Coming out in January next year, Eric Dezenhall’s new book, Wiseguys and the White House: Gangsters, Presidents and the Deals They Made, features the ties between presidents and the mafia, exposing the hidden mob influence behind the executive decisions of our nation. Did you know that President Truman owed his career to the Kansas City mafia or that the Kennedy administration tried to use the mob to assassinate Fidel Castro? While Dezenhall’s book delves into political connections, Las Vegas offers a more tangible link to the mob’s influence through the Mob Museum. The mob doesn’t just impact politics. Its influence can be found all around Las Vegas if you only know where to look.
Voted “The Best Museum in Nevada” by USA Today, the Mob Museum, otherwise known as the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, is the ideal place to uncover the secrets of organized crime. It was established in 2012 in what used to be the Las Vegas Post Office and Courthouse. This location was significant for a multitude of reasons, being one of the sites of the Kefauver Committee Hearings which sought an end to organized crime as well as being an example of the neoclassical Depression Era architecture that former mayor Oscar Goodman wanted to preserve.
Not only was the building itself important, the date that was chosen for its grand opening had a meaningful purpose. February 14, 2012 wasn’t chosen because it was another Valentine’s day, but rather because it was the 83rd anniversary of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, an infamous day in mob history when Al Capone’s South side gang lined up seven enemy gangsters along a brick wall, and executed with a shotgun and two Tommy submachine guns. This display of the workings of organized crime headlined papers in the U.S. and remains a key exhibit in the Mob Museum which displays the very brick wall that characterized the massacre.
Since then, the Mob Museum has proven time and time again that it is the best museum in Las Vegas. With a fully functioning Prohibition era speakeasy, The Underground, and many interactive and informative exhibits about mob influences, the museum creates an unforgettable journey through the secrets of organized crime in Las Vegas and throughout the U.S., entertaining locals and travelers for years to come. Whether you’re a fan of Dezenhall’s book or a history enthusiast, the Mob Museum offers a fascinating look into the shadowy world of organized crime that shaped much of American history.
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