who was VIRGINIA HALL
by
Sharon Hulihan
Virginia Hall‘s life was complicated but interesting. She went from being a farmer’s daughter in Alabama to a drug courier in Chicago for the Chicago Outfit (the mob). She moved to California, working in a Mafia-owned restaurant where she meant Jeffery Epstein, a mobster who introduced her to other mobsters and she ultimately meant Bugsy Siegel, a blue-eyed, handsome yet vicious enforcer and hitman for the Chicago Outfit.
She went from a farmer’s daughter to work for the Chicago Outfit to a spy for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Virginia Hall was one of the deadliest Allied spies during WWII.
Drug Dealer
It began in Chicago in the mid-thirties Hall was able to manipulate her way into the Chicago Outfit, an Italian-American organized crime syndicate. Virginia was a drug courier for the Chicago Outfit. Hall moved to California where she continued selling drugs.
Virginia became one of the first Hollywood drug dealers, her mainline was amphetamines. Judy Garland fell into the grip of addiction and became one of Virginia’s best clients.
Hollywood starlets’ main focus was staying thin for their next hopeful role, which made Hollywood a prime arena for taking advantage of dealing amphetamines.
Virginia Hall did grow up in an abusive family, with an alcoholic father who physically abused both Hall and her mother.
Well Education
Hall was a well-educated woman. She attended Columbia and George Washington Universities where she studied languages, specifically French, but she spoke four different languages.
After school ended, Hall went to work in a California restaurant that was owned by the mafia. It was there Hall meant Joseph Epstein. He introduced her to other mobsters, which began her lengthy mob career and love interest in mobsters, including; Bugsy Seigel.
Introduction to the Life of Crime
She was ” known as Bugsy Siegel’s girlfriend.” Siegel was a mobster known as an enforcer and hitman for the Chicago Outfit. Siegel was the driving force behind the development of the Flamingo hotel/casino in Las Vegas. The profits were in their first year were estimated to be roughly $4 million. The Outfit saw this as an opportunity to expand its operations in Las Vegas.
It was rumored that Seigel named the Flamingo after Virginia; she had such long, beautiful legs, and her flaming red hair reminded him of a flamingo. Siegel’s nickname for Virginia was “the Flamingo.”
Siegel had a fascination with gambling. He thought more hotels/casinos in the desert, the middle of nowhere, could be extremely profitable; thus, the Las Vegas Boulevard, better known as the “Strip” was born.
Amputee, Still a Force to be Reckoned With
Bugsy Siegel’s girlfriend Virginia Hall was an amputee. It happened when she was 27, she was hunting and she accidentally discharged the gun and shot herself in the foot. The doctor said, “There is too much damage, Gangrene has set in, we’ll have to amputate.”
Virginia Hall, “Limpy Lady,” as the Natzis called her, was still a force to be reckoned with; as the Nazis would soon find out.
World War II, Allied Spy
Hall was a woman with many faces, i.e. she was a spy for the Special Operations Executive (SOE), now known as the CIA, she was the deadliest spy during WWII. She had been trained in silencing sentries.
Her outer self, beautiful, seductive, and sultry woman didn’t show, “Who she really was.”
Virginia’s espionage skills were cleverly disguised as an everyday woman or a foreign Correspondent, all the while she was an Allied spy. Hall decoded and coded messages.
Impressive
After reading her biography, I was impressed by the things she had accomplished in her convoluted life: she studied at two prestigious universities, spoke four languages, was the first Allied Spy to operate in occupied France transmitting coded messages, the first woman to receive the Distinguished Service Cross; and the awards and medals are far too many prestigious medals to name.
Virginia risked her life many times during WWII. Hitler actually thought Hall was a man, that’s how good she was. A Natzi Gestapo said, ”We must find and destroy her.”
SUMMATION
Virginia Hall was a self-made hero.
Hall worked so hard achieving one medal after another. She really was a courageous and patriotic woman.
At the conclusion of WWII, Hall returned to her life in America still working for the SOE aka CIA and resumed her relationship with Bugsy Siegel.
Her boyfriend, Bugsy Siegel was murdered at Hall’s home in Beverly Hills on June 20, 1947, he was 41.
After reading the facts on Hall, would you consider Virginia Hall a good or bad person? Could she erase her past (hanging with the mob, witnessing hits, being a drug courier) with good deeds? Everyone will have an opinion on this, but that’s a question only you can decide and answer.
Have you given any thought to, “Is the syndicate still in operation in 2021? Do you think hitmen or enforcers today, just not visible as they were from the 20s through the 90s?”
It would be interesting to hear your opinion!
CITATIONS
Why the Nazis Called Virginia Hall the “Most Dangerous of All Allied Spies “
by That’s Interesting checked by John Kurosaki.
Internet articles on Bugsy Siegel
Internet articles on Virginia Hall
