ABOUT
Luellen Smiley is a creative nonfiction writer, author, columnist, and historian whose writing is deeply rooted in a controversial personal history. She is the daughter of Allen Smiley, a close friend, associate, and business partner of notorious Las Vegas gangster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel. Her father was sitting only feet from Siegel when Siegel was murdered in Beverly Hills on June 20, 1947.
That extraordinary childhood history became the foundation for Smiley’s first book, Cradle of Crime: A Daughter’s Tribute, published in 2017. The memoir explores what it was like to grow up as the daughter of a man connected to organized crime while trying to reconcile her love for her father with the secrecy, fear, and criminal world surrounding him.
Smiley’s work has appeared in publications including the New York Post, MORE Magazine, Southern California newspapers, and Authorlink. She wrote the newspaper column Smiley’s Dice—Adventures in Livingness, which earned a Blue-Ribbon Award from the California Newspapers Association for her Growing Up With Gangsters columns.
Her interest in her father’s history also led her to become a researcher and commentator on organized crime history. She has participated in television, radio, and documentary interviews.
Smiley’s next book, Gaslighting Greta, will be published this year. A personal story that reads like fiction. Her own website describes the project as exploring a woman whose life is destabilized by gaslighting and psychological manipulation.
Her writing career reflects a recurring theme: using personal experience and research to uncover the truth behind complicated relationships and extraordinary lives. From the secretive world surrounding her father and Bugsy Siegel to the deeply personal territory of Gaslighting Greta, Smiley’s work transforms difficult experiences into stories of survival, discovery, and ultimately reclaiming one’s voice.
Luellen Smiley is an author whose life has given her an unusual perspective on secrecy, manipulation, family loyalty, betrayal, and survival—and she uses that perspective as the raw material for her nonfiction storytelling.
I have never written about politics. I don’t understand the rules to qualify. My political thinking is this; the election is a reflection of our integrity, what’s left of it. Whomever wins is sabotaged. They will be brutalized by the opposing party, and the News will report it.
We are
divided now, opponents on the same team. That’s more than I can tolerate. Either I will go underground wherever that is, or move to a farm and pet goats. I mean really! How much more can we take?
3 responses to “ELECTION?”
it is a scary time to say the least. I still want to buy a missile silo for safety measures and this year would be the year to do it. Neither candidate is worthy enough to be considered as the next US president in my opinion. Foreigners will wait us out like they normally do since four years go by fast in the long run.
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Asheeit…..a great read but confusing responses. Does the establishment condone the illegal activities of what’s her name and the demonizing of the women that her husband demonized once before. Vote Rebublican, Vote Donaldo Trump. If you like what has transpired over the last 8 years? Hopefully not, but if you vote for what’s her name then if you liked the last 8 years, then you will be more than pleased, because you will receive that and more and the United States will officially become a Third World Country. Look at Europe, you better believe they regret their decisions…..but nooooo, America is just way to politically correct to even undertake a thought of self preservation. Liberals…..you will still be my friends, but i will pity you and the short self righteous opinionated ideology you hold so dear…..to the detriment of our very being. Selfish…..yes…..and shame on you…..hang your heads in shame.
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Agreed, petting goats would be much better than this election. In addition to living on a farm and petting goats, I think I would also pet bunnies. Do goats and bunnies get along? Chickens could be nice too. You know, if you pick up and pet chickens starting when they are chicks, they grow up to be very gentle birds. I think that’s what this world needs, more goats and bunnies and baby chicks to pet.
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