, when money was a problem for Wilkerson, Siegel was more than happy to step in and use mob money to develop what he was sure would be a money-making gambling machine for the underworld.

At first, construction delays and theft made the Flamingo a $6 million dud.

What helped drive up the cost was Siegel's obsession with security.

Four-inch-thick concrete walls were reinforced by steel brought in from military shipyards, presumably to stop bullets from machine-gun toting rivals.

Joyce Odessky, the widow of Dick Odessky, said last week that her husband, a former public relations official at the Flamingo, couldn't see Siegel "living in anything that wasn't like a fortress, even temporarily."

In other words, why would Siegel stay in a simple bungalow?

Parelman, who said his grandfather used to party with Siegel, said there is an easy explanation: because there was nothing fortified in Las Vegas until he came around.

As he walked inside the rundown Helm Drive house last week, Parelman pointed out custom-built commodes that "would have cost $1,500, even way back then."

Vandals haven't been able to strip all the black tile away from the bathrooms, nor were they able to get rid of the trapdoor that Don Taylor is sure led from the house to the hotel.

Taylor said a big reason his father purchased the house for him and others to live in was linked to Siegel's notoriety. He can't hide his frustration about the thought that the house could meet a fate similar to its once notorious occupant.

Here was a man, he said, who was acquainted with actors such as Cary Grant and Jean Harlow and who died in a way that would forever link him and Las Vegas.

An assassin fatally shot Siegel while he sat in the Los Angeles living room of B-list actress Virginia Hill. One of his blue eyes was blown out of its socket in such a way that it appeared to be able to survey the murder scene from the floor.

"So much of Bugsy's life was memorable," Taylor said. "When he was killed that way, Las Vegas was really in the news."

Taylor is bitter about the vandalism and the thieves who have stolen copper from the house.

"I feel like killing them myself," he said, adding Siegel would have done the same.

"He liked to do his killing with a touch of class," Taylor said.