The Mob Museum: Part One

I finally visited the Mob Museum (National Museum of Organized Crime & Law Enforcement) in downtown Las Vegas.  I took way too many pictures again and the only video I took was of fish in a tank and no, it had nothing to do with the phrase “swimming with the fishes.”  The building once housed the Post Office and Courthouse.  When it was a Courthouse, Senator Kefauver held hearings when the Senate Committee investigated organized crime in the early 1950s.  There were four floors full of information dedicated to organized crime and law enforcement including a speakeasy where you could drink whatever alcohol you wanted including moonshine they make on the premises.  There was a section of photographs of murdered mob members, mostly bosses, that were copyrighted so I couldn’t post them.  They were some of the most interesting, and a blatant reminder mob life is a gritty and risky “family” business.  There were photographs of Prohibition entertainers that were also copyrighted so I’m not going to post them either, but they were well worth seeing.  Some of the photos and products regarding illegal poaching are disturbing so fair warning regarding these.  The wall was the original bricks from the St. Valentine’s Massacre, as well as actual bullets that killed the victims and coroner’s reports.   The rest of the photographs I’m posting are self-explanatory and will be posting in four parts.

Walking up the stairs to the third floor to start the tour.

Brief timeline of the mob that started with immigration.

The various mob families from various cities.

Law enforcement enters onto the scene and stays.

J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI and T-Men in the 1950’s in relation to the Mob.