Valentine's Day In Las Vegas? Think Organized Crime

 

Larry Olmsted at Forbes.com wrote an interesting piece on the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement in Las Vegas - known simply as the Mob Museum.

While most of the country will celebrate February 14th with heart shaped boxes of candy, jewelry and romantic gifts, Las Vegas is giving itself a different kind of present – The Mob Museum.

The grand opening plays on the anniversary of 1929’s Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre, when Al Capone’s minions executed seven rivals in a parking garage on Chicago’s South Side. The museum itself is set in the former Las Vegas post office and courthouse, listed on both the Nevada and National Registers of Historic Places – dedicated on November 27, 1933 it was the city’s first federal building. More relevant to its new mission, it was the site of one of the historic Kefauver hearings, which helped expose and control organized crime in America. The building still houses the courtroom (now an exhibit) where famed Mob attorney – and former Las Vegas Mayor – Oscar Goodman, defended mobsters Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, Meyer Lansky and Anthony Spilotro.

In its new life as The Mob Museum, the building hopes to become a cultural destination in the heart of the City’s less visited downtown, by focusing on the history, significance, and influence of organized crime and law enforcement.

You can read the resst of the piece via the below link:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/larryolmsted/2012/02/10/valentines-day-in-vegas-think-organized-crime/

You can also learn more by visiting the Mob Museum's web site via the below link:

http://themobmuseum.org/