Family: We Know Who Killed Bugsy Siegel

Before dying of cancer, a 71-year-old realtor sat down with Los Angeles Magazine to make a startling claim: He knows who killed infamous mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel. What's more, he says, the gunman did it for love. The story goes back to the 1940s, when LA mobsters began buying up property in Las Vegas. History tells us that Siegel pioneered the Vegas power-grab with the help of business partner and childhood friend Moe Sedway. But it's Sedway's wife, Bee—a small, powerful woman with a hot temper—who claimed to know who gunned down Siegel in a hail of .30-caliber bullets in 1947. And her son, realtor Robbie Sedway, decided to reveal what she'd written in a book proposal that was never marketed. Why now? "I'm at the point where my health is not good," Robbie says. "Everyone’s been wondering for 67 years. I mean, why not?"

The long-held assumption is that mob boss Meyer Lansky had Siegel executed for over-spending, if not skimming, on the Vegas move. But Bee's book proposal says the real problem was Siegel wanted Sedway killed for reporting all the finances to Lansky. Enraged by the threat, Bee had her lover, Mathew "Moose" Pandza—a massive, soft-spoken crane operator—protect Sedway. Eventually, Moose would murder Siegel (with Lansky's approval) for threatening Sedway's life. Need a road map for all this? The key is that Moose, who lived with the Sedways in a love triangle, got involved because Bee wanted her husband to be safe. Moose later married Bee after Sedway died of multiple heart attacks in 1952. "It's a love story," says Robbie. At least that's Bee's version of events, which Los Angeles Magazine can't confirm but police aren't denying. "We're not releasing any information" on Moose's possible involvement "because it's still an open case," a Beverly Hills police rep tells People. "It's never been closed." (Read about a century-old Mafia killing that's apparently been solved.)