The Mob Museum - Nevada

The Mob Museum is three floors of mob history, the law enforcement that tried to reign it in, and the history of the most infamous mobsters and crime families.  You will see actual evidence and weapons used in the era and detailed history of the beginning of "organized crime" in the United States, it's explosive and violent growth during Prohibition, and its diversification into almost all possible areas of commerce and industry after WWII. The museum highlights the rise of coordinated law enforcement from the start of the FBI to the multi-agency Department of Homeland Security engaged in addressing organized crime across the globe. There is also a large exhibit about the growth of Las Vegas and how the Mob may ... or may not ... have played a role in it's history.

One exhibit covers the famous Senator Kefauver Committee's televised hearings which brought national attention to the "Mafia" and exposed its pervasiveness in 1950's America. The museum gift shop included a t-shirt with the slogan "Two sides to every story" and that is what the museum presents. There are a lot of hands on exhibits including listening to actual wire-taps from investigations. My daughter stepped into an FBI weapons training simulator. My son video taped himself in an FBI interrogation room. There are recordings from courtrooms and police stations too. Finally, the museum looks at Hollywood's portrayal of the Mob throughout the years with a short documentary.

There is a large area where you can learn the mob history of your home state. I was, and yet was not,  surprised to read all the details of mob activity here in Arizona (Tucson and Phoenix) including exhibits on several infamous mob killings here in Phoenix including the killing of an investigative reporter in 1982. The museum also looks at the current activities of organized crime which has become a global issue.

 

http://themobmuseum.org

This tour was definitely for me. The museum itself was originally a postoffice and county court building located down by the original Vegas strip now called the Fremont Street experience.