Wearing pin-stripe suits and armed with a crowbar and baseball bat, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar B. Goodman and former U.S.  Senator and museum board member, Richard Bryan, busted through a brick wall on August 4 to ceremonially mark the beginning of construction on the Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement – also known as The Mob Museum.  Expected to open in early 2011 inside the historic former U.S. Post Office and federal courthouse at 300 Stewart Avenue in downtown Las Vegas, the Mob Museum’s objective is to present a bold and authentic view of organized crime’s impact on Las Vegas and the world. 

Dennis and Kathy Barrie, the creative team behind the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, are leading design and curatorial efforts for the Mob Museum.  Artifacts and memorabilia of former mobsters and FBI agents will showcase the fascinating and historic battle between organized crime and law enforcement. 

The recent wall-busting ceremony was a particularly fitting choice for the groundbreaking given that a portion of that wall, which was involved in the infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, has been procured for display at the Museum.   On February 14, 1929, four mobsters dressed as police officers entered a warehouse in Chicago. According to the Chicago Historical Society, they blasted with machine guns at six gang members and one other person - all of whom had been lined up against a brick wall. The killings became a national symbol for organized crime and gang violence and were attributed to Chicago gangster Al Capone.

Photo: Senator Richard H. Bryan, Mayor Oscar B. Goodman and Councilman Ricki Y. Barlow at the August “wall-breaking” to mark the beginning of construction on the Mob Museum