# FBI memorandum on pulling the technical surveillances at Las Vegas (23 August 1946)

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/fbi-vault-siegel-p02-technicals-pulled-1946-08-23/

An FBI office memorandum of August 23, 1946 recording that all "technicals" in the Siegel case at Las Vegas were pulled on the evening of August 22 after trouble on the long-distance line at the Las Vegas Club.

Scan 106 of the FBI Vault's "Bugsy Siegel" file, Part 02, is an office memorandum to Mr. E. A. Tamm from A. Rosen dated August 23, 1946, subject "Benjamin 'Bugs' Siegel, Information Concerning Crime Survey." A handwritten note says "Call 11:35 A.M." Large parts of the "Facts" and "Observation" sections are blacked out. The text was read from the page image stored here.

The memo opens: "Mr. Ostholthoff, Los Angeles, advised that it had been necessary to pull all technicals in this case located at Las Vegas during the evening of August 22, 1946." It says the trouble "had occurred on the long distance line at the Las Vegas Club," that "apparently something went wrong with the machine because when Agents were playing it back it was going back out," and that all technicals were immediately pulled. The Bureau's later summary of January 14, 1947 uses the phrase "technical surveillances" for the equipment kept at Las Vegas and Los Angeles during the Siegel investigation, and this page does not explain the term further.

The recommendation reads: "It is recommended that a qualified sound man be dispatched by the Bureau to Las Vegas for the purpose of determining the exact cause of the difficulty." The memo describes an equipment problem and the Bureau's response. It does not state what was recorded.

## Sources

- FBI Records: The Vault: https://vault.fbi.gov/Bugsy%20Siegel%20/Bugsy%20Siegel%20Part%2002/view