American Gangster Museum

If you’re tired of the usual cultural museums with paintings by world artists, check out the American Gangster Museum, located at 80 St Marks Pl, New York, one of the city’s adventurous places.

In the 1960s, Howard Otway, when he bought the Theatre 80 building, had no idea what secrets lurked behind its walls and what surprises awaited him. All he knew was that it once housed a movie theater specializing in the screening of classic films, and of course no one had any idea that the lovely theater on St. Mark’s Street was then one of the centers of the illegal liquor trade during Prohibition.

While restoring it in 1964, Otway discovered a bunker-like maze in the basement and two old safes containing two million dollars in gold certificates, which, unfortunately, had expired at the time. As it turned out, there was an underground bar in the basement run by famous gangster Walter Scheib, who lived on the same floor above. Regular guests of the institution were all known at the time and now American gangsters Al Capone, Lucky Luciano and John Gotti. The bar was accessible through the butcher store around the corner on First Avenue. There had once been an elevated railroad here, and all the passengers crowded right by the butcher shop. Consequently, drinkers could slip into the store without a trace. At the back of the butcher shop was a tunnel through which one could climb backstage in the dance hall of the theater. To this day, there is still a small passageway between the theater and the bar, through which theater-goers could get to the bar during intermission, have a drink and a snack.

The museum guide tells about the events of those times in a very interesting way, illustrating his story with numerous original portraits of members of famous gangs and their founders at the time.

Today, the theater is owned by Howard’s son.

He is the one who turned part of it into the Gangster Museum, which covers not only the history of Walter Scheibe’s bar, but the entire gangster culture of the United States.

The museum was opened in 2010. That same year, on July 24, an indoor event celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the famous gangster crime feature film, Goodfellas, starring Robert De Niro. The event was held at the Museum of American Gangsters, as it is a maximum collection of information from that time. In the museum’s collection, among the exhibits – memorabilia of organized crime in America – you can see cracked safes, shots of moonshine and medicinal bans on whiskey, preserved original documents from the Prohibition era, banned newspapers, bullets of criminal meetings, in particular the sensational Valentine’s Day massacre, bullets that killed the famous bank robber “Pretty Boy” Floyd, John Dillinger’s death mask, guns of gangsters, handcuffs that were used during their arrest, original photos of crime bosses, including Al Capone with his friends over a drink, and you can also see the stills machine, which was used to please the customers of the underground bar with “fire water” in those days. Also still preserved are the wires that old gangster Walter Scheibe used to place explosives all over the bar so that he could destroy all the evidence in case of a police raid. The cracked safe and money are also a museum attraction. They look very impressive. Howard Otway even kept the original phones that connected the bar to the merchandise warehouse.

The museum consists of two small rooms, but nevertheless they contain perhaps the most detailed history of the American underworld.

Today, the area is home to a bar, located on the first floor, where daring gangsters can sample at their peril New York’s strongest drinks and taste Al Capone’s signature hot dog with a vodka-based sauce. The bar is open daily from 1 to 11 p.m. Here you will be immersed in the atmosphere of gangster times – dim lights, 60’s paraphernalia, pictures of gangsters, a small fireplace and a long wooden bar.

The museum itself is open daily from 1 to 6pm. If you wish to use a guide, it will cost $20. Without a guide, there is free sightseeing.