The museum would fit right in with the wackiness of Vegas. Only Vegas would elect as mayor the lawyer who defended Lefty Rosenthal and The Ant--and played himself doing so in "Casino." And only Vegas would enthusiastically host a museum of the Mob. Fits right in.
The lesson I take away from legalized gambling in Nevada is a familiar one in America: money washes away all sins. The Robber Barons like John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and E.H. Harriman were despised in their day for their plundering of America. But the charities, foundations and universities they created and funded cleansed their family names. It's the same in Vegas: Where else could Moe Dalitz, former leader of the Mayfield Road Gang and the biggest Midwestern rum runner during Prohibition, be named "Man of the Year" for building a hospital that his construction company profited from? Where else could Little Moe Sedway, who took over the Flamingo within an hour of Bugsy Siegel's assassination, become the first chair of the United Jewish Appeal?
A couple of years ago we visited the Liberace Museum in Vegas (well worth the visit, BTW: a 10,000-calorie slice of Americana). They had a small exhibit on Vegas's gangster years. One of the exhibits was the 1956 Las Vegas High School yearbook. The book was open to the spread on that year's Homecoming Queen: none other than Terry Siegel, Bugsy's daughter.
Ntra la porta tua lu sangu � sparsu, E nun me mporta si ce muoru accisu... E s'iddu muoru e vaju mparadisu Si nun ce truovo a ttia, mancu ce trasu.
