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Classic Life

16/02/2012
The Mob Museum Opens in Las Vegas

On what other day (14 February, Valentine’s…), and in which other city (Las Vegas) could they open a museum dedicated to organised crime?

Even better than that, the irony is that the location for the museum is a historic former federal courthouse and U.S. Post Office, which was also used as one of 14 national locations for hearings of the Kefauver Committee on organised crime.

You know the score: picture The Godfather films, where everyone is smoking furiously, and an earnest senator questions a surly, gum-chewing mobster dressed in regulation long-pointy-collared shirt and Zoot suit.

“Just how many ‘accidents’ are we expected to believe you’ve been involved in, Mr Barzini…?” And so on.

Visitors to 300 Stewart Avenue, in the heart of downtown Las Vegas, will see exhibits such as the brick wall against which the members of the Bugs Moran gang were lined up and shot and killed on the orders of Al Capone - the famous St Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago, on 14 February 1929.

They’ll also be able to be part of a police line-up, shoot a ‘Chicago Piano’ (a Thompson sub-machine gun) simulator and listen in on actual wiretaps.

Great time and trouble has been expended on getting the details just so by the not-for-profit (yeah, right…) board of directors. And it’s not all about the bad guys – much exhibition space is taken up with telling the story of how the FBI brought many mobsters to trial.

And if you’re not happy… the refund policy…? Well, the desert is a big place, with many holes in it... nothing personal, only business.

For further information, see www.themobmuseum.org.

Text: Steve Wakefield
Photos: The Mob Museum

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