Bugsy Erikson

"*I provide support and my company for the government to fight in the war and this is the thanks I get? A fucking FBI investigation?!*"
— **Bugsy Erikson**

**Michael Donald Erikson** (January 18, 1998—June 20, 2021), also known as **Bugsy Erikson**, was a American mobster. Erikson was one of the most "infamous and feared gangsters of his day." Described as handsome and charismatic, he became one of the first front-page-celebrity gangsters of his generation. He was also a driving force behind the development of the Blaine Strip. Erikson was not only influential within the Jewish mob, but like his friend and fellow gangster James Siegel, he also held significant influence within the Italian-American Mafia and the largely Jewish-Italian National Crime Syndicate.

Erikson was one of the founders and leaders of Erikson-Siegel Incorporated and became a bootlegger during the Second Prohibition. In mid-2018, Erikson and several other gangsters were tried for the murder of rival gangster Logan Russel, after one of the accomplices turned informant. Erikson was acquitted in late-2018.

Erikson traveled to New York and Atlantic City, where he handled and financed some of the casinos. In Erichsburg, he assisted his godfather in the building of the Flamingo, the Park Plaza Hotel, and the 111 Club. In Los Angeles, he assisted Siegel and Mickey Cohen in the building of the Blue Room.

As of 2021, his net worth was $98.1 billion. He was also politically active in American politics having backed Presidents Michael Shea and Jim Marshall and ran for mayor of Erichsburg in 2020.

He was eventually murdered on June 20, 2021, in his own home by a hitman with a M1 Carbine rifle.

## Early life

Donald Michael "Bugsy" Erikson was born on January 18, 1998 in New York, as Michael Donald Erikson. Three days later, Jewish mobster Benjamin Siegelbaum III became his godfather. His father, Frederick, was an American restaurant entrepreneur from New York and his mother, Teresa, was from Erichsburg.

He is also the cousin of Jewish-Spanish mobster Mickey Hymen. He is currently a soldier in the Siegel crime family. His family routes can be traced back to Ireland, Germany and Holland. His maternal-great-great granduncle was James "Biff" Ellison, Five Points Gang lieutenant and leader of the Gopher Gang in New York. He hHis great-granduncle was a bootlegger in Detroit and the Blaine county area during Prohibition. He had several distant relatives that were in World War I. His maternal grandfather became friends with Benjamin Siegel in the '50s but never became associated with his business since he was more peaceful than Siegel was. He was also a friend of Jimmy Hoffa and his wife. Growing up, because of his godfather's connections to the mob and Hollywood, knew a lot of stars, singers, and models.

After he death of Benjamin Siegel, his mother and father moved to Erichsburg where their legitimate family lived. His mother died of an overdose at the age of 14, this caused Erikson to become severely depressed and abused prescription drugs and alcohol. He turned his life away from prescription drugs and lessened his alcohol usage when he saw what it did to his father too and they both went to rehab.

He became friends with future mobsters and policemen growing up, including: Douglas Wood, Antoine Reeder, Markus Jackson, John Reeves, James Gordon, Giovanni Ellisimo, James Ellis, Rick Paine, Alicia Tan, Mike Salerno, Antonio Sierriano and Al and Mike DiNapoli.

### High school

By the time Erikson was in high school, he had been in Erichsburg for nine years. He started several rackets in his high school, including: an extortion, a gambling, and a drug racket. It was around this time that Erikson protected James Siegel from the Bowe gang and survived a hit in late 2013.

It was around his junior year in high school that he started touring with several famous rappers.

That same year, Erikson started dating a sophomore cheerleader from another high school.

#### Rackets

During high school, Bugsy ran several rackets in and outside of his school, including: gambling, extortion, protection and fighting. These rackets earned him and several of his friends small fortunes.

