Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

The Mob Museum

This Wednesday, March 25, 2015, photo shows the defaced serial number on a Smith & Wesson .38 Special in Mountainside, N.J. Stored for the past 50 years in attics, closets and a bank safe-deposit box in New Jersey, the gun belonging to former IRS criminal investigations agent Michael Malone — and possibly used by members of Al Capone's gang — is headed to Las Vegas, where it will be part of an the exhibit at The Mob Museum beginning in mid-April.
Gun owned by agent who toppled Al Capone headed to Las Vegas museum
March 27, 2015
The gun is a triumph of American craftsmanship from the early 20th century, its sleek barrel familiar to anyone raised on the movies of Bogart and Cagney, "Scarface" and "Little Caesar." Except this Smith & Wesson .38 special has real-life stories to tell, stories of ...
The body of Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel is placed in a hearse outside his home in Beverly Hills, Calif., hours after he was shot June 20, 1947, by an unidentified gunman.
Fascination with old Vegas mob tales endures
March 22, 2015
Notes compiled, and now imparted, from across the urban landscape we call VegasVille ...
This image provided by the city of Las Vegas shows, from left, Mayor Carolyn G. Goodman, Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian, Oscar B. Goodman and The Mob Museum Executive Director Jonathan Ullman, displaying the $1.5 million in cash paid to the city at a council meeting on April 16, 2014.
Mob Museum makes huge payment in cash, mafia style
April 17, 2014
Former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman took a cue from the mob in making a huge payment on behalf of the city's Mob Museum. Goodman presented $1.5 million in cash to...
A view of the Mob Museum, the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, in downtown Las Vegas Wednesday, Feb.13, 2013.
Work put into Mob Museum's building honored for protecting history
June 6, 2013
The Mob Museum has been recognized as one of the top public works projects of the year by a national organization, the city announced Thursday.
Former Nevada Governors Robert List, center, Richard Bryan, left, and Bob Miller participate in a panel discussion at the Mob Museum in downtown Las Vegas Wednesday, April 25, 2013.
Las Vegas according to three governors: The fall of the mob, a land of prostitutes and potential terrorism risks
April 27, 2013
More than 150 people jammed a courtroom in the Mob Museum to hear former Govs. Bob List, Richard Bryan and Bob Miller recollect about Las Vegas' history. The presentation was part of the Mob Museum’s Courtroom Conversation series. The event was punctuated by a book signing by Miller, whose “Son of a Gambling Man” went on sale earlier this month.
Former mobster Michael Franzese poses for a portrait before he speaks to athletes at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2007.
Former Colombo family capo to visit Mob Museum and tell how he left the mafia but lived to talk about it
April 12, 2013
Michael Franzese knows he’s lucky to be alive. More than 30 years ago, he was one of the most powerful mobsters in America. In 1980, he rose to the ranks of caporegime, a “capo” or captain, in the Colombo crime family in New York. There he masterminded scams in the auto industry, on union kickbacks and gasoline taxes. He escaped several indictments and earned millions in cash every week.
Guests look over an exhibit featuring a replica of the electric chair from Sing Sing prison at the Mob Museum, the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, in downtown Las Vegas Wednesday, Feb.13, 2013. The museum celebrates it's first anniversary on Valentine's Day.
Director has no beef with Mob Museum's first year in business
Feb. 14, 2013
A year ago, a day after a Valentine’s Day grand opening celebration that featured 1930s-era gangsters, flappers and the happiest former mayor in the universe, Jonathan Ullman of the Mob Museum arrived at work to confront a stark reality.
Roxie Jekosz reacts after firing a machine gun at the Guns and Ammo Garage Oct. 25, 2012.
Firing range teams with Mob Museum for new experience
Dec. 8, 2012
Mark Cole greets visitors to his Guns and Ammo Garage, a shooting range where they can travel back to a world of Prohibition-era weapons by firing the classics in a full mob-related experience.
Former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman holds a bottle of Old Tom Gin during at an event at the Mob Museum Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2012 to publicize a party being held later that evening to mark the end of prohibition. The bottle was found inside the walls when the old federal courthouse was converted into the Mob Museum.
Las Vegas celebrates 79th anniversary of 'Repeal Day'
Dec. 5, 2012
When the country outlawed alcohol in 1920, millions of Americans turned to a clandestine network of speakeasies and bootleggers in search of a stiff drink.
G. Robert Blakey speaks about the President John F. Kennedy assassination in a video being played at the Mob Museum in downtown Las Vegas Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2012.
On anniversary of JFK assassination, investigator looks back
Nov. 22, 2012
Forty-nine years ago today, on Nov. 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas’ Dealey Plaza. The assassination and subsequent slaying of shooter Lee Harvey Oswald shocked the country.
G. Robert Blakey speaks in the courtroom at the Mob Museum in downtown Las Vegas Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2012.
Mob Museum marks anniversary of hearings that introduced much of the U.S. to organized crime
Nov. 15, 2012
On Nov. 15, 1950 — 62 years ago to the day — the Kefauver committee stopped in Las Vegas for one of its several hearings exploring organized crime in America.
The Mob Museum is shown before the grand opening in downtown Las Vegas, Tuesday February 14, 2012. The building, a former federal courthouse and post office, was completed in 1933 and is listed on the Nevada and National Registers of Historic Places. It is also one of 14 sites in the nation that hosted the 1950-51 U.S. Senate Special Committees to investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce, also known as the Kefauver hearings.
Las Vegas Mob Museum sees its 100,000th visitor
Oct. 2, 2012
The Las Vegas Mob Museum recently recorded its 100,000th visitor and is on track to reach 200,000 by the end of the year, Executive Director Jonathan Ullman said.
Candice Rodriguez and Sergio Tamez listen to virtual guide James Caan during a preview of the Las Vegas Mob Experience at the Tropicana on Tuesday, March 1, 2011.
Attorneys use ruling from 1601 in fight about mob artifacts
Sept. 17, 2012
Attorneys for the opposition to Las Vegas Mob Experience developer Jay Bloom are using an English court ruling from centuries ago to try to disprove what they call nonsensical and fraudulent legal claims he has made in a case about mob artifacts.
Salvatore Polisi presents his one-man show "At the Sinatra Club" at the Clark County Library Theater.
Former mobster goes from robbing to writing
July 22, 2012
It all began with the Hershey’s kisses. As a young boy, Salvatore “Sal” Polisi would steal pieces of chocolate for his sister. As he grew older, he graduated to stealing cars, robbing banks and running gambling operations.
Jay Bloom, left, managing partner of Murder Inc., listens to Meyer Lansky II, grandson of organized crime figure Meyer Lansky, during a news conference at The Mob Experience preview center at the Tropicana on Aug. 2, 2010.
Disputes heat up over Mob Attraction artifacts
April 26, 2012
Guns. Knives. Brass knuckles. Decades after they were used as tools in deadly games of profit and control, pieces of the nation’s mobster past are once again involved in a heated dispute — this time in court.