William Wilkerson - Hiding in Paris

Hiding in Paris

The dream project had become Wilkerson's worst nightmare. Instead of waiting for Siegel to act on his gruesome threat, he decided instead to avoid the gangster. All future communications between himself and Siegel were conducted through their respective attorneys and emissaries.

Wilkerson took further steps to secure his safety by catching the first flight to New York, where he boarded an ocean liner, the Ile de France, bound for France. From the French port of Le Havre he made his way by car to Paris, where he booked into the plush Hotel George V under a pseudonym. His whereabouts were kept secret from all but a few.

Wilkerson's plan was simple: he would wait in Paris until things cooled down. He predicted, as he had for months, that once Siegel's partners learned about his lavish spending and excesses, it would only be a matter of time before they fired Siegel. There would then be a change of management under which Wilkerson would retain his interest and would once again be re-instated as creative director. He would then complete his hotel without interference.

In an attempt to accelerate the process, Wilkerson ran ads in The Hollywood Reporter publicizing the hotel's true cost. These lavish full-page ads boasted that the Flamingo had cost more than $5 million. If the syndicate had not already known how much the Flamingo had cost them, they certainly knew now.

In mid-February 1947, Wilkerson reluctantly came to the conclusion that the Flamingo was never going to be his. Until then he had assumed that nobody would take a psychotic gangster seriously. But as the weeks dragged on, he realized he was wrong. Wilkerson set his sell-out price at $2,000,000. He also insisted on a signed document legally exonerating him from all financial responsibilities in the venture and releasing him completely from any further obligations to the corporations.

Finally, on March 19, both Siegel and G. Harry Rothberg signed a formal Release of All Demands releasing Wilkerson from the Nevada Project Corporation. This document effectively absolved Wilkerson from any wrongdoing in the project. He was to receive partial payment of $300,000 for his interest in early May, with the remaining half three months later in August.

A week later Wilkerson returned to Hollywood. Tony Cornero's pale-blue bullet-proof Cadillac became his transportation of choice. The publisher had not been back more than a few days when his general manager put an urgent phone call through to him. The anonymous female caller hysterically begged Wilkerson to leave town immediately. Her husband, newly paroled, had been contracted to kill him. Wilkerson must have found the call convincing because within forty-eight hours he was heading back to Paris.

In late April, Wilkerson received confirmation from his attorney that his interest had been transferred to the Nevada Project Corporation. He took two weeks off and spent time doing the things he found pleasurable in Paris. Wilkerson saw the sights, went shopping and visited Moulin Rouge. At night he strolled the city's streets, enjoying the outdoor music. Wilkerson was even comfortable enough to reveal his whereabouts; he now made it no secret he was corresponding from France - his daily Tradeviews were by-lined from the capital.

By late May, Wilkerson was thinking of returning home for good when his general manager called him with a mysterious warning. George Kennedy relayed the contents of an anonymous phone call he had received advising him to tell his employer to remain in Paris until "it was over". Without identifying himself, the caller had hung up abruptly after delivering the message.

Nearly one month later, on the morning of Saturday, June 21, Wilkerson bought his newspaper, sat down at a sidewalk cafe and ordered a Coke. When he unfolded the paper, he saw the article of Siegel's death and immediately returned to his hotel. Waiting for him was a cable from his general manager in Hollywood.

Wilkerson packed his bags and returned to Los Angeles on June 23, 1947.