(The Museum is the former Federal Courthouse.) This was a morbidly fascinating event carried on TV and watched by more people than watched the World Series that year.įloating craps, anyone? Sands Hotel, 1954 Courtesy of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, University Librariesīugsy, the ringleader of the Murder, Inc. The museum even houses the courtroom used for the famous Kefauver hearings on organized crime, which were held across the country and for one day in Vegas, on November 15, 1950. The National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement (in Las Vegas, of course) is a repository of all things related to the dark days before the corporate, legal, mobs took over. Organized crime in Las Vegas was pervasive in the mid-20th century, as the then evolving casino business replaced the loss of their Prohibition-era crime business.Īnd more than once it culminated in some guy who drew the wrong straw getting whacked.
