Like many, I'm a fan of mob movies and TV shows. I love "Goodfellas," "Donnie Brasco," "The Sopranos" and "Boardwalk Empire." 

It's a history our country has glorified in film but rarely with an entire museum dedicated to the history of organized crime. But just last week the Mob Museum opened in Las Vegas, the first major institution in the world ($40 million, 41,000 square feet) to address seriously the impact of the mob on history and society.

And there is even a section dedicated to St. Louis' mob history. Ours is one of the cities featured in the "Mob 101," police classroom venue, where visitors are informed that the city's Kerry Patch neighborhood was a nurturing ground for organized crime figures.

Elsewhere in the collections, St. Louis is one of the cities featured in the "A Seat at the Table" interactive exhibition, where visitors navigate a touch screen "dinner plate" to find out the origins, major figures and greatest hits of mob activity in St. Louis. Notable St. Louis figures profiled here include Morris Shenker, Carmelo Fresina and Anthony Giordano.

Other highlights, as touted by the marketing team behind the museum, include: 

· It presents the history of the mob's most notorious figures without embellishment or glorification. Just the facts.

· It treats prominent figures in law enforcement with equal weight throughout the exhibits, ensuring visitors are presented with both sides of the ongoing battle between organized crime and law enforcement.

· A portion of the exhibition is dedicated to current mob activity both at home and abroad, and considers the mob's future.

· The Mob Museum is emblematic of downtown Las Vegas' renaissance. It's the first of three major openings of downtown cultural institutions this year; in March, the $300 million Smith Center for the Performing Arts and later in the summer, The Neon Museum will debut.

· It occupies the former U.S. Post Office and courthouse at 300 Stewart Avenue, listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

· It houses one of the original courtrooms where the famous 1950s Kefauver Hearings - the seminal federal investigation into the activities of organized crime - took place. This courtroom is restored to its original appearance and the site of a $1 million multi-media reenactment of the hearings.

· Nicholas Pileggi, author of "Casino" and "Wiseguys" (which became the movie "Goodfellas") is a consultant and hosts an original film included in the exhibition that explores the history of the mob's portrayal in popular culture.

· It houses a number of other original artifacts, including the actual wall against which the St. Valentine's Day Massacre took place in Chicago in 1929 and the barber chair in which Albert Anastasia, boss of the Gambino "Murder Inc" crime family, was killed in 1957.