The Gangster Museum of America

A small place with a few really interesting artifacts. Guided tours through the five or six room museum by tour guides who really know their stuff. I felt it was worth the $ 15 to the local economy. We got a pretty neat picture of what Hot Springs was like in its heyday, especially politically. The history is fascinating, and this little place does a decent job of presenting it. It’s certainly not a comprehensive presentation, but it’s appropriate for a tourist activity.

The gangster museum was informative. It did however show you video after video of people whom you don’t know and don’t really connect with the story. It could have easily been described by a great tour guide that might have made you feel more involved. The tour guide we had was actually very knowledgeable about the past of the area and the people showcased in the museum. It’s just a shame that he was overpowered by the boring video’s.

Should have heeded the warnings of my fellow Unilocalers! Alas. Fifteen dollars to (1) get herded through five smallish rooms; and (2) watch 20-​year-​old excerpts from a show about gangsters in Hot Springs. I think not! The rooms are covered with photographs and articles about the gangsters, but guests are given no time to look over them. Our docent seemed like he knew a lot about the topics and told us some stories, but none of it added up to $ 15 worth. We should have googled «gangsters in Hot Springs» and watched a little History Channel on demand — it would have been free, more interesting, more informative, and devoid of other people’s children touching all the stuff that was labeled «Do Not Touch.»

This has got to be the worst «museum» I have ever been to. How they can call it a museum is beyond me. Only a couple of original artifacts every room you go in they torture you with extremely boring videos and there is very few seats so most people have to stand the whole time. It was a very big disappointment.

I guess they changed it from $ 12 to $ 15. Came here to see what it was rated and I wasn’t surprised. Video after video. The guide is really nice, though he didn’t go into detail about some of the artifacts in the museum.

Overpriced. Information is pretty interesting, but the delivery lacks luster. The videos are out of date. Artifacts are interesting but the tour doesn’t allow much time to look at them as you are guided from room to room.

NOT worth $ 12… The tour involves watching a lot of short clips on TV screens in different rooms and looking at a few artifacts. I learned some interesting facts, but it was definitely overpriced.
If I wanted to see a bunch of videos, I would have just watched the History Channel.

Long on intrigue, short on information. And artifacts. I guess at least it has parking.
You pay $ 12 a head plus tax to listen to some hapless kid blindly recite a schpiel so floridly-​written and borderline illiterate it almost doesn’t make sense grammatically. There are a few artifacts but mostly you watch a few video interviews and look at copies of old pictures. The guide didn’t even point out some of the allegedly-​genuine items (the Capone piano), and the talk relies heavily on things gangsters did in other cities. Nothing about this says «objective research» or «trustworthy information».

After hearing that Hot Springs had a gangster history (including Al Capone), we decided to visit the Gangster Museum. Sadly, it was a bit overrated and a tourist trap. The best part was getting to pose with the Al Capone statue at the end to get my photo taken sitting in his lap (although I could also have done this with the same Al Capone statue outside the Ohio Club restaurant/​bar).
The Gangster Museum «tour» leaves in shifts from the main lobby. Everyone is invited into the «vault.» From there, you go through a series of rooms and watch a 10 – 15 minute video. There are a few things on the walls to look at, but I didn’t feel like I really learn/​saw much of anything. Each room also only has a handful of chairs, so be prepared to stand in one place from room to room during your entire visit.
I think the idea of this museum is much greater than the actual experience.

If you want to go and learn an interesting history of the mob in hot springs it’s probably worth the money but you will be led around by a surprisingly knowledgable guide who turns on a TV in each room, where instead of listening to the guide, you watch a documentary. What was interesting were the rooms filled with little artifacts from the time.

Just browsed the gift shop… mostly to look at the hats. Nothing much caught my eye.

This was 12 bucks a person plus tax to walk around and watch TV. Out of everything we did in Hot Springs this is the only thing we regretted having spent money on.
There were a couple of clippings on the wall or old pieces of furniture but nothing resembling a museum. It was truly disappointing.

