From Bugsy Siegel: The Dark Side of the American Dream In L.A., he called himself a sportsman. It was a title that suggested wealth and social prominence: an owner of racehorses, or a big-game hunter. For Siegel, it was a euphemism for gambling, with a little extortion and the occasional killing thrown in. But he was reinventing himself in the town of reinvention, a most American enterprise. ... He seemed, at the track, something of a wastrel. But he had ambitions. "Damned few people knew what made him tick," [actor George] Raft said later of [his friend Ben] Siegel. "But I did. He came out here because he wanted to be somebody." Book jacket.