Who or What Organization Founded the Mob Museum

Who (or what organization) founded the Mob Museum?

The Mob Museum was originally the brainchild of Oscar Goodman, the longtime Las Vegas criminal defense attorney who specialized in organized-crime-related clients and cases, then served three terms as the city's mayor. In 2002, as mayor, Goodman proposed a museum that would "tell the story of how Las Vegas got started" (never mind that Las Vegas got started between 40 and 100 years, depending on how you're counting, before gangsters arrived here).

Goodman said that he'd donate mob memorabilia from his personal collection, accumulated from when he defended the likes of Meyer Lansky, Nick Civella, Tony Spilotro, Philip Leonetti, Natale Richichi, and Charles Panarella, to name a few.

The Museum is set up as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. It cost a little more than $40 million to construct and open. The funding came from numerous local, state, and federal grants, particularly from the National Park Service, Nevada Commission for Cultural Affairs, the Commission for the Las Vegas Centennial, and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Money from the city's General Fund was allocated in 2004.

Along the way, the idea attracted a team of world-class museum designers, whose credits also include the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.

The Museum relies on an Advisory Council of around 60 volunteers with expertise in the fields of law enforcement, journalism, intelligence, academia, and the criminal justice system. There's also a 22-member Board of Directors and 10 top executives, including Geoff Schumacher, senior director of content, who edits our annual edition of Vegas Writes, which is due out any day now.

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Dave in Seattle. Sep-09-2019

Behind the Lady Luck.

I thought that the museum was the converted courthouse or the Post Office.

Kevin Lewis Sep-09-2019

A stupid idea

American culture has, for some unfathomable reason, always glorified the Mob and organized crime. I doubt that any of the countless victims of these vicious thugs would approve of the building of a shrine to the Mafia.

Of course, Oscar Goodman was a member of the Mafia through and through (and high-ranking at that), so it's no surprise he was able to divert/extort millions of dollars for the building of the museum.

Dave Sep-09-2019

@ Dave in Seattle

You’re right. It IS in the former court house / post office behind DownTown Grand. 

I assume the line that confused you was “$40 million to construct...” That should have been “renovate.”

I think that seems high to renovate, but what do I know?

Roy Furukawa Sep-09-2019

Reply (retort?) to the Dave's

I'm sure the $40 million in renovation money went to proper "construction" and "demolition" businesses (wink, wink) since Goodman was involved.  :D

O2bnVegas Sep-09-2019

sheesh, Kevin

Would you say that the Holocaust is glorified by the various museums dedicated to informing people about it?  No.  Yes, TV/movies glorify "the Mob", which is why we need credible sources of information without the 'creative' spin.  

Your post (like so many) comes across as a criticism of the questioner for asking the question, and of anyone who has visited the museum and may have found it enlightening--in one way or another.  Would you have preferred this QOD wasn't asked at all...WWKD?

Scott Rowan Sep-09-2019

boorish

nice boorish comment as usual kev
cant wait for the next one about something else you hate about vegas
way to go

Kevin Lewis Sep-09-2019

The better analogy...

...would be a museum about the Nazis. Or perhaps a hitman, extortionist, and loan shark museum.

I didn't say I hated the Mob Museum. Your words, not mine. I don't like Vegas's history as a Mob town and how corrupt it was and still is. It's an era best forgotten--not that megacorporations running things is much of an improvement.

Dave Sep-09-2019

Mob museum ?

Kev, et al -

Let’s not forget that ‘Mob Museum’ is just its nickname. It’s officially the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement,

Question of the Day - 09 September 2019

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