They should change the name from museum to walking-​movie-​thing. You’ll be led room to room to see short film after short film. There are a few artifacts on the walls. Nothing too much to see.
I liked the last video and seeing the machine gun replica.

We walked by the museum during a walk down the historic downtown and decided to take the tour. Admittance fee of $ 12 seemed steep but we pressed on. I agree with the other reviews, they did seem to have too little artifacts or things on display and the majority of the tour was on dvd. Would have hoped for more seating during the video play in each room. I did enjoy our tour guide. He was a nice older man whose great-​grandfather owned a club «back in the day» and his family has been in hot springs for many generations. Learning about the underground tunnels under Central from the Arlington Hotel and bowling alley for the gangsters like Capone was really neat. I love that kind of history and really the auditory is more appealing to me of interviews with people with first hand knowledge over looking at artifacts to draw my own conclusions.
I would say that young kids will NOT do well on the tour. We had a couple munchkins on ours and they were very restless making noise disrupting the tour.

Tickets to the museum were included in our room package at the Arlington. Don’t know how much it costs. The guided tour was OK and I did learn a little. They need to get more actual items to display, but it was a decent way to burn a little time.

The whole town of Hot Springs, AR is a bizarre experience, and the Gangster Museum of America doesn’t let you down in that category. It’s clearly a privately owned tourist attraction, and too expensive for what you get. All that said, I did give it two stars, simply for the hilarity of the guy who owns the «GMoA» as he calls it in his video in each of the rooms you go to on the guided tour. It’s anecdotal story after anecdotal story… honestly I did learn a few things… but it all culminates into a bizarre experience of him walking through tunnels under the streets of Hot Springs. You’ve got to see it to believe it… just don’t be the one paying, and you’ll have a wonderfully bizarre 30 minutes of your bizarre time in Hot Springs well spent.

First of all, I love history. I wanted to try this museum but I read a lot of these reviews. My family and I come to Arkansas every summer and decided we would try Hot Springs this time. We passed it up a few times but I finally decided we would at least go in and check it out.
I went on a tour and although a couple of videos were long, the part that surprised me was the fact that all kinds of famous mobsters stayed in Hot Springs! I was fascinated! My kids weren’t though. FYI, they were quite bored. I wouldn’t recommend kids to go on this tour.
Also, I liked my tour guide! It’s a guided-​only tour and I would’ve been lost otherwise. The facts she gave was pertinent and some parts of the spill were funny!
I recommend it to all tourist coming to Hot Springs. We stayed at the Arlington (Which is where AL Capone stayed at) and did the ducks and a bathhouse tour too! HS is a little run down in parts, but I liked it. My wife thought it was ok, but I think most guys will find it pretty cool!

We have been to the Spy museum in Washington D.C., the NSA museum and almost any other museum in a city we visit. We saw the flyer and thought… Hot Springs… Organized Crime… The Gangster Museum of America… we thought wrong.
This museum is way over priced for what is offered. You move through a series of rooms with pictures on the wall and a TV screen in each room. The «guide» talks very fast and mentions items I guess you are supposed to know so you understand… you watch a short video and are rushed out to the next room where the scene is repeated.
There are very few artifacts but there are a few folks on the videos that «actually knew the ganagsters». Although there is no blood, guts, gore, or bad language it is not a kids museum… it is more a «History of gambling in Hot Springs Tour»…I would not recommend this tour… save your money.

The kids saw a flyer for this museum while we were at the Mid-​America Museum and it looked like fun. So we headed to downtown Hot Springs. There were several tours ahead of us and it sounded like fun so we waite 20 mins for our 1 hour guided tour to begin.
You are routed to a series of rooms that are «themed». The tour guide sets up the theme of the room and then starts a DVD. This goes on for several rooms. Most of the information in the DVD is located on the wall as photos or other items located in the room.
The final room is a auditorium where a «special guest speaker» talks about their first hand involvement with some of the gangster’s you have just learned about. It was probably the most interesting part of the whole tour.
If you are really into gangsters from that era and/​or into the history of Arkansas during that time, then you will enjoy.