Mobbed at the Mob Museum

Friday, February 14, 2025

Happy Valentine’s day! We went to the obvious spot for such a day – the Mob Museum. As we got close to it, it was apparent something was going on. There were balloons and lots of people outside. We parked and walked back. FREE for LOCALS DAY!

Darn.

Lots of people were taking them up on their free offer, which meant a LOT of people were inside. We were lucky that it was BOGO for non- locals. We spent more time looking at things than most people, and the crowd ebbed and flowed. By the time we worked our way down from the third to the first floor, it had really thinned out. It said it could take as much as three hours, so, of course, we spent 4.5 hours. I don’t recall ever skipping so much of a museum. There was so. much. to. read. I just walked by the entire forensics section – I watched CSI:Original for all the seasons, so I got my armchair forensic knowledge already.

The top floor was about general mobbiness – Capone, Dillinger, and the like. The big celebration/free day was in honor of the St. Valentine’s Day massacre. Four guys (two in stolen police uniforms) had 7 guys from a different mob line up against a wall to be arrested. The seven guys did, because whatever they were being accused of (delivering liquor during prohibition?) was a civil offense. You paid a fine and got out. They didn’t care – they’d be out by noon. Then the four guys shot them very much. No one was ever charged, but the guess is that Al Capone was in charge of the four guys and he wanted the guys from a different mob to be dead. The guns were found quite a bit later in Michigan and that is where they live now – EXCEPT on Valentine’s Day, when they come to the Mob Museum.

Huh.

There was a long line to see the guns and we didn’t get there in time. Upstairs they told us the guns were there until 6:30. At 5:30, when we arrived, they said the line was cut off. Mmm. That makes sense, I guess. Guns look like guns to me. I wouldn’t know anything, so it didn’t matter.

The second floor was all about early Las Vegas.

After Prohibition, the mob wasn’t making gazillions of dollars off illegal liquor, so they decided gambling was a good idea. Las Vegas “started” as gambling place in the early 1900s – 1905-1910, so there was a bit of a town for them to grow. The casino games were all on the up and up – because if there was a whiff of unfair games, you would immediately lose everyone ever coming to your casino. The mob earned its money by skimming. They just took money from the casino in the counting rooms. The scales were off for chips, and stacks of money just wandered away. Millions of dollars just wandered away. I learned about Frank Balistrieri, Milwaukee crime boss, and a big deal in skimming in Las Vegas. His legitimate businesses included running restaurants – I wonder if the current Balistrieri’s (home of good pizza and lasagna) is related to him.

Howard Hughes was here. For quite a while. In a hotel room. He didn’t want to leave, so he bought the hotel. Then some others. And a few more.

Bottom floor was current mobs. We skimmed. There was a guest speaker – Frank Calabrese, Jr. His father was a mobster, and he followed (or was pulled) in the family business. Eventually some time in prison helped him get away from the mob business. He helped the FBI put his father away forever. It was very interesting.

The gift shop was fun.

We went out for a special Valentine’s dinner at Mr. Fries Man. We had steak and shrimp and honey garlic sauce over fries. Really good. We have mostly been cooking in our hotel, so it was fun to be out.