#### Erikson-Dominico power struggle

In 2014, Eriksonand his friends started were engaged in a power struggle for the gangs of Erichsburg with Sicilian mafioso Joe Dominoes after a failed attempt on Dominico's life. On September 28, Erikson, Siegel, Antoine Reeder, and Douglas Wood stabbed and shot to death Dominico and his guard.

During the war, he ordered several hits on men who would take up the throne of boss of the Dominico clan and survived several attempts on his life thanks to his guards Tony Russo and Rocco Tettore.

After the defeat of the Dominico gang, other supporters of Dominico tried to take his spot and attempted to eliminate the opposition (Erikson). These gangs would be led by Tommy Pegorino and Douglas Knight. Erikson performed Pegorino's murder and ordered Antoine Reeder to murder Knight.

#### Legitimate businesses

During high school, Erikson also had several legitimate businesses. They included nightclubs, such as: the 111 Club, Slapsie Maxies and the Blue Room. He also had a few high-end hotels, including the Park Plaza Hotel. And also had legitimate casinos, such as: the Flamingo, the Casino, and the Stardust. He also had a few restaurants and several bars.

He had become known for his good business practices and having good morale for the people who worked for him at legitimate businesses. He thought that being good to his workers and customers was good for business and thought that helping the community would help him in the long run. He even became known for giving his workers huge gifts when it came to weddings, engagements, birthdays and even long periods of time off during times of distress for his workers like after the death of a family member or friend. This made him look pure to the community and often helped his public image and at trials with the juries.

## ISIS Raids

*Main article: ISIS Raids*

In 2014,

## Expansion

### Move to New York and war

*Main articles: Erikson-Wilson War and Erikson-Belov War*

When Erikson made a move to New York, some of his new lieutenants thought it would be a good idea to move into the prostitution business. Local madame Delilah Wilson heard this and decided to give a warning to those that thought could move in on her territory. **(Still in progress)**

After the end of the Erikson-Wilson war, Russian mob boss Leonid Belov had his hitmen kill a caporegime and several soldiers in his crew in Harlem; Belov also ordered the death of a close childhood friend of Donald's in Erichsburg. This enacted a war between the Erikson family, the Gambino family (whom the caporegime was a cousin of the family's underboss), the Tasarov bratva and the Belov mob.

After done expanding his empire in New York, he felt that the prostitution "business" was ethically immoral, even though his chosen lifestyle included that of murder, and disbanded the rackets in each of the cities.

### Move to Empire Bay

After his move into New York, Erikson and his lieutenants decided it would be very profitable if they expanded into Empire Bay. Unlike New York, Erikson didn't receive any backfire and he made relations with the Triads, Boomers, Irish and Italian families. There he became best friends with the leadership of the Scaletta crime family (Tony Scaletta, Johnny Barbaro and Dominic Tommasino).

## Personal life

On May 14, 2017, Erikson captain Vito Genna became father to a son--Angelo Genna--and Erikson became his godfather. Erikson was still dating his girlfriend from high school by his death in 2021, and two months before his death, they got engaged.

Donald and his fiancé had a daughter together in 2020.

## Erikson-Richardson War

*Main article: Erikson-Richardson War*

In August of 2018,

### Russ murder and trial

During the trial, Erikson's violent past came out and the newspapers called him "Bugsy Ellison" (Bugsy because of his irradical behavior during the mob wars, like doing his own hits and getting mad easily, and because of a typo in case documents which led the media to call him "Ellison" instead of Erikson). After it was revealed that it was a typo and his great-granduncle was a bootlegger with the last name of Ellison the media just kept to it for the rest of his life.

## World War III

In 2018, Nazi Germany and its allies declared war on the Allies and the Allied hired the company to be on its side during the war. Erikson had also taken a personal part in the war, having been in several battles himself with his ESI soldiers to boost morale. This had been a significant boost in morale having the soldiers see their leader fight with them whom they thought of as invincible. Erikson had also sustained multiple wounds during the war also.

