The Story Of… The Mob Museum in Las Vegas

Exclusive Interview by Karen Beishuizen
Photos courtesy of The Mob Museum

The Mob Museum in Las Vegas opened its doors on 14 February 2012 and is dedicated to the history of organized crime in America. The Museum’s chief visionary was former city of Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman. Oscar had represented several alleged mobsters throughout his legal career. The Mob Museum features the stories of many known mobsters and organized crime figures including Al Capone, Charles “Lucky” Luciano, Meyer Lansky, John Gotti, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, El Chapo.

On 14 February 1929 the St. Valentine’s Massacre took place in a garage in Chicago: seven members and associates of George “Bugs” Moran’s bootlegging gang were lined up against a wall and shot dead inside the garage at 2122 North Clark Street. Three hundred bricks of that wall are on display on the third floor of The Mob Museum. Not only can you get married at The Mob Museum, but you can host a number of private events here. Are you intrigued after reading this? Go visit the museum when you are in Las Vegas!

KB: Tell me the story of how the museum was founded.

The Mob Museum, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit, boasts a highly respected Board of Directors including professionals from local and state government, law enforcement, the judicial system, media and the business community. The Museum’s chief visionary was former city of Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman. Oscar had represented several alleged mobsters throughout his legal career and when the federal government decided to sell the former federal courthouse and post office, they sold it to the city with the stipulation that it would be turned into a cultural institution.

KB: Which mobsters are mentioned in the museum?

The Mob Museum features the stories of many known mobsters and organized crime figures including Al Capone, Charles “Lucky” Luciano, Meyer Lansky, John Gotti, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, El Chapo, and many more.

KB: Tell me about the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

A commercial garage on the north side of Chicago was the setting for the most horrific shooting in Mob history, the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. On February 14, 1929, seven members and associates of George “Bugs” Moran’s bootlegging gang were lined up against a wall and shot dead inside the garage at 2122 North Clark Street. Al Capone’s Chicago Outfit was widely suspected of ordering the hit, but no one was ever prosecuted. When the garage was slated for demolition in 1967, entrepreneur George Patey recovered the bricks from the wall. Three hundred of those bricks are on display on the third floor of The Mob Museum.

KB: You have a gas chamber chair on display. Why?

The chair, on loan from the Nevada State Museum in Carson City, represents Nevada’s history of capital punishment. Nevada was the first government jurisdiction in the world to approve lethal gas as a form of execution in 1921 as opposed to hanging or death by firing squad. The exhibit tells the story of convicted murderer and Mafia hitman Jesse Bishop. Bishop was the state’s last condemned man killed in Nevada’s gas chamber.

KB: Tell me about the history of prohibition.

Decades of temperance activism, as well as anti-immigrant sentiment in the wake of World War I, culminated in passage of the 18th Amendment in 1919. Widespread drunkenness, especially among American men, during the 19th century gave rise to the temperance movement, which aimed to improve the health and well-being of Americans through alcohol abstinence. When Prohibition took effect in 1920, some Americans had no intention of abandoning their enjoyment of alcohol. They found what they were looking for in underground drinking establishments, commonly called speakeasies, which became crucibles for dramatic social and cultural change.

Prohibition was the best thing that ever happened to organized crime. It provided members of small-time street gangs with the greatest opportunity ever — feeding the need of Americans coast to coast to drink beer, wine and hard liquor on the sly. Organized racketeers dominated the illegal “bootlegging” industry as well as the urban machine bosses and the vice kings. They understood banking and other legitimate business and bribed policemen, judges, juries, witnesses, politicians and even federal Prohibition agents as the cost of doing business.

During Prohibition, illegal booze was made in every conceivable way, from small-scale “alky cooking” in the home to large-scale manufacturing operations controlled by Mob racketeers. Prohibition laws included two exceptions that allowed legal consumption of alcohol for medicinal and religious reasons, and organized crime took full advantage of the loopholes.

