Seven galleries documenting Hot Springs' four-decade run as organized crime's protected open city.
510 Central Ave, Hot Springs, AR 71901
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
General admission charged. See website for current pricing.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Single-floor museum layout on Central Ave; accessible entrance
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 2008 · Hot Springs Open City Organized Crime Era 1920s-1960s · Al Capone Lucky Luciano Frank Costello Owney Madden Arkansas Connection · Leo McLaughlin Political Machine · 2009 Garland County Tourism Award
Hot Springs was among the most openly corrupt cities in mid-20th century America — not through accident but by design. Local political machine operators, chief among them Leo McLaughlin (mayor 1927-1947), made documented arrangements with state and federal authorities to permit gambling, prostitution, and organized crime operations in exchange for a portion of the revenue. The arrangement held for four decades.
The result was that Hot Springs became what organized crime figures called an 'open city' — a place where the usual rules of territorial conflict between crime families were suspended, and where figures from competing organizations could coexist without violence. Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello, Meyer Lansky, and Owney Madden all used Hot Springs during different periods. Madden actually retired there, becoming a legitimate businessman.
The Gangster Museum of America opened in 2008 in a downtown Central Avenue location to document this history systematically. The museum's seven galleries use a format unusual for crime history interpretation: primary testimony from people who witnessed the era — former FBI agents who worked Hot Springs cases, U.S. marshals from the period, and at least one former brothel madam whose account covers the prostitution operations of the open-city era. These eyewitness accounts distinguish the museum from a purely artifact-based presentation.
The museum won the 2009 Garland County Tourism award in its first full year of operation and is documented in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas as a primary resource on the city's organized crime history. The Mob Museum in Las Vegas, a peer institution for organized crime history interpretation, has referenced Hot Springs and Madden's residency in its own programming.
Sources
The Gangster Museum of America positions itself as a historical institution rather than a haunted attraction, and its exhibits make no paranormal claims. The museum's dark-tourism value derives from its documentation of a genuinely extraordinary period of documented lawlessness in an American city.
The open-city arrangement that Hot Springs maintained from roughly the 1920s through the early 1960s involved real violence: informants killed, territorial disputes settled through documented means, and the corruption of law enforcement at multiple levels. The Mob Museum's coverage of Hot Springs notes that the end of the open-city era came partly through federal pressure and partly through the political defeat of the McLaughlin machine in 1947.
For visitors exploring Hot Springs' dark-tourism circuit — which includes the Arlington Hotel's Capone connections and the broader Bathhouse Row history — the Gangster Museum provides the documentary foundation that contextualizes what the other sites represent. The eyewitness testimony format means that much of the history is presented in first person by people who lived it.
Notable Entities
Self-guided tour through seven galleries documenting Hot Springs' role as a protected organized crime retreat from the 1920s through the 1960s. Exhibits feature eyewitness testimony from former FBI agents, U.S. marshals, and a brothel madam, plus artifacts from the era. Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello, and Owney Madden are each profiled with documented local connections.
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