An artist’s rendering
shows a concept for exhibits at the mob museum proposed for downtown Las
Vegas. Photo credit: City of Las Vegas
Las Vegas mob museum continues to move forward
The Las Vegas City Council took another step forward this morning on building a mob museum in the city's downtown.
And they also heard it is still on track to be open to the public in a little more than a year in the historic federal office building and post office building at 300 Stewart.
On a 6-1 vote, the council approved spending another $83,020 from the Nevada Commission for Cultural Affairs to continue seismic retrofit measures so the building can be used as the mob museum, officially known as the Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/nov/18/las-vegas-mob-museum-continues-move-forward/
11/19/2009
JOHN L. SMITH: Mayor's idea for a mob museum sleeps with the fishes in Washington
so i says to oscar the mayor, i says: what was you thinking
admitting publicly the las vegas MOB MUSEUM is a MOB MUSEUM? officially it's known
as the las vegas museum of organized crime and law enforcement. you didn't even
give the g-men top billing. even the web site winks and adds "a k a 'the MOB MUSEUM.'"
so much for the subtle approach. maybe you should have given it a more mainstream
moniker, like the las vegas pistol-packing pioneer museum, or the gats 'n' spats
guggenheim. you couldn't resist stressing that thing of yours, the mob. in doing so, you violated t...
http://www.lvrj.com/news/38442514.html
1/27/2009
NORM: Mob Museum's future brightens
if mayor oscar goodman's endangered MOB MUSEUM doesn't survive, a
knockoff could surface at caesars palace. the goodman-endorsed museum of organized crime
and law enforcement, aka the MOB MUSEUM, has become the national poster child for pork
spending. the $50 million project has been the subject of hot debate since u.s. senate
minority leader mitch mcconnell held it up as an example of what should not be part
of an economic stimulus package. even president-elect barack obama was less than ent...
http://www.lvrj.com/news/37559969.html
1/14/2009
Reid supports mob museum, but not in stimulus bill
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid defended a proposed mob museum in his
home state on Wednesday, but said contrary to Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman's wishes that it
wouldn't be paid for in the upcoming economic stimulus plan." I think that the mob museum is
a good idea. I think it will draw a lot of people," Reid said. But "the economic stimulus
plan will have no earmarks in it, there will be none." "I think most everybody would"
consider money for the museum an earmark, he said. Goodman had included the $55 million
museum on a wish list of projects compiled last month by the U.S. Conference of Mayors
and submitted to President-elect Barack Obama's transition team. It quickly became
a target of Republican ridicule when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky
cited it as an example of the type of pork-barrel spending that shouldn't be in the
massive stimulus plan being shaped by Obama's team and Congress.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jan/14/reid-supports-mob-museum-but-not-in-stimulus-bill/
1/14/2009
Mayor returns fire over mob museum funding
One of Mayor Oscar Goodman’s favorite downtown development projects, the
mob museum, riled up a few Republican U.S. senators last week after they learned that the mayor
had requested federal funds for the project. First, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell
of Kentucky mocked the idea on a political talk show. Then Sen. John Ensign, R-Nevada., weighed
in, claiming a mob museum funding request could bring down a federal stimulus bill “out of
embarrassment.” It seems likely that McConnell and Ensign either didn’t know, or perhaps
conveniently forgot, that the project has the full backing and support of the FBI, which
is working with museum planners to ensure that the Mafia isn’t glorified and that law
enforcement’s mob-battling story is given its due. More important, Goodman said, is that
the project is on course and will remain so even if the feds keep backing away.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jan/12/mayor-returns-fire-over-museum-funding/
1/13/2009
Stimulus Money for a Mob Museum. Got a Problem?
LAS VEGAS — After taking a hail of bipartisan bullets in recent days over the
suggestion that a federal stimulus package should help pay for a proposed $50 million museum here on
the history of organized crime, the project’s godfathers are returning fire, complaining that
Washington pols are scapegoating the museum and the city. A proposed exhibit for the museum would
trace popular depictions of the mob. The planned Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law
Enforcement, a k a “the Mob Museum” on its own Web site, is to include interactive exhibits
where visitors can snap their mug shots, stand in police lineups and wiretap one another.
Such a center, Mayor Oscar B. Goodman said in an interview Thursday, is “absolutely falling
within the four corners of what President-elect Obama is trying to achieve.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/10/us/10mob.html?_r=1&ref=us
1/9/2009
Louder now: No on pork for mob museum
Washington — The mob museum just can’t seem to get any love in this
town. Republican Sen.
John Ensign on Wednesday became the latest Nevada lawmaker to say there’s no way Las Vegas’ proposed Mob Museum
is going to get a dime from the federal economic stimulus package. “It’s not going to happen — there’s no way
it’s going to happen,” Ensign said. “If folks tried to put things like that in the bill, it could bring down
the bill out of embarrassment." The mob museum could have become Nevada’s own “bridge to nowhere,” a toxic asset
depicted by Republicans in Washington as a prime example of potentially wasteful government spending in the recovery package.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jan/08/louder-now-no-pork-mob-museum/
1/8/2009
Mob museum is Exhibit A for GOP leader
Washington — Las Vegas’ proposed mob museum is a subject ripe for ridicule, and the Republicans here have held it up as just that.
