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Mob's greatest hits at new Vegas museum
A wall of images of mobsters is displayed at The Mob Museum February 13, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The museum - also known as the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement - opened February 14, 2012, and chronicles the history of organized crime in America and the efforts of law enforcement to combat it. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS - In one room, a ghastly photo wall of bloody, uncensored images showcases the mob's greatest hits.
In another, visitors are taught to load a revolver. And for when a gun just won't do, an oddball collection of household items — a shovel, a hammer, a baseball bat and an icepick — show the creative side of some of America's most notorious killers.
On the 83rd anniversary of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, Sin City is honoring one of its earliest relationships with the grand opening of a museum dedicated to the mobsters that made this desert town. There are tommy guns, money stacks and a bullet-riddled brick wall from the 1929 massacre that saw Al Capone seize control of the Chicago mob.
Las Vegas has long been enamored with its gangster roots. Its longtime former mayor played himself in the mob flick "Casino" and hotels here often promote their nefarious origins.
But the publicly-funded, $42 million Mob Museum (also known as the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement) represents a new height in Sin City's lawlessness devotion. Even the local FBI agents are in on it.
"We wanted to make sure the truth came out," said Ellen Knowlton, a former special agent in Las Vegas brought on to legitimize the downtown attraction.
It's the second mob-themed attraction to open in Las Vegas in the past year. The Mob Experience at the Tropicana casino on the Las Vegas Strip quickly shut down because of slow ticket sales and other problems. It's slated to reopen later this year under the name Mob Attraction Las Vegas.
City officials said their version will perform better because it's an authentic examination of the decisions and circumstances that made Las Vegas an international symbol of debauchery and excess. The museum is housed in a former Depression-era federal courthouse where the seventh of 14 U.S. Senate hearings on organized crime was held in the early 1950s. The trials watched by 30 million people introduced the mob to most Americans.
But critics argue the government-backed attraction is a waste of tax dollars at a time when Nevada tops the nation in foreclosures and unemployment.
Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, who helped create Las Vegas as a gambling Mecca, is offered as graphic evidence of his own statement: "We only kill each other."
(Credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)Nevadans and mobsters have a long, storied history.
Casino workers and longtime visitors alike are known to wax nostalgic about the days when mob bosses kept drink prices low and streets violence free. Their casinos became celebrity playgrounds and architectural icons. The Stardust, El Cortez, Tropicana, Dunes Hotel, Desert Inn, Flamingo and Fremont hotel were all backed by the mob at one point. Elvis and Priscilla Presley tied the knot at the mob-controlled Aladdin resort and Wayne Newton later purchased it.
More recently, Las Vegans thrice made former mob attorney Oscar Goodman their mayor. And when he was term-limited from running again last year, they gave the job to his wife.
The mob, the story goes, helped build out the remote highway that would eventually become the Las Vegas Strip. Gangsters took over resorts built by front men, skimmed the profits and built nightclubs, country clubs, housing tracts and shopping centers.
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