Europe's crime museums delve into the fight against the mafia in Palermo, medieval torture devices in Rothenburg and forensic specimens in Athens. Las Vegas’ Mob Museum, the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, recounts the history of the US mafia through hundreds of artefacts and immersive storylines. It features interactive exhibits including a Crime Lab and Firearm Training Simulator - and has just added a newly redesigned section on ‘The Mob in Pop Culture’.
The exhibit features artefacts, costumes and images examining the influence of organised crime on American popular culture. The display includes two cast-worn costume suits from Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, a revolver used by Robert de Niro in The Godfather Part II and DEA Agent Steve Murphy’s copy of the script for the first episode of the Netflix series Narcos. The museum is also home to The Underground, a Prohibition history exhibition featuring a speakeasy and distillery.
If you can’t make it to the States for a dose of crime history, here’s where you can learn about mafia, mobs and misdemeanours in Europe. The No Mafia Memorial offer visitors a journey through the most important historical events in Italy’s fight against the mafia. It is housed in the historic Palazzo Gulì in the Sicilian city of Palermo - birthplace of judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino who were murdered by the mafia.
There is a photographic archive on the ground floor and a new multimedia exhi.