Now that work is under way on the economic recovery package of tax breaks and public works projects being developed by President-elect
Barrack Obama and congressional leaders, lawmakers in both parties are insisting that no money go for earmarks — pet projects in lawmakers’ home districts.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, raised the mob museum as Exhibit A in frivolous spending on a Sunday morning political talk show on ABC.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jan/06/mob-museum-exhibit-gop-leader/
1/6/2009
JANE ANN MORRISON: Unveiling of museum logo renews debate on whether mob ran Las Vegas
las vegas was a better place when the mob ran the town. now how many times
have you heard that old saw? there's even a book out titled "when the mob ran vegas" by steve
fischer. flipping through it, i noticed fischer described mobster herbie blitzstein as 6 feet
6 inches tall. i talked to herbie enough while he still walked this earth to know that wasn't
accurate. wednesday's unveiling of the humorous logo for the new MOB MUSEUM, expected to open
in the old downtown post office in 2010, reignites the debate: did the mob really run the
town? leslie niño fidance, a student at the boyd school of law, took a bold move, one
likely to be both cheered and jeered, in her research paper titled "the mob never ran vegas."
the emphasis was on "never." specifically, she argued the mob didn't control local government
and didn't control gaming regulators, thus didn't control the city. for real insights,...
http://www.lvrj.com/news/30462199.html
10/4/2008
The Mob Museum?
They’re calling it the Las Vegas Law Enforcement and
Organized Crime Museum. But, as Mayor Oscar Goodman said Thursday, all the branding is
“Mob Museum” and that’s what “everyone will call it.” They changed it because former
local FBI boss Ellen Knowlton, now heading up the endeavor, told him “Mob Museum”
might not be looked upon favorably by the FBI, which is now providing exhibits. How
nice that the former FBI chief could assist the former mob lawyer in glorifying his
former clients. Added Goodman: “I think in the end, law enforcement may have won.”
Against a mob he once said never existed, now says left “when I became mayor,” but
now will be honored in a downtown museum. Lovely.
hhttp://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/aug/15/mob-museum/
8/15/2008
Oh, the irony: The former mob lawyer gets FBI support for mob museum
In 2002, Mayor Oscar Goodman’s suggestion that the historic post office near City Hall be turned into a mob museum caused a minor uproar. Community activists railed against the possible glorification of organized crime. Some Italian-Americans expressed anger over how they might be portrayed.
When he was next asked about it, Goodman jokingly claimed that he had meant to propose a “mop” museum.
A poll conducted by the city in 2006 showed that although tourists were in favor of a museum dedicated to the Mafia’s local exploits, Las Vegans were far less interested.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/aug/17/oh-irony-former-mob-lawyer-gets-fbi-support-mob-mu/
8/17/2008
Mob museum a serious endeavor?
The city hyped a “Big Announcement at Today’s Las Vegas City Council Meeting Regarding
Downtown Museum.” The Review-Journal issued a news flash after the mob museum’s name was announced Tuesday —
but neglected to include the name! It wasn’t news of any size because Mayor Oscar Goodman disclosed the name
in August: The Las Vegas Law Enforcement and Organized Crime Museum. But the mayor got a second bite of the
always-ripe-for-manipulation media apple. The logo lampoons the government’s habit of document redaction.
No wonder ex-FBI chief Ellen Knowlton is on the board. Now we know this will be a serious endeavor, the feds
won’t be ridiculed and the mob won’t be glorified. Phew.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/oct/02/mob-museum-serious-endeavor/
8/2/2008
LV museum gets $800,000 in new funds
Las Vegas' historic downtown post office received
$800,000 in new funding Monday and is also going to get help from the
FBI and "Casino" author Nicholas Pileggi. and while previous city
announcements have said the museum will focus on broader Las Vegas
history, "including the influence of organized crime," a presentation
Monday indicated that the museum's exhibits will be tightly focused on
the valley's colorful mafia past. the Las Vegas centennial commission
approved the funds for exhibit acquisitions and an expensive seismic
retrofit. interior refurbishing was recently completed, and there's at
least two years of planning and construction left before the museum
opens. "it's a very complex project," said Nancy Deaner, manager of
cultural affairs for the city of Las Vegas. "not only is it a historic
project for our community, but it has far-reaching tentacles all over
the United States." Deaner provided an overview of what the exhibits in
the three-story ...
http://www.lvrj.com/news/11850461.html
11/27/2007
Museum plans arresting experience
A man who spent years with those who went toe to toe with the FBI during Las Vegas' virtual ownership by the mob scoffs at the notion of a “Mob Museum” in downtown Las Vegas.
