Before or after the Liberace Museum?
 Las Vegas is building a museum about some of its founding fathers and most influential figuresâ€â€guys with names like Bugsy, Lefty and Lansky.
The mob museum will stand as frank acknowledgment of the major role mobsters played in developing Las Vegas into the gambling capital of America and giving the city its rakish glamour during the 1940s and ’50s.
“Let’s be brutally honest, warts and all. This is more than legend. It’s fact,” said Mayor Oscar Goodman, a former defense attorney whose clients once included mobsters Meyer Lansky and Anthony “Tony the Ant” Spilotro. “This is something that differentiates us from other cities.”
The project has gained the support of the FBI and is guided by a retired FBI agent. They say they are involved because you can’t tell the stories of Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, his banker, Lansky, casino boss Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal and others without telling the story of the lawmen who pursued them.”This is a way to connect with the public and show the results of our work,” said Dan McCarron, a spokesman for the FBI in Washington.ÂÂ
This is a way to connect with the public and show the results of our work,†said Dan McCarron, a spokesman for the FBI in Washington.
Crime pays.
I read a good piece about the history of Vegas awhile back where they were addressing this. Since gambling was illegal everywhere at the time, anybody who knew the business was a criminal, and most likely connected. So even though the casinos were legal, the only people truly qualified to set up and manage the gaming were criminals. It was the only way to go clean in their chosen profession, if you will.
There was this kid I grew up with – he was younger than me. Sorta looked up to me – you know. We did our first work together – worked our way out of the street. Things were good, we made the most of it. During Prohibition – we ran molasses into Canada – made a fortune – your father, too. As much as anyone, I loved him – and trusted him. Later on he had an idea – to build a city out of a desert stop-over for GI’s on the way to the West Coast. That kid’s name was Moe Green – and the city he invented was Las Vegas. This was a great man – a man of vision and guts. And there isn’t even a plaque – or a signpost – or a statue of him in that town!
Someone put a bullet through his eye.
No one knows who gave the order – when I heard it, I wasn’t angry; I knew Moe – I knew he was head-strong, talking loud, saying stupid things. So when he turned up dead – I let it go. And I said to myself, this is the business we’ve chosen – I didn’t ask who gave the order – because it had nothing to do with business!
Moe, get down from there! You’ll poke your eye out!
I knew it was you, Roth.
There is a Liberace museum? How much you wanna bet that Gren Gleenwald has a season pass?
I’ve lived in Las Vegas for nearly 20 years and have yet to set foot in the Liberace museum. When the mob museum opens, however…
There are quite a few who lived here way back when who are nostalgic for the days when the mobs ran the casinos, rather than the corporations of today. Personally, I put that in the category of the good old days weren’t always good.
“Do you know who I am? I’m Moe Green! I was making my bones while you were still dating cheerleaders!”
Sorry, couldn’t resist
I just hope that Joe Yablonski and Charlie Parsons are allowed to contribute to the story. And Steve Wynn should finance the museum from his small change. Vegas is the fundamental orifice of the criminal branch of capitalism. And who says that the Mob ‘were driven out’ in the 70s and 80s? As the Iron Duke once said, “If you believe that, you’ll believe anything.”