There is a building in downtown Las Vegas that most tourists walk past without a second thought. It looks like a courthouse – because it is one. Inside, behind calm neoclassical walls, some of the most chilling physical evidence from American organized crime history is quietly waiting for you. No dramatization needed. No Hollywood spin. Just the real thing.
The Mob Museum, officially the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, is a history museum in Downtown Las Vegas dedicated to the artifacts, stories, and history of organized crime in the United States, housed in the former Las Vegas Post Office and Courthouse, built in 1933 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Honestly, the location alone is enough to give you goosebumps. Let’s dive in.
Artifact #1: The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre Wall – Bullet Holes and All
There are museum pieces that feel symbolic, and then there are museum pieces that feel like crime scenes. This is the latter. Bricks pockmarked by a hail of bullets on February 14, 1929 are displayed just as they were in the wall where seven Chicago gangsters were lined up and executed in America’s worst-ever mob hit, and the largest chunk of this actual Chicago wall is a centerpiece of the Mob Museum in Las Vegas.
Seven members and associates of Bugs Moran’s gang were lined up against this brick wall and shot to death by assassins allegedly associated with Al Capone’s gang. In 1967, the garage where the shooting occurred was torn down, and a Vancouver businessman bought the bricks, some of which were still full of bullet holes. Over the next 42 years, the bricks were featured in a traveling exhibit, housed in a short-lived crime museum, and even displayed in a nightclub restroom. Only in America, right?…