- 1). Locate the museum on a map of D.C. The museum can be easily overlooked with only one marquee out front. It is a sizeable building on 7th and F Streets, a block south of the Verizon Center. Several stores and restaurants along the façade of the building tend to obscure the museum's sign.
- 2). Enter the museum and immediately see John Dillinger's coupe, shiny red with definitive opulence. The admission desk is behind the automobile and next to the gift shop.
- 3). Climb the stairs to the second floor and get a lesson in medieval and colonial punishment. The torture devices are intriguing, especially for those with a strong sense of the macabre.
- 4). View Bonnie and Clyde's death car, riddled with bullets along the front and driver's side. This ambush, resulting in a tip from an accomplice, resulted in their deaths. The machine guns used are also on display.
- 5). Read about Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. Graphic pictures of the crime scene define a section of the museum devoted to the Chicago Gangland and the East Coast Mafia.
- 6). Try to crack a safe. There are instructions provided on what to listen for when turning the dial. The process is challenging and time consuming; difficult to do with passing visitors who are an unwitting distraction.
- 7). Check out the gallery focusing on serial killers and mass murderers. While most of these criminals are from the United States, a few international sociopaths are represented. The museum prides itself on being as current as possible, providing any recent evidence discovered about a case or any death penalties carried out.
- 8). Participate in a faux police line-up where the visitor is a suspect. Shady cutouts are positioned along a grid with a space provided for one more. The lights are brightened, a voiced victim fingers the visitor and the visitor is required to take one step forward. The visitor may also opt to take a lie detector test. It's fascinating how the process takes place and its overall accuracy.
- 9). View items representing the history of the death penalty. A French guillotine, Old Sparky from Louisiana and a gas chamber offer morbid evidence of capital punishment.
- 10
Solve a crime. Most of the main floor is devoted to a crime scene. A bedroom in disarray, loaded with evidence, allows the visitor to be a detective and determine the death of a victim. Follow the process through the labs and the morgue and see if the summations are the same. - 11
Take the stairs to the basement area. This entire level is devoted to John Walsh and America's Most Wanted. This is where the actual Fox television series is filmed. Mug shots of captured criminals line the walls.
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