Robert Raines opened the Gangster Museum of America, the only one of its kind in the country, in Hot Springs last April after learning of the city's colorful gangster past. (Democrat Photo/Mark Randall)

Robert Raines didn't come to Hot Springs looking for gangsters.

They just sort of found him.

"There are two things that most tourists ask on surveys about Hot Springs," Raines, director of the new Gangster Museum of America said. "'Where can we take a hot bath?' And, 'Is it true that gangsters used to stay here?'"

From the 1920s up until the late 1960s, Hot Springs was a wide open town. Illegal gambling and prostitution thrived in the city's many clubs and hotels.

Celebrities, baseball players, captains of industry and a who's who of the rich and famous all came to Hot Springs for the famous waters and to relax and have fun.

But for many of America's most notorious gangsters, Hot Springs was the place they came to get out of hot water.

Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello, Owen "Owney" Madden and the last Public Enemy No. 1, Alvin "Creepy" Karpis, all vacationed in Hot Springs.

"It was Las Vegas before there was a Las Vegas," Raines said. "There really wasn't any place else like Hot Springs at that time."

Raines, who lived in Pine Bluff before moving to Hot Springs, got the idea for the museum while helping a friend move into a business on historic Central Avenue.

"I was sitting on a bench on Central Avenue one night," Raines said. "The lights were on. It was cool outside. The horse carriages were going up and down the street. People were walking and holding hands. I thought, 'this isn't like Arkansas.' It just had a real cosmopolitan feel to it. It reminded me of New York City. I just kind of fell in love with Central Avenue. So I started looking for something to do over here right then and there."

He knew a little bit about the city's gangster past, but didn't know whether the idea of opening a gangster museum would be welcomed by the locals.

Raines said there isn't a museum anywhere in the country devoted to gangsters.

"I just couldn't believe that somebody hadn't already told these stories," Raines said. "I came back here and just began quietly researching on my own and found out some really fascinating stories."

When word got out that he was planning to open a museum, a lot of locals began coming forward with stories from the old days and offers to donate original artifacts

"It was just a gusher of information that started to come out," Raines said. "People here I think had been looking for an outlet to tell their stories. And I became that outlet."

The museum, which took about 18 months to put together, opened in April and is housed in a turn of the century building which was once the chamber of commerce, a drive in mortuary and a bordello.

Visitors are transported back to Hot Springs heyday period of 1927-1947 when the city was home to the largest illegal gambling operation in the United States.

Among the items on display is the roulette table from the Southern Club, vintage nickel slot machines, an original Victor Victrola, a "Tommy" gun, and one of the last slot machines in operation from the 1960s.

Just recently, the manager of the Arlington Hotel, where Al Capone used to rent the entire fourth floor during his stays in Hot Springs, gave him a blackjack board used in some of the floating card games inside the hotel.

"Some of the things I bought," Raines said. "But people started calling and offering me things."

Raines said there had always been illegal gambling in Hot Springs dating back before the Civil War. But it wasn't until the 1920s when the city became a national gambling mecca.

The mayoral election of 1927 marked a milestone for Hot Springs. Leo McLaughlin was elected mayor on a promise to bring more gambling to Hot Springs.

For the next 20 years McLaughlin's political machine tightly controlled city and county government and turned a blind eye to gambling. Owners of the gambling clubs paid $10 per slot machine to local officials as license fees for their operations.

Local law enforcement protected the gambling interests and kept the peace between the mobsters. New York prosecutor Thomas Dewey once said of Hot Springs that the mayor owned all the gambling establishments and the police dressed up at night in tuxedos to guard the gangsters.

Raines said Hot Springs was neutral territory for gangsters. The gangsters knew they could come to Hot Springs and enjoy the entertainment and gambling and be safe from the law and their enemies.

One story has it that Capone and his arch enemy, Bugs Moran, were both in town at the same time. Capone and his gang took up residence at the Arlington Hotel while Moran checked in at the Majestic Hotel a block away.

Visitors today can stay in Capone's suite in room 442 and see his bulletproof green 1928 Cadillac which is on display in the lobby.

"While they may have hated each other from Chicago to New York and wanted to kill each other, they came to Hot Springs and they got along," Raines said.

Capone used to travel from Chicago to make deals with bootleggers in Hot Springs to stock his clubs with alcohol, shipping the illegal liquor back in railroad cars marked "Mountain Valley Water."

But Hot Springs' gangster heyday really began when Owen Madden came to town. Madden, who owned the famous Cotton Club in Harlem, moved to Hot Springs following a 9 year stretch in New York's Sing Sing prison for manslaughter. He married the local postmaster's daughter and lived in Hot Springs until his death in 1965.

Madden provided race results to the bookies and opened the Hotel Arkansas, a spa and casino in 1935 which became a popular hideout for mobsters.

"Lucky Luciano was arrested for the final time here," Raines said.

Luciano fled New York in 1936 and was arrested on orders from Dewey. A local judge released Luciano but he was later re-arrested by state police and extradited after Dewey demanded Gov. Junius Futrell uphold the warrant.

The gangster received a 30 to 50 year prison sentence for running a $12 million prostitution ring.

Another big time mobster, Alvin "Creepy" Karpis also hid out in Hot Springs. FBI agents tracked Karpis to Hot Springs but he was tipped off by local police and left before they found him.

Karpis was a member of the Ma Barker gang and was wanted for numerous robberies and kidnappings. Girlfriend Grace Goldstein ran a haberdashery called The Hattery in the Arlington Hotel as well as a bordello.

He was later captured in New Orleans.

Raines even went so far as to explore a network of tunnels under Central Avenue where he discovered the remains of a bowling alley which still had the scores written on the walls.

Legend has it that the visiting gangsters used the tunnels to come and go unseen to the gambling clubs.

"Everybody talked about the tunnels," Raines said. "It's pretty fascinating. There are a lot of doors that are now walled up that are just as interesting as can be."

The discovery was documented by a camera crew and is shown in the museum's theater.

Raines said he felt like Geraldo Rivera looking for Al Capone's vault.

"One of the camera guys said 'at least we found something,'" Raines said.

Gambling was finally shut for good in 1967 by Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller who campaigned on a platform to end illegal gambling.

Rockefeller sent in the state police who raided the casinos and burned the gaming equipment.

Raines said he has only just scratched the surface of the stories that are out there.

He's already getting ready to expand next door when the season slows down and plans to recreate The Hattery, and eventually add an interactive map of the United States where visitors can push a button and learn about gangster activities in other cities.

He's even got an original mirror from The Hattery.

"It's possible that Creep Karpis, the last public enemy no. 1, stood here and looked in this mirror," Raines said.