During the war, he also created the ESI Protection Squadron to serve as an enforcement and stormtrooper wing of the German faction of ESI during the war. He also became friends with several soldiers and leaders in the company during the war.

During World War III, Erikson also became involved with the Scarpa family's smuggling operations in Germany; in which he became friends with Scarpa enforcer and hitman Jason Todd.

## 2020 Election

In 2020, Erikson ran for the Republican slot in the 2020 election for Erichsburg mayor. His opponent was Democrat and Assistant District Attorney Richard Hutchins. Hutchins had been trying to get Bugsy charged on numerous federal charges for the past two years and saw winning the election as an opportunity to do so and end most corruption in Erichsburg. If Hutchins won the election, he could appoint his own non-corrupt city officials and drive the corrupt officials and crime figures out of the city.

Erikson tried to appeal to the local Irish, Jewish, Italian, African American and Spanish minorities of Erichsburg. He even helped the local minorities with charities and built better houses and donated a lot of money to the needy and random people in bad neighborhoods. He kept in contact with the Italian community via visiting their neighborhoods a few days a week and via Michael Ferrigno being a ward boss and a capo in the Ferrigno crime family.

At first, people thought Bugsy would win the election because he was so well-politically connected, a war and local hero, and a great leader that he would be perfect for mayor. But, after the May 20th Attempt and the murder of Sheriff's Deputy Mark Jameson and several others, showing corruption within his regime, Erikson withdrew from the race but in his place, his friend Andrew Johnson took his place in the race and won. Erikson was then appointed treasurer of Blaine County.

## May 20th Attempt

On May 20, 2019, five Maranzano hitmen (disguised as musicians) raided the Central Book in the upstairs floor of the Slapsy Maxies nightclub in the afternoon. They killed three bodyguards upstairs (Sal Tocco, Vito Cottone, and Alphonse Barbara).But, since they didn’t have suppressed weapons the rest of the bodyguards and Erikson heard the shooting. So, Erikson, Vito Genna, Sal Terranova, Alberto Barbara, Mickey Gambino, Ciro Magaddino, and Dominic Abbatemarco  get shotguns and machine guns and start shooting at the band stage’s wall (in which behind the wall was the stairs to the second floor) when they heard the hitmen talking. They killed one hitman, but while they were reloading, the other four hitmen began shooting at the men. They injured Erikson, and killed the other five men. Right before they were going to finish off Erikson, the bartender killed another hitman, and injured another, forcing the hitmen to leave.

As soon as the hitmen fled, a waitress called the police and the hospital. The bartender told her to call Ben Siegel, Gyp Rosetti, Sherman, Charles Diamond, and Alberto Scaliseto inform them of the situation and to have the men in Erichsburg or close to Erichsburg to come to the nightclub as quick as possible.

When the police got to the crime scene, they informed the mobsters that they were known Maranzano family hitmen.

A day later, Nikolai Csokas(a Russian Mafia enforcer)was sent fromMoscow to Erichsburg, to bethe new head of the crew and personally kill the hitmen.

After the event, Erikson built a bunker underneath his house with multiple layers/floors to it. The bunker has a Despoiled and almost 40 soldiers and bodyguards. Its only accessible via a secret elevator behind a bookcase near the bar area in the basement of the house. The bunker was built to keep any unwanted people out and it can withstand a nuclear fallout.

## Second prohibition

*Main article: Second Prohibition and National Crime Syndicate*

In December of 2018, Erikson wanted to create a second prohibition and wanted to do so, because the Mafia and other bootlegging gangs amassed huge fortunes bootlegging and due to recent spikes in violence relating to alcohol, Erikson was able to convince about 80% of Congress to pass the Second Volstead Act.

But, first, he had to meet with all of the heads of the Five Families, the families in Erichsburg, Chicago, New Jersey, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles to get permission to do so. All of the heads of the families agreed to go through with the plan.

