About

The Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement — aka The Mob Museum — is an interactive museum dedicated to the history of organized crime and law enforcement. The museum presents a bold and authentic view of organized crime's impact on Las Vegas history and its unique imprint on America and the world. The museum presents the real stories and actual events of mob history via interactive and engaging exhibits that reveal all sides of the story about the role of organized crime in the U.S. The Mob Museum offers multiple perspectives and provides a contemporary, engaging, challenging and educational experience.

Location

The museum is located at 300 Stewart Ave. in the heart of the downtown Las Vegas. It is under construction inside an historic former federal courthouse and United States Post Office. This building is one of the last remaining historically significant buildings in Las Vegas and is included on both the Nevada and National Registers of Historic Places.  It is the city’s only historic building designated as significant at a national level. In 1950-51, the Kefauver Committee hearings on organized crime were held in 14 cities. In Las Vegas, the hearings were held in a courtroom in this very building. The courtroom is being recreated to appear as it did in 1950. The building is an important remaining example of the Depression-era neoclassical architecture built by the federal government during the 1920s and 1930s.

Why Las Vegas?

Las Vegas is a particularly fitting location for The Mob Museum given the city’s unique and colorful history. The vision of a glitzy destination with luxury hotels, restaurants, shows and adult indulgences was realized early by such noted mob figures as Bugsy Siegel, whose hotel and hospitality helped to set the tone for modern-day Vegas. The mob’s influence continued to shape the city for decades and played a role in its ultimate evolution as the Entertainment Capital of the World.  While there are many U.S. cities where the mob had a higher profile, Las Vegas is an ideal choice for the museum given the city’s annual visitation of 37 million tourists seeking interesting attractions and experiences. 

Downtown Revitalization

The Mob Museum is an important component of the city’s downtown redevelopment now underway. Once complete, the museum is expected to generate annual visitation of hundreds of thousands to the museum and downtown Las Vegas.  The redevelopment area includes the museum and such significant projects as the new City Hall; a five-block office complex; a new transportation center; a proposed 12-acre entertainment, arena and gaming site to be developed as Las Vegas Live by The Cordish Company; the Lady Luck renovation by the CIM Group; and proposed hotel-casino projects at Symphony Park, a mixed-use downtown neighborhood now under active development and anchored by the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health and The Smith Center for the Performing Arts. Within this area, more than 13,000 jobs within the city’s core are expected to be created from these new projects. 

Physical Description

The 41,000-square-foot Mob Museum includes approximately 16,800 square feet of exhibition space on three floors within the historic United States Post Office and Federal Courthouse at 300 Stewart Avenue in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada.  In addition to exhibition space, it includes a specialty retail store, special event areas, educational areas and office space.

World-Class Attraction

The Mob Museum is being designed by a world-class team known for other successful museums that serve to reinvigorate communities and neighborhoods, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.  Given the intrigue and world-wide interest in the mob, the museum will become one of the city’s major attractions – a must-see for millions of tourists and locals alike.

Ownership/Operation

The city of Las Vegas, which is currently overseeing the museum’s early development, owns the building and the land on which it sits.  A non-profit foundation, 300 Stewart Avenue Corporation, was formed to oversee the Museum’s development and operations and is scheduled to assume management of the museum in spring 2010.  Currently, representatives from the city’s Office of Business and Economic Development and Department of Cultural Affairs are working with the non-profit’s board of directors to develop the museum as an important historic destination and tourist attraction.

Leadership

The 300 Stewart Avenue Corporation foundation is headed by President Ellen Knowlton, former FBI Special Agent in Charge, Las Vegas Division, and a 24-year FBI veteran. Members of the board of directors include highly respected professionals from local and state government, law enforcement, the judicial system, media and the Southern Nevada business community. Many of these individuals have first-hand knowledge of organized crime and its impact on Las Vegas.

