Las Vegas. Immediately visions of casinos, bright lights, parties and dancing appear in my mind. However, behind all the glitz this little Nevada gem has a history built on the business of Organised Crime. The Mafia have been playing the city for decades which has been the inspiration of many movies and books.
When visiting Las Vegas in January this year we decided to explore the history of Organised Crime and headed to The National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement : The Mob Museum. With a previous trip to the Police and Justice Museum in Sydney we knew that the kids would love it and with a cursory glance at the website we knew that we could skip the more graphic exhibits like we had in Sydney.
You’ll find The Mob Museum in an original federal courthouse in Downtown Las Vegas. Former FBI Special Agent in Charge, Las Vegas Division, Ellen Knowlton is the museum president. Together with the museums board of directors, Knowlton leads the staff to accurately depict Mob history throughout the site. It’s amazing!
The exhibits are spread across three floors of the former courthouse taking up around 17,000 square feet of exhibition space. Here you receive an insider look into the lives of notorious mobsters Alphonse Capone, Dion O’Bannion, George Moran, Charlie “Lucky” Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, Sam Giancana, Joe Bonanno, Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, Mickey Cohen, Tony Spilotro, John Gotti and Whitey Bulger just to name a few. You also get to touch and try a number of the tools undercover agents used to collect evidence against a number of these mobsters.
One of the most fascinating artefacts is the St Valentine’s Day Wall which has been erected in the museum from the original wall from the massacre. You can read more about it here if you wish to know the history behind it (which is very gruesome).
There are also a plethora of items that have curated by the team to reveal the lives of police informers and undercover cops. The kids loved using the tapping devices.
Visiting the Mob Museum was on our Vegas Bucket List. The visit cost us just over $40.00 with both kids entering for free. Full details available here. Parking was easy peasy with a great parking area on the grounds. Please be warned that the museum does cover a number of disturbing periods of mob history but you the museum team will let you know which exhibits you should avoid with the kids.
This looks like so much fun, especially for families! I’ll have to consider this if I make it back to Vegas.