Las Vegas unveils name of new mob museum

Associated Press Writer

updated 11:06 a.m. ET Oct. 2, 2008

LAS VEGAS - Las Vegas hopes its newest museum will be a hit.

The city is opening The (redacted) Museum: The Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, which will showcase southern Nevada's colorful and storied past in organized crime.

The City Council unveiled the name Tuesday, along with logos resembling court documents with material blacked out. The first redaction obscures the word "mob."

"I don't think anybody is able to do tongue-in-cheek the way Las Vegas can do it," said Mayor Oscar Goodman, a former criminal defense lawyer who represented organized crime figures before representing residents in City Hall.

The museum is expected to open in spring 2010 in downtown Las Vegas at the site of the former federal courthouse where Goodman tried his first case.

As city officials unveiled the plans, council members tossed around T-shirts that said: "There is no such thing as a mob museum nor have I ever been there."

"Does this mean the mayor's going to be cleaning out his garage?" joked Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian.

Fact file Some underworld figures whose stories will be told when Las Vegas opens its mob museum: Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel Pioneered Las Vegas as America's glamorous gambling capital, opening the lavish Flamingo hotel-casino in 1946. Rubbed out in 1947 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Hollywood handsome, he was played by Warren Beatty in the 1991 movie "Bugsy." Meyer Lansky The mob's money man and one of the underworld's most powerful and influential figure. Helped bankroll Siegel's Flamingo. Legend has it he had Siegel killed over the vast cost overruns on the project. Kept a financial interest in the Flamingo until the 1960s. Lee Strasberg played a character based on Lansky in "The Godfather, Part II." Died in 1983 in Miami Beach at age 80. Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro A Chicago mob enforcer who moved to Las Vegas in 1971, Spilotro worked with Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, who ran several casinos, including the Stardust. Spilotro and Rosenthal were the inspiration for characters played by Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro in the 1995 movie "Casino." Spilotro was killed in 1986 and buried in an Indiana cornfield. He was 48. Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal Now 78 and living in Florida, Rosenthal was a behind-the-scenes hand running the Stardust, Fremont and Hacienda casinos when they were controlled by the mob. Banned from casinos in 1988 because of his mob ties. Served as the model for Sam "Ace" Rothstein, played by Robert De Niro in "Casino." Morris Barney "Moe" Dalitz A former bootlegger from Cleveland, Dalitz financed completion of the Desert Inn hotel-casino in the late 1940s and owned it until 1967, when he sold it to the billionaire Howard Hughes. Also ran the Stardust for a time. Died in 1989. Sources: The Associated Press

Goodman joked of his possible contributions to the exhibits: "They've been in my backyard trying to dig up some of the old relics, but so far I've fended them off. We'll have a lot of Oscar-abilia in there."

Plans for the museum are supported by the FBI, which has pledged to locate organized crime artifacts in Washington and lend them for displays. The former head of the Las Vegas FBI office, Ellen Knowlton, is chairwoman of the museum's board.

Officials say the museum won't glorify organized crime, but instead will give a candid look at its influence on Las Vegas, how law enforcers worked to extract illegal influences from gambling, how mob operations in cities around the country were connected and famous hearings on organized crime.

The city believes the museum could draw as many as 800,000 visitors each year and is part of an attempt to revitalize downtown Las Vegas.

The mob theme was picked after a poll of 300 tourists showed more than 70 percent ranking the idea among its top three concepts. Other options included a behind-the-scenes look at gambling, a museum on magic or a museum dedicated to Las Vegas icons such as Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley.

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