The Museum of the American Gangster

The building at 80 St. Mark's Place, in the heart of New York's East Village, has a history. It was a speakeasy during the Prohibition era, when it was owned by a gangster named Walter Scheib. Now the building is home to the new Museum of the American Gangster.

When Lorcan Otway's father bought the building from Walter Scheib in 1964, he got a surprise. "My father discovered two locked safes, marked "Walter Scheib"," Otway told NY1.com. "They opened the safes, and in the second safe they found $2 million in gold certificates." The mystery of that money is part of what makes 80 St. Mark's Place a natural location for the museum of American gangsters.

Among the things visitors will see on the museum tour is the cooler, where all the speakeasy's illegal beer was stored; a Thompson machine gun, the so-called "Tommy gun" seen in all the classic gangster films, as well as old newspaper articles and video clips about gangsters like "Lucky" Luciano, Al Capone and "Legs" Diamond.