Saturday, 18 February 2012 21:14

It Feels Good to be a Gangster

 

MOB MUSEUM OPENS IN LAS VEGAS

By Emily King


For fans of notorious gangster killers, the new Mob Museum in Las Vegas makes an offer you can’t refuse.


After five years of development, the National Museum of Organized Crime & Law Enforcement (nicknamed Mob Museum) opened to the public earlier this month on Valentine’s Day. Chock full of gory photographs, gangster artifacts, rooms of guns, and hands-on exhibits, the displays capture the secretive world of the mob. Stories that people were killed to keep secret are told point-blank in the exhibits, revealing insights never known to the public.

 

 

 

The museum is housed in a historic federal courthouse in the heart of Sin City. In 1950-51, massive hearings on organized crime were held in 14 US cities. The courtroom of this building was the stage for the biggest mob hearing in history. The courtroom has been restored to its gangster-days glory--visitors are immersed in the days when gangs ran the town with violence and murder.

 

Other than highlighting the fascinating history of organized crime in America, the museum also shows the other side of the story. Visitors see the intricacies of police and FBI investigations that took down notable Mobsters like Al Capone and John Gotti. The Feds had to unravel huge networks of conspiracy and corruption in order to clean up the Capital of Second Chances.

 

 

 

Exhibits also include displays of donated gangster stereotypes--wiretaps, prohibition-era flasks, suitcases full of unmarked bills, and hallways full of guns are all open for visitors to enjoy. Wannabe mobsters can to learn to load old-school revolvers, take part in a police lineup, or shoot a Tommy-gun simulator for an authentic kick-back experience.

 

If you are going Sin City, take some time out from the gambling and debauchery to experience the rich conspiracy the city was founded on. Since the museum is brand new, finding discount tickets is nearly impossible. Tickets are $18 for adults and $12 for students. If your travels will land you in Las Vegas for an extended period of time, the Mob Museum has volunteer positions for those able to work 12 hours or more a month.

 

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1 Comment

  • Amrit Amrit

    Thanks for the mention of Open Museum! I wetnad to correct one thing we are committed to keeping Open Museum free for both visitors and museums. Our FAQs were a little outdated, but are now revised to reflect that change. Also, we are actually quite different from Flickr in that we allow people to create what we call thick objects objects that can have several different kinds of information about them, including video, audio, slideshows, still images, and text. Curators can add to or edit those objects at any time, making their objects thicker and more interesting as more information about them becomes available. In addition, Open Museum encourages discussion between visitors and curators, so that real dialogue can happen between all museum stakeholders.So rather than simply offering a site where people can display single images (like Flickr), Open Museum provides museums and visitors with ways to interact with each other on an ongoing basis an extended conversation, if you will.

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