When at the meeting in Atlantic City, they also formed the National Crime Syndicate, bringing together the Jewish, Italian, Irish, and American gangs and families.

## Death

On June 20, 2021, after the failing of his largest casino and gambling venture ever and after just being told he was going to go to prison for 10 life-sentences (possibly the death sentence) on multiple accounts of murder, racketeering, drug trafficking, loansharking, and many other charges, he had to decide to either end his life or turn informant. Many believe he was going to choose suicide but before he could do so, a gunman fired nine bullets into his chest, torso, and head through his large living room window. There to witness the crime were Markus Jackson, James Siegel, Andrew Johnson, Mickey Hymen, Douglas Wood and Adam Levine; his fiance did not witness the crime because she was out of town for the night. The gunman used a .30 military caliber M1 carbine rifle.

Some believe that members of the New York commission ordered the hit to prevent him from becoming informant. Others believe a assassin from the Axis Powers was ordered to murder him to weaken the Allied Forces in World War III. Few believe it was a detective that Erikson had beaten up earlier after trying to make a deal for a set of pictures for Erikson not to murder the detective's ex-wife; but the detective-theory has been thrown out as a possibility by ESI and police officials due to several witnesses including Erikson mobsters having seen him at a bar with Siegel lawyer Ned Stax at the time of the murder.

### Aftermath

*Main articles: Fourth of July Attempt and Erikson-Csokas War*

Several days after the murder, Erikson lieutenant Nikolai Csokas (who had been planning on eliminating Erikson and the leadership of the family so he can take over anyway) and several other associates attempted a coup at the Slapsie Maxies nightclub. Csokas and his associates failed and were killed during the attempt. Soon, about 33,000 Csokas loyalists entered the Blaine county area to take over the city. A total of 31,188 Erikson loyalists were in the area with minimum ESI support due to unwanted attention for the company. The Erikson faction later won the war but with great losses.

His funeral was a week after his death, and it was so big with over 40,000 attending that they had to plan ahead and change the funeral service location to being out of town and later have his body buried in a cemetery.

In November, he finally got his wish for the death of James Sullivan to come true but sadly he wasn't able to see it happen. He was raped and brutally murdered by several inmates, on Markus's orders, and left with the note reading, "This won't be the last Mick you see dead" as a homage to his friend Mike Salerno.

During his last month alive, he knew his time was running out so he got an author and started a memoir and finished it two days before his death. It later became a top-seller when it came out of January the next year.

## In popular culture

Erikson, his syndicate and the second prohibition brought on a wave of TV shows and films about gangsters during the late 2010s and early 2020s.

* Bugsy (2022), is a 2022 HBO film about the teenage and adult life of Erikson as a gangster; stars Adam Levine, Steve Buscemi, Bobby Cannavale, Vincent Piazza, Stephen Graham, Michael Zegen, Josh Hutcherson and Michael Pitt as Erikson; won three Academy Awards.
* River City Empire (2019-Present), is a 2019 HBO tv series about the crime syndicates in Blaime county, New Jersey, New York and Chicago; Erikson's death is shown in the March 7, 2023 episode "Final Offer"; nominated for six and won five Academy Awards.
* The Commission (2020), is a 2020 made-for-tv film detailing the ISIS Raids and the formation of the Erichsburg Commission
* The Empire (2021), is a 2021 film about the rise of Gyp Rosetti in Atlantic City during Prohibition; Erikson is played by Michael Zegen and Rosetti is played by Bobby Cannavale.
* Wise Guys (2023), is a 2023 film about how Erikson's life in the mob from his point of view (his journal); Erikson is played by Jason Cerbone.
* Future (2026), is a fictional 2026 film set just prior to the murder of Erikson and what if a guard had killed the assassin before he could kill Erikson, and what would happen after the attempt. They made it to where he would survive the hit and while the FBI continued their case against him, he would become stronger and stronger; stars Ben Affleck as Bugsy Erikson,