Museum of American Gangster 03/01/2019 March 6, 2019

Group left the school at financial district shortly after 12 pm and made their way to the green line via uptown. It was cold but the sunshine was bright and beautiful. Upon arrival at Astor Place station, we walked a few blocks via East Village’s “Little Tokyo,” where the museum is located on the second floor of an old, decrepit-looking apartment building which used to have a speakeasy on the bottom level. The neighborhood itself was once frequented by well-known gangsters such as Al Capone, Lucky Luciano and John Gotti.

The primary focus of the museum’s exhibition revolved around the Prohibition Era of the 1920’s. Once inside in the museum, we had the pleasure of viewing old gangster memorabilia, such as a suit once belonging to famed criminal Henry Hill, death masks of gangster John Dillinger, bullets from the Saint Valentine’s Day massacre investigation, as well as a bullet from the shooting of bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd. In addition, many photographs, newspaper clippings, various guns of all shapes and sizes, as well as original documents from the Prohibition Era were to be found.

After walking around for some time and listening in on the tour going on, we decided to leave and say our goodbyes.