“Stupid idea,” the man said. For the record, he is no longer part of anything that has anything to do with anyone “connected.” Can't go near them. Won't go near them.
He also adds: “Oscar's crazy.”
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jan/03/museum-plans-arresting-experience/
1/3/2008
From the Associated Press, January 22, 2008
Photo credit: University of Nevada, Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS--Las Vegas is building a museum about some of its founding fathers and most influential figures -- guys with names like Bugsy, Lefty and
Lansky.
The mob museum will stand as frank acknowledgment of the major role mobsters played in developing Las Vegas into the gambling capital of America and giving
the city its rakish glamour during the 1940s and '50s.
"Let's be brutally honest, warts and all. This is more than legend. It's fact," said Mayor Oscar Goodman, a former defense attorney whose clients once
included mobsters Meyer Lansky and Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro. "This is something that differentiates us from other cities."
The project has gained the support of the FBI and is guided by a retired FBI agent. They say they are involved because you can't tell the stories of Benjamin
"Bugsy" Siegel, his banker, Lansky, casino boss Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal and others without telling the story of the lawmen who pursued them.
"This is a way to connect with the public and show the results of our work," said Dan
McCarron, a spokesman for the FBI in Washington.
Ellen Knowlton, who retired in 2006 as FBI agent in charge in Las Vegas and now heads the not-for-profit museum organization, said FBI officials have offered
to share photographs, transcripts of wiretaps and histories of efforts to kneecap organized crime in the 1950s, '60s and '70s.
"Despite the sort of edgy theme, this museum will be historically accurate and it will tell the true story of organized crime," Knowlton said. "The plan is
to give people a kind of gritty taste of what it would have been like to be not only a person involved or affiliated with organized crime, but also what it
would have been like to be in law enforcement."
Officials expect to open the museum by 2010 in a brick federal building that was the centerpiece of this dusty town of 5,100 residents when it opened in
1933. In 1950, the three-story building hosted a hearing by Tennessee Sen. Estes Kefauver's special investigating committee on the rackets.
Goodman, who showed his own willingness to play up Las Vegas' mob past by making a cameo in the 1995 Robert De Niro-Joe Pesci movie "Casino," has pushed the
idea of a mob museum from the time he was elected mayor in 1999.
He brokered a deal for the city to buy the building in 2000 for $1, with the understanding it would be turned into a cultural center. Officials expect the
final cost, including renovations, to reach almost $50 million.
About $15 million has been raised through grants, city funds, contributions and the sale of commemorative license plates that marked Las Vegas' centennial in
2005.
It was Siegel who pioneered the transformation of this one-time desert stopover into a glittering tourist mecca, opening the $6 million Flamingo hotel on the
fledgling Las Vegas Strip in 1946 with financial backing from Lansky.
The movie star-handsome Siegel was rubbed out six months later in Beverly Hills, Calif., perhaps because he angered the mob with cost overruns on the
hotel.
Spilotro and Rosenthal were associates in the 1970s, when Rosenthal ran several casinos, including the Stardust. Spilotro was killed in 1986 and buried in an
Indiana cornfield.
Organized crime eventually was driven out of Las Vegas in the 1970s and '80s by the FBI, local police and prosecutors, state crackdowns and casino purchases
by corporate interests.
Many of these stories have been dramatized by Hollywood in such movies as "Bugsy," "The Godfather" and "Casino." But documenting mob history isn't going to
be easy.
"If anybody out there finds a memo saying: `To the boys, from Meyer. Re: Bugsy. Kill him,' We'd love to have it," said Michael Green, a College of Southern
Nevada history professor who is researching exhibits for the museum. "But we doubt it's there.
"Because of that, you have to do a lot of reconstructing, inferring and implying," he said. "There's a lot of winking we're going to have to do."
Green pointed to stories about Moe Dalitz, a Cleveland businessman who rescued the Desert Inn and Stardust casinos in the 1950s and '60s and built a
hospital, golf courses and shopping centers.
"Was he tied to the mob or involved with the mob? Yes," Green said. "A mobster? Harder to explain."
Dennis Barrie, who designed the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and the popular International Spy Museum in Washington, said he will design the
as-yet-unnamed Las Vegas museum to show how organized crime and the fight against it shaped modern life.
"Whether it's running the casinos in Las Vegas, or controlling cigarette sales or numbers or trash collection in any city, organized crime is part of the
American culture," Barrie said. "Everybody has a mob story or a brush with the mob world. Or they at least say they do."
Organizers say paying visitors might be asked to decide as they arrive which side of the law they want to be on, and then be given a story line tracing the
life of a famous lawman or mobster or a street cop or numbers runner.
"Were you a hit man? Were you a prosecutor? What choices do you have to make?" Green said. "We're telling a story of things that are multisided."
Organizers also hope to have an oral-history area where visitors "can sit down in front of a camera and say, `I knew Bugsy,' or `I saw Meyer,' or whatever,"
he said.