Thanks to the proceeds of providing illegal liquor, small-time street gangs grew into regional crime syndicates. By the early 1920s, profits from the illegal production and trafficking of liquor were so enormous that gangsters learned to be more “organized” than ever, employing lawyers, accountants, brew masters, boat captains, truckers and warehousemen, plus armed thugs known as “torpedoes” to intimidate, injure, bomb or kill competitors. They bought breweries closed because of Prohibition and hired experienced brewers. They ran boats out into oceans and lakes to buy liquor from Great Britain and Canada, leading to the term “rum running.” They paid individual citizens to operate stills at home to make gallons of bad-tasting booze. They sold illegal beer, watered-down whiskey and sometimes-poisonous “rotgut” booze in thousands of Mob-owned illegal bars known as “speakeasies.” Often, to screen customers at these illegal bars, a bouncer would look through a peephole in the front door before refusing them or letting them in.

After years of hapless enforcement and with public support lagging Prohibition was deemed a failure, and soon after Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president, the 18th Amendment was repealed on December 5, 1933.

KB: Can people get married at the mob museum?

Yes, the Museum has a plethora of private event capabilities. Not only can you get married at The Mob Museum, but you can host a number of private events. The Museum offers group activities including scavenger hunts and a Mob Mystery activity, as well as capabilities to host weddings, birthdays, large and small corporate events and more in several spaces throughout its four floors.

KB: Describe for the RSR readers what they would see on a visit to the museum?

The Mob Museum takes visitors on a chronological tour through organized crime in 19th and 20th century America. Beginning with the immigration movement the tour visits Southern Nevada at the turn of the century and moves into the Prohibition era, where guests will see a first-hand look at the violence perpetrated by rival gangs resulting in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Then guests see how law enforcement first started to recognize these illegal activities and the efforts that ensued to stop these illegal wrongdoings.

On the second floor, visitors are introduced to the United States Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce, also known as the Kefauver Committee, for the Committee Chairman and Senator from Tennessee, Estes Kefauver. The tour puts guests into the courtroom where one of the hearings was held on November 15, 1950.

After experiencing the Historic Courtroom, guests are transported back in time to Las Vegas of the mid-century. In the Open City Exhibit, visitors learn how mobsters managed the casinos and how “the skim” was facilitated in the town that was known as an “Open City” as no singular crime family managed the territory.

On the first-floor guests are introduced to 100 years of Made Men, or mobsters and organized crime figures from around the world. From here they learn more about law enforcement’s efforts and legislation that helped to take down the Mob. Guests also have an opportunity, with a premier or deluxe pass, to explore forensic police work within the Crime Lab and learn how the various sciences including DNA profiling, ballistic analysis and others are used to solve crimes. Then guests experience the Organized Crime Today exhibit, where they learn about what organized crime looks like in our modern world.

After exiting the retail store guests are reintroduced to some familiar faces in the Mob in Pop Culture exhibit. This exhibit showcases the many TV series and movies in which organized crime is portrayed. Lastly, guests who are 21 years and older are invited to explore the Prohibition exhibit and working speakeasy, located in the basement of the Museum.

KB: How did the museum survive during the pandemic?

During the pandemic, the Museum had to close for a limited amount of time and was able to reopen with precautionary work arounds, including timed admission and social distancing measures. Since 2020, Las Vegas has seen record-setting years for airport traffic and casino revenues. As one of the most popular attractions in Las Vegas, The Mob Museum has also seen record setting attendance since returning to normal operations. The Mob Museum continues to host enticing and community-minded programming incentivizing guests to return to this cultural focal point.

KB: Why should people visit the museum?

The best stories are found by digging under the surface. At The Mob Museum, the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, we put in the work to get to the bottom of some of history’s most intriguing tales, exploring the age-old dichotomy of good guys vs. bad guys.

Located in the heart of downtown Las Vegas, The Mob Museum is an award-winning, immersive experience exploring the ongoing power struggle between organized crime and law enforcement from the Mob’s origination to today. The Mob Museum is the only place in which you will find this type of content covering organized crime and its impact on history.

Through vivid storytelling, guests are presented with the facts, the fiction and the gray area in between — showcasing the events and characters that played an integral (and infamous) role in U.S. history.

Taking its cues from the Entertainment Capital of the World, The Mob Museum seamlessly melds intrigue with explanation through four expertly curated floors of interactive exhibits, multimedia displays, engaging artifacts and pop culture lore.

Check out the museum’s website: HERE
Find the museum on Facebook: HERE
Find the museum on Instagram: HERE

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