Mob Museum highlights Kansas City’s role in organized crime amidst Vegas glitz

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (KCTV) - Off the strip in downtown Las Vegas, situated in an old federal courthouse, is The Mob Museum. It holds artifacts and stories of organized crime not only in Las Vegas, but all over the country. There are even Kansas City gangsters highlighted in different exhibits.

“Kansas City mobsters were all over Las Vegas casinos,” says Claire White, the director of education at The Mob Museum.

Those mobsters had their hands in what was called “The Skim”.

“So, the skim is money off the top either by under reporting or under calibrating scales, so it seems like you’ve earned less on the take. There were Kansas City operatives working at the Tropicana, the Stardust, as well as a number of other Las Vegas casinos,” said White.

A major turning point in Kansas City mob history came at the time of the 1970 Super Bowl, where the Kansas Chiefs were playing the Minnesota Vikings.  The FBI had gained access to a wiretap inside one of famed Kansas City mobster Nick Civella’s hangouts called “The Trap” at 5th Street and Troost Avenue. Inside those walls, ran one of the mobster’s sportsbooks.

Suddenly, just before the game, a lot of action started coming for the Kansas City Chiefs, and Civella wanted to know why.

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“Everyone in Kansas City was betting on the Chiefs, and the Chiefs were the underdog in the game. So they knew that if the Chiefs won, they would lose almost $50,000 in one day,” said White.

Civella started making phone calls into the wiretapped sportsbook, and thus the beginning of the end of the Civella crime family. In the late 70s, another wiretapping operation called Operation Strawman helped tie Kansas City to the skimming operation at the Tropicana Casino.

While the top three floors of The Mob Museum curate the history of the mob throughout the United States, the basement is something completely different.

Below ground lies a speakeasy and distillery. For this weekend only while the Super Events are ongoing, the speakeasy is offering a cocktail called “The Bookmaker” which features Whistlepig PiggyBack Bourbon, Whistlepig PiggyBack Rye, Mable Syrup, celery bitters, liquid smoke while garnished with candied bacon.

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