Mob Museum: Expect to learn about mobsters and the FBI agents who pursued them. This place is awesomely comprehensive, beautifully executed, and fun.
The old Las Vegas Federal Courthouse downtown sat vacant for a time recently…
Built in the 1930’s, Las Vegas’s old courthouse became obsolete when a much bigger courthouse was built in Las Vegas. In the 2000’s, it was sold to the city for $1 to become the Mob Museum, officially the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement. Check out who was involved:
- It was Mayor Oscar Goodman’s idea to build the museum. Goodman happened to be the lawyer who represented the mobsters here in town in their now infamous trials.
- The now museum president is none other than Ellen Knowlton, former Las Vegas head of the FBI who investigated and eventually brought cases against them.
- The museum was co-created by Dennis Barrie, the guy who brought to the world the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
So the Mob Museum had a killer lineup, if you don’t mind the pun. And it shows.
Your immediate impression from the Mob Museum is that it’s really well done. Exhibits are thorough, well-designed and crafted, and a great balance between entertaining and informational. Built as a modern museum, there’s an excellent mix of artifacts, interactive exhibits, and multimedia.
The museum curators purchased brick-by-brick and re-assembled this wall behind which the infamous St Valentine’s Day Massacre took place.
The Mob Museum is is 3 floors, and probably took around 2 hours. But I didn’t read/engage in every exhibit. I could’ve probably taken twice that long.
The exhibits are split into two perspectives:
- Those of the Mafiosi.
- Those of the police/FBI.
At one point, at the centerpiece of the Mob Museum, you find yourself where the two intersected – the actual courtroom where the Las Vegas branch of the Kefauver Hearings were held.
There’s also a bit of Las Vegas history sprinkled throughout, since the two concepts are so intertwined.
And if you’re thinking, ‘Yeah, I’ve seen The Godfather like a million times. So I probably wouldn’t learn that much from the Mob Museum.’ I’ll just rebuttal with this chart:
History
Las Vegas has such an interesting relationship with its history. Some of it brushed under the rug (mob ties), and some of it blown away completely (countless resort implosions). Yet we’re so young, all wounds still fresh.
Of course, the mob played an important role in the history of Las Vegas for half a century or so – a very important half-century for this town. And I wouldn’t say Las Vegans are proud of that, per se. (After all, these guys were thugs and criminals, inflicting a harsh form of law, preying on the weakest and operating in the most morally reprehensible dark corners of society, mostly only for their own monetary gain.)
That said, it’s a part of who we are. Las Vegas wouldn’t be what it is if it weren’t for Bugsy Siegel running the race wire, or “Mr. Las Vegas” Moe Dalitz, or Meyer Lansky.
Even the clean fellas had to get their hands dirty. If you were in the gambling business in Las Vegas in the last 50 years, the mob was a part of your life whether you liked it or not. Just ask Wilbur Clark or Steve Wynn or Bob Stupak or Benny Binion.
And we’re all a little bit obsessed with this truth here in Las Vegas. Sure, corporations took over, and everything’s “clean” now, but there was a time – a romantic time – when the west was lawless.
The mob funded casinos, then turned around and illegally skimmed off the top. In an ironic ending, some mob bosses were put away on tax evasion… for their illegally-obtained money.
It’s so embedded in our history that, heck, the lawyer that defended the mobsters (Oscar Goodman) went on to become mayor of Las Vegas. And you know who’s mayor now? His wife. I’m not saying any of those things are connected in any way. I’m just sayin…
