Vegas makes mob-obsessed public an offer it can’t refuse

In another, visitors are taught to load a revolver. And for when a gun just won’t do, an oddball collection of household items – a shovel, a hammer, a baseball bat and an icepick – show the creative side of some of America’s most notorious killers.

On the 83rd anniversary of the St Valentine’s Day Massacre, Las Vegas is honouring one of its earliest relationships with the grand opening of a $42m (£26m) museum dedicated to the mobsters that made it.

There are tommy guns, money stacks and a bullet-riddled brick wall from the 1929 massacre that saw Al Capone seize control of the Chicago mob.

Museum officials deny they are sensationalising the mob experience to sell tickets, which cost up to $18 (£11) each, but the extensive photography collection depicting cratered heads, imploded cars and full body bags probably will be its biggest draw among fans expecting a hefty dose of mob violence.

A small gift store sells novelty items including mobster paper dolls and gangster teddy bears dressed in striped suits and armed with plastic machine guns.

A T-shirt reads: “In Godfather We Trust.”