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Artifact Spotlight: Hollywood prop guns

March 27, 2024

What’s a Mob movie without guns? Prop guns have been a part of this movie genre since the first silent gangster film in 1906, The Black Hand. In the prop master’s armory, you’ll find everything from real guns and blank-fire guns to toy guns and hard rubber casts. The Mob Museum has preserved some of these prop guns in its collections. The Sopranos blank-fire prop pistol In the final episode of Season 2 of The Sopranos, Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero (Vincent Pastore) joins his boss, Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), and fellow mafiosi “Paulie Walnuts” Gualtieri (Tony Sirico) and Silvio Dante (Steven Van Zandt) ...

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Netflix crime drama ‘Griselda’ highlights story of ‘Godmother of Cocaine’

The Netflix limited series Griselda, inspired by the true story of the Colombian “Godmother of Cocaine,” tells the story of…

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Dead men walking: Murder Inc. trio electrocuted at Sing Sing prison eighty years ago

Eighty years ago, Sing Sing’s electric chair, “Old Sparky,” delivered its sinister, life-ending jolts in succession to the trio of…

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The Top 5 Mob myths: Hollywood’s creative license drives misinformation

From The Godfather to Griselda, the Mob is firmly embedded in pop culture, which comes with a few drawbacks. In…

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The 1863 draft riots and the birth of the New York City Police

On July 13, 1863, during the Civil War, New York City burst into flames when the federal government started a…

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Artifact Spotlight: Frank Calabrese Sr.’s handmade dictionary

“PRISON: IS WARE I AM AT,” reads an entry in the handmade dictionary of Frank Calabrese Sr., former boss of…

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Classic Mob drama ‘The Sopranos’ first aired 25 years ago

When the groundbreaking HBO series The Sopranos debuted in 1999, it was an instant hit and a critical success. It…

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They don’t just kill each other

Innocent victims of Mob violence are one of the most underreported aspects of organized crime. This is due in part…

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