Funding

The Mob Museum is expected to cost approximately $42 million to construct and is being funded through local, state and federal grants. Of the total amount, approximately $12.4 million is from general fund sources and $8.3 million is from matching local, state and federal grants that were awarded following the city’s financial commitment from its general fund, as well as a Redevelopment Agency funding source that can only be spent on projects located in the city’s redevelopment area. General funds were allocated for the museum in 2004. Grants of note include a Save America's Treasures grant from the National Park Service, multi-year grants from the Nevada Commission for Cultural Affairs and local grants from the Commission for the Las Vegas Centennial and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Museum Development Target Timeline

MAY 2002

Federal government transfers ownership of historic downtown post office to the city of Las Vegas for use as a museum


FEBRUARY 2007

Exhibit and fabrication schematic design begins


MARCH 2007

Renovations begin on interior of building


AUGUST 2008

Schematic design development complete


AUGUST 4, 2009

Core and shell construction begins with ceremonial “wall-breaking” with Las Vegas Mayor Oscar B. Goodman and former U.S.  Senator and museum board member, Richard Bryan


NOVEMBER 2009

Design development complete


MARCH 2010

Exhibit fabrication begins


JANUARY 2011

Substantial completion of building and LEED commissioning


SPRING 2011

Exhibit installation and fine tuning

2011

Museum opening – tentative

The Inside Story

The museum features a variety of interactive exhibits, films and high-tech audio visual displays that will be updated to reflect new information and acquisitions.  Exhibits incorporate the following topics:


THE LEGACY OF THE MOB

How the Mob persists today despite high profile victories.


BRINGING DOWN THE MOB

How the battle against the Mob was won with focus on important historic and law enforcement victories, including  hearings, raids, arrests, and indictments for such illicit activities as money laundering,  human trafficking, drug cartels, kidnappings, wiretapping, murder and  more.


NOTABLE NAMES IN MOB HISTORY

Al Capone, Anthony Spilotro, Sam Giancana, Carlo Gambino, Bugsy Siegel, Joseph Bonanno, Joe Pistone, Moe Dalitz, John Gotti, Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal and others.


MOB BUSTERS

J. Edgar Hoover, Estes Kefauver, Eliot Ness, Harry Anslinger and others.


ORGANIZED CRIME AROUND THE WORLD

A look at current local and global Mob activities and discussion on its future.

 

MEMORIES OF THE MOB

A look at “old” mobsters when they retire, go into exile, enter the witness protection program or die.


MYTH OF THE MOB

How the Mob has been portrayed in movies, books and pop culture and discussion on its accuracy.


SIN CITY

An in-depth look at Las Vegas as the ultimate “open city” that attracted mobsters following the Kefauver Hearings; a tough little town that became haven and playground for American organized crime in the 1950s.


THE GAME CONTINUES

Las Vegas from the 1950s to the present with focus on the Black Book, scamming and skimming, Gaming Control Board activities and Howard Hughes


WEB OF DECEIT

A fascinating look at mob violence, corruption, conspiracy and murder.


THE MOB THROUGH HISTORY

A timeline that includes the birth of the Mob, its geographic “families” around the globe, the impact of prohibition, drugs and prostitution on the mob’s bottom line; how organized crime is evolving.


AMERICA FIGHTS BACK

A recreation of the very courtroom where the proceedings of the Kefauver Committee hearings occurred. The hearings, led by U.S. Senator Estes Kefauver, were held in 14 cities in 1950-51 and sought to expose and control organized crime.

Historic Preservation

The Mob Museum preserves a fascinating chapter of Las Vegas and American history and reflects actual events as they occurred.  It is located in an historic building that is being restored and preserved; the building is home to the courtroom where, in 1950, the Kefauver Hearings on Organized Crime were held. 

The museum is significant for Las Vegas where older buildings are generally destroyed to make room for new development – not preserved. The museum will accurately depict mob history, dispel the legendary “myth of the mob,” and provide detail on the significant role of law enforcement in ending the mob’s reign in Las Vegas and elsewhere in America. The museum’s intent is to accurately recount and share the history of organized crime. Considerable focus is on those in law enforcement who played major roles in defeating the mob. Museum exhibits will be updated to reflect new findings, information and acquisitions.

Economic Impact

According to findings In a November 2009 study by Applied Analysis of Las Vegas, The Mob Museum is expected to: