Virginia Hill
If Hollywood needs a rags-to-riches story that also involves the mob and various gangsters, they should look no further than Virginia Hill. She has a modest background as she grew up in rural Alabama as a normal child, but life led her to become a mob mistress, first in Chicago and later in Los Angeles.
While most will not think much of her, she made use of the fact that she was pretty, and most men found her attractive and not only made a name for herself but also ran with the most dangerous gang leaders of the 30s and 40s. Not many manage to do that and live to tell the tale. She did all types of jobs, from being a heroin trafficker and money launderer to working as a cash courier and informant, just to name a few of the things she used to do!
If you do remember her from old stories, then it may be because she was the lover of Brooklyn mobster Bugsy Siegel, and after the man was killed, mafias all around thought they had no more use for her. To get her revenge, she testified against various crime syndicates and made her testimony as obnoxious as possible. Her notoriety ended with the televised testimony, which is what brought her into the public eye, as not many knew who she was and what she did beforehand.
7 Responses
Yes I have heard of them All
They should make a movie all about these women and how they started especially Stephanie st.clair
I love stories like this
Thank you for this fascinating article about female mafia heads from gangster history. I found it interesting when you mentioned that there are numerous female mafia heads who ran successful crime empires. This read compels me to learn more, so I’ll definitely find a mafia historical site in my area to satisfy my curiosity.
You forgot to include Hillary Clinton
Interesting that they went into the 1990s, and yet failed to mention Hillary Clinton… She had a daughter by a family friend in retaliation for her husband’s multiple infidelities… Everyone that opposed her “committed suicide”, one by stabbing himself in the back 12 times in a public park… And, of course Ron Brown who was about to destroy her Golden Goose, by reporting to Newt Gingrich, when he returns to Washington after giving our Nuclear Missile Guidance System Blueprints to China, in thanks for reElection funds… He died in a plane crash on the way back, in which, as they reported “Everyone died”, but in truth there was only 1 body at the crash site, Ron Brown, with a bullet in the back of his head… The Investigator of the site was moved to a different department, when the cover story made news… 2 years later, she, the Investigator, managed to steal the sealed file and open it live on CNN showing pictures of her and her Assistant at the crashsite, as well as Ron Brown and the bullet hole, for 10 minutes, then it disappeared… The Clintons were still in the Whitehouse…
I don’t know if you would consider Patty Cannon of Sussex County De a gangster but she was a illegal slave trader a serial killer and the co-leader of the Cannon-Johnson gang of Md and De.