The Museum of Crime and Punishment

This was the first thing to do on my list, technically, and my first museum.  I had been wanting to go here for at least two years, but had not gotten around to it.  Last winter I had actually gotten a groupon for discounted tickets but then never went.  So when there was a living social deal and this project of mine arose, I figured this would be the first stop. 

I wanted to go when it was not crowded so I took a few hours off of work today in hopes that it would not be crowded.  The museum is set up in chronological order.  They had medieval crimes and then colonial crimes (interestingly, just about anything that was not holy could be considered a crime, especially on a Sunday!)  The next thing were pirate crimes.  There was this little blurb about two female pirates who were in disguise as males, and then they met each other.  None of the crew found out, but they were killed during an attack.  The Depression Era criminals were really interesting, and it was neat to see how they were sensationalized by the public in an effort to escape their mundane lives.  I got to see Bonnie and Clyde's getaway car, with the gunshots along the side.  It was neat to see the information on John Dillinger and his accomplices. 



The wild west scene

I definitely loved the information on Mob and the different members of the crime families.  I did not realize that Al Capone and Bugsy Seigel were rivals over bootlegging territory, and Al Capone was respected in the Italian community despite his crimes.  This decreased somewhat when it was clear that he had a hand in Bugsy Seigel's death.  I also got to learn about John Gotti, the "teflon don" as well.  They had an exhibit about "lawmen" including Elliot Ness and some others. 

Al Capone

I moved the more modern crimes, which were actually kind of spooky.  I remember when I was reading about Timothy McVeigh a woman accidentally bumped me from behind and I jumped!  There was something about presidential assassinations as well.  I did not realize that there were other presidents other than Lincoln and Kennedy that had been shot.  The next exhibit was one on prisons.  I had no idea that San Quentin is actually a model for prison reform, and that all of the prisoners are in some sort of education and rehabilitation groups.  Apparently the Arkansas prison was one of the most corrupt, and when they brought someone in to reform it he discovered all of these tortured inmates; when he tried to stop the corruption he was fired.  Alcatraz was never a prison that people were sent to, they had to "earn" the privilege to be transferred there, so that was interesting.  They had a model of Al Capone's cell, based on a picture.  It was quite nicely furnished.

The last thing they had was an exhibit on crime scene evidence and its use.  My eyes glazed over a little bit at this point after everything else.  I had also researched a lot of this in law school.  However, one of my favorite parts was the information on the cold cases.  I really like cold cases, and they had information on the Zodiac killer, the Black Dahlia, and Jon Benet Ramsey.  They discussed the horrible gathering of evidence and prosecution for the Jon Benet case as well as the Nicole Simpson case.  Overall it was an excellent trip.  I probably could have spent 2-3 more hours there, if my brain could handle it!  I think it was an excellent start to my list, and I think it is going to be hard for the future museums to top!