Crime And Moonshine: The Mob Museum In Las Vegas Brings History To Life

Sin City isn’t just casinos, flashy shows, and sunshiny days. There's tons of amazing history to experience that can add to a fun-filled visit.

Step into the thrilling world of organized crime and law enforcement at The Mob Museum in Las Vegas. This immersive attraction brings history to life in a fun way with interactive exhibits, rare artifacts, and real stories from the rise of the mob to the efforts to bring them down. Explore a restored Prohibition-era speakeasy, get hands-on with forensic investigations, and see infamous crime relics like the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre wall. 

Whether you're a history buff or just looking for a unique Vegas experience, The Mob Museum offers a fascinating glimpse into the darker side of American history in a fun and memorable way.

Located a few blocks from Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas, The Mob Museum, also known as the National Museum of Organized Crime & Law Enforcement, offers a fun way to learn about some of the darker moments in history related to the mob and law enforcement. 

“What’s fascinating to people is just how much we’ve been able to pack into the building with four floors of exhibits,” said Claire White, Director of Education.

 “We explore everything from the prohibition era. One of our premier artifacts from that time period is the wall against which the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre occurred in Chicago in 1929. We have a ton of artifacts from that mid-century vintage Vegas era and things that belonged to mobsters from the 50s, 60s, and 70s.”

In addition to the exhibits, there are also a few ticketed experiences to add to your visit - the Crime Lab, Distillery Tasting, and Firearm Training Simulator. A whole day can be spent enjoying the museum and all it offers.

“For our general admission guests, people who don’t necessarily want to stop for a cocktail afterwards, and who don’t necessarily have the time to do one of the additional ticketed experiences, we suggest about 90 minutes to two hours,” White said. 

“If you want to fill a full day at the Mob Museum, you most certainly can, especially on the weekends when we’ve got all of our additional ticketed experiences happening throughout the day. And then on top of that, in our Underground, we have live jazz every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights.”

And an added bonus to the Underground Speakeasy and Distillery is that they make their own moonshine on site and tastings are available.

In addition to checking out all the exhibits, you can enjoy some hands-on fun in the Crime Lab, where you can learn about DNA profiling, scan your own fingerprint, solve a case on the digital autopsy table, and more. 

“You can see which mobster had a similar fingerprint to yours,” White shared. “We have bullet comparison microscopes for guests to try to match bullets that would have been fired from the same gun.”

The Firearm Training Simulator puts you in the “shoes of law enforcement agents,” according to White. 

“It allows you to sort of see and feel and understand these split-second decisions they have to make in their jobs on a day-to-day basis,” she explained. “So you go through a series of video and live-action simulations with a gun that allows you to sort of feel exactly what it’s like to be a law enforcement agent.” 

Inside The Mob Museum, there’s a secret speakeasy that offers distillery tasting where you can get a flight of samples of the house-made moonshine. The museum educators will take tasters on a 25-minute journey through the Prohibition era and talk about how Americans came to make moonshine before and during the Prohibition. 

"Our speakeasy is so immersive. There's a couple of different entry points, but the one for people who really want to step back in time is actually our secret side entrance. Every day, we have a password for our speakeasy. You can find the password on our social channels," White said. "You are treated to the true experience of what it was like to go to these secret speakeasies during the 1920s."

Throughout The Underground are historical artifacts and a true speakeasy ambiance.

"You could be sitting at a table right next to an authentic 1920s flapper's dress. You could be sitting at a table next to an art deco cigarette case that belonged to mobster Meyer Lansky," she continued. "You could be sitting at the bar and seeing some of the things that companies like Abercrombie & Fitch were making in the 1920s. It's such a cool environment."

In addition to the real look and feel of the speakeasy are the Prohibition era cocktails. Some drinks come in secret, hidden receptacles and some in things shaped like a bathtub because of the idea of bathtub gin.

The Blast had the opportunity to visit The Mob Museum recently. From the moment we used the secret password to enter the hidden entrance to the speakeasy, the fun began. You really get the feeling that you went back in time once you enter the speakeasy.

After visiting the speakeasy, it was time to check out the museum. We were instructed to start on the top floor and work our way back down. Every floor offered more interesting history to learn more about.

After we were done with each floor of the museum, it was time for us to check out the Crime Lab and the Firearms Training Simulator. While in the Crime Lab, we scanned our fingerprints and found out what mobster shares a similar fingerprint. We also solved three crimes on the interactive autopsy table. And over in the Firearms Training Simulator, we got to step into the shoes of law enforcement and stop a few crimes in progress. We had so much fun in both and feel it's a must when you're visiting The Mob Museum.

For more information about The Mob Museum, visit their website.