You would need a little Zen healing, too, if you worked with the mob all day. That’s life for Ashley Erickson, guest relations supervisor and volunteer coordinator for The Mob Museum. When she’s not teaching ashtanga vinyasa yoga, Erickson oversees a 12-member team that includes the docents who lead guests through tours of the historic building downtown.
“Knowing history, you have to know the ugly sides of it, too,” Erickson said. “This museum is great in that it shows both sides of the story, no holds barred, no sugarcoating.”
Among the more than 600 artifacts collected from the heyday of the mob are photos, firearms and video clips. Visitors can even listen in on tapped phone conversations and tour a re-creation of the courtroom that housed the Kefauver Committee hearings on organized crime.
“Some guests will come in and they don’t want to sit down and watch a movie. It takes one of the associates to explain how great this courtroom really is. And they’re not disappointed.”
For Erickson, a Las Vegas native, the chance to help bring culture to an up-and-coming part of the city was too good to pass up.
“I remember when they were constructing the Fremont Street Experience (downtown), and there were a lot of stripper shops and pawn shops,” she said. “And now to see it—I’m a big advocate of this city. I love it.”
Why swim with the fishes when you can drink like one? The Fisticup ($19.99) brings a kitschy touch to your average coffee mug, swapping out a handle for a pair of brass knuckles. For the real knockout punch, fill your Fisticup the way Erickson does, with a mix of hot cocoa, Fireball whiskey and marshmallow-flavored vodka. Available at the Mob Museum gift shop.
