News
4-5-2010
AN INSIDE LOOK AT THE LAS VEGAS MUSEUM OF ORGANIZED CRIME AND LAW ENFORCEMENT
(LAS VEGAS, NV) --- When the Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement – aka The Mob Museum – opens next year, visitors can expect to view and experience a variety of interactive exhibits, films, high-tech visual displays and personal artifacts that recount the real stories of organized crime in America and its impact on Las Vegas.
According to Dennis Barrie, PhD, director of cultural and interpretive planning for Westlake Reed Leskosky (WRL) and the Museum’s creative director, many of the names and events associated with mob history have been popularized in some of the most riveting movies and books of the last several decades.
“Our goal is to present Museum visitors with a much fuller and more complete story that is often neglected in popular culture,” he said. “The museum puts considerable focus on how law enforcement has battled organized crime and features many of the names, techniques and behind-the-scenes stories that bring the story full circle. The stories are so compelling, they need no embellishment. It is pure unadulterated history that will easily enlighten and educate visitors of all ages on a topic that continues to fascinate the generations.”
Some of the mob’s most recognizable names are featured in exposes of organized crime’s web of deceit that includes violence, corruption, conspiracy and murder. Names like Capone, Spilotro, Giancana, Gambino, Siegel, Bonanno, Dalitz, Gotti and Rosenthal are contrasted with well known mob busters, including J. Edgar Hoover, Estes Kefauver, Eliot Ness and others.
Important historic and law enforcement victories involving hearings, raids, arrests, and indictments for such illicit activities as money laundering, human trafficking, drug cartels, kidnappings, wiretappings and murder are also featured in highly engaging exhibits. These provide greater insight into the battles waged by law enforcement to control and expose the mob.
According to Barrie, the Museum examines organized crime around the world with a look at current and global Mob activities. A timeline includes the birth of the mob; its geographic “families” around the globe; the impact of prohibition, drugs and prostitution on organized crime’s bottom line; how the mob continues to evolve in a rapidly changing world; and a look at mobsters when they retire, go into exile, enter the witness protection program or die. The Museum also exploits the myth of the mob and discusses the accuracy of its portrayal in popular culture.
Las Vegas is featured via an in-depth look at the ultimate “open city” that attracted mobsters following the Kefauver Hearings, according to Barrie, “a tough little town that became haven and playground for American organized crime in the 1950s.” In “The Game Continues,” the mob’s influence on Las Vegas from the 1950s to the present is revealed via exhibits on the Black Book, scamming and skimming, Gaming Control Board activities and Howard Hughes.
Barrie, best known as the co-creator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland and the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., is an internationally recognized expert in popular culture whose career includes more than 20 years with the Smithsonian Institution and the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center. Barrie expects the Mob Museum to play a key role in reinvigorating downtown Las Vegas - similar to the economic uplift created by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the International Spy Museum on the communities in which they are located.
According to Las Vegas City Councilman Ricki Y. Barlow, the museum, which is currently under construction inside the historic federal courthouse and post office at 300 Stewart Street in downtown Las Vegas, is on track for a mid-2011 opening. The museum is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors and is a key component of the city’s downtown redevelopment efforts, he said.
According to Ellen Knowlton, president of 300 Stewart Avenue Corporation, the non-profit board that is working alongside the city of Las Vegas to oversee development and construction of the museum, years of work and planning are coming to fruition as the museum begins to take shape. Knowlton, a 24-year FBI veteran who previously headed up the FBI’s efforts in Las Vegas as the former FBI Special Agent in Charge, Las Vegas Division, brings a wealth of expertise and knowledge of the city’s efforts to fight organized crime.
Core and shell construction are 30 percent complete just eight months following the August 2009
“wall-breaking” by museum board members, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar B. Goodman and former U.S.
Senator, Richard Bryan. Interior demolition and hazardous materials removal is nearing completion and new construction is underway.
About The Mob Museum
The Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement – The Mob Museum – is a world-class museum dedicated to the history of organized crime and law enforcement now under development in downtown Las Vegas. The museum will present the real stories and actual events of mob history via interactive and engaging exhibits that reveal all sides of the story, with considerable focus on how law enforcement defeated and continues to battle organized crime. Located at 300 Stewart Avenue, inside an historic and former post office and federal court house, the museum is an important component of the city’s downtown redevelopment now underway and is projected to generate a combined economic output of more than $62.3 million during construction, employ approximately 227 individuals during construction, and generate annual visitation of hundreds of thousands tourists to the museum and downtown Las Vegas when it opens in 2011. The 41,000-square-foot Mob Museum includes approximately 16,800 square feet of exhibition space on three floors in addition to a specialty retail store, special event areas, educational areas and office space. The Mob Museum is expected to cost approximately $42 million to construct and is being funded through local, state and federal grants, in addition to matching grants and Redevelopment Agency funding sources that can only be spent in the city’s redevelopment area. The city of Las Vegas, which is currently overseeing the museum’s early development, owns the building and the land on which it sits. Ellen Knowlton, former FBI Special Agent in Charge, Las Vegas Division, and a 24-year FBI veteran, is president of 300 Stewart Avenue Corporation, a non-profit board formed to oversee the Museum’s development and operations. For more information, visit www.themobmuseum.org.
