A Las Vegas Cozy Mystery
This is an excerpt from my book about my trip to the Mob Museum:
Once my husband and I entered the museum, we felt as if we had traveled back to the infamous days of crime in Las Vegas and throughout the United States, starting from the 20s when prohibition had allowed opportunists, such as Al Capone, to make their fortunes satisfying the thirst of Americans who craved alcohol.
The first room we visited showed a simulated police lineup where visitors could pose, holding up signs that looked like license plates with unique numbers. Some teenagers posed in front of a back wall that showed a height chart. They had their picture taken by a professional cameraman supplied by the museum and had a hard time keeping a straight face because they kept giggling.
Next, we saw the blood-stained wall where the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre occurred in Chicago. Circles surrounded the bloody holes where Al Capone and his gang had mown down their rivals. My husband sat in a real electric chair and I took a picture, capturing the moment.
The teenagers caught up with us and one of them sat in the electric chair. His friend pulled down a nearby lever and, as he did so, his buddy on the electric chair twitched as if he were being electrocuted. It was cute to watch them having such a good time, especially at a museum.
Next, my husband and I walked into a room wallpapered with dollars. We read a sign that told us about the “skim” at the Stardust. It explained how profits were under-counted and under-reported to the IRS by the crime bosses. The owner at the Stardust, Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, arranged for a bit of those profits to be skimmed off periodically and sent back to the mob bosses on the east coast. It was the basis for the movie Casino. I remembered watching how great Robert di Nero and Sharon Stone were in the movie.
Right next to the skim room was an exhibit my husband really enjoyed. There were two long and narrow halls that were fashioned to look like firing ranges and at the far end of each hall were life-sized paper targets shaped like men. My husband got a chance to touch, hold, and “fire" an actual Tommy Gun at one of the “men”.
The next room was the centerpiece of the Mob Museum. It was the real-life second-floor courtroom where hearings had been held to expose organized crime in 1950 and 1951.
We left that room and saw a film that showed the bloody remains of dead gangsters. Real members of The Mob had been interviewed in the film. We went downstairs and watched clips from Goodfellas and The Godfather.
For those interested in reading "The Salacious Scribes Mystery", it takes place in Las Vegas and is about a group of erotic romance writers who go to the Las Vegas Adult Entertainment Expo, and while they are there, their promoter is murdered. It's a fun whodunnit with multiple suspects. There is even a touch of later-in-life romance in the story.
The book only costs 99 cents and is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble (online), Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, and Google Play.
Here is the Amazon link:
https://www.amazon.com/Salacious-Scribes-Mystery-Louise-Hathaway-ebook/dp/B074RYV4SZ
