the check. While in New York, she was introduced to another Luciano associate, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, and they ended up in a hotel together that night. Later Siegel's and Hill's separate life paths brought them both to Hollywood, and they began a torrid affair. There were rumors that she and Siegel were secretly married in Mexico after Siegel divorced his wife Esta in 1946, but there has not been any evidence to prove the theory. Flamingo founder Billy Wilkerson actually named the Flamingo, long before Benjamin Siegel got involved. Urban legend has it wrong that Siegel named the Flamingo Las Vegas resort after Hill, who liked to gamble and whose nickname was supposedly "Flamingo," a moniker that Siegel was said to have given her, referring to her long, thin legs, but others have said that she was in fact short and somewhat matronly in form. Another story about the origin of the nickname said that after a few drinks, her face would flush a flamingo-like pink. However, organized crime king Lucky Luciano wrote in his memoir that Siegel once owned an interest in the Hialeah Park Race Track and viewed the local flamingo population as a good omen. The "Flamingo" name was given to the project at its inception by original resort financier Billy Wilkerson. Four days before Siegel was assassinated at Hill's home in California (June 1947), she took an unscheduled flight to Paris, France, giving rise to speculation that she was warned of Siegel's impending murder. In 1950, she married Hans Hauser, an Austrian skier (and head of the Sun Valley, Idaho Ski School); later giving birth to their only child, Peter Hauser (1950–1994). In 1951, she was subpoenaed to testify before the Kefauver hearings, where she denied having any knowledge of organized crime despite being described by Time magazine in March of that year as the "queen of the gangsters' molls." After Hill was indicted for income tax evasion in 1954, she moved to Europe, where she lived for the rest of her life with her son. Death and legacy Hill committed suicide by an overdose of sleeping pills in Koppl, near Salzburg, Austria, on March 24, 1966 at the age of 49. She is buried in Aigen Cemetery in Salzburg. According to Andy Edmonds' biography Bugsy's Baby: The Secret Life of Mob Queen Virginia Hill, her death was suspicious despite it being an apparent suicide. The