A famous piece of Illinois Mafia history is going on display at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas.

The Mob Museum To Display Al Capone's Weapon In Special Exhibit

Illinois is famous for lots of things. Of course, some of them are good while others are bad. Sometimes, it feels like the bad outweighs the good in our state but that's a discussion for another day.

READ MORE: Surprising Small Illinois Towns With Major History With The Mafia

The most famous thing on the bad side is probably the most known in Illinois. That is the Mob and corruption. I've been to other countries and when they asked where I was from I said Chicago. They weren't going to know where Rockford was. Several times, the reply was home of the Mafia.

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Illinois and particularly Chicago has a long history with the Mafia. Actually, Rockford has a fairly significant one too. The most famous mobster of all time called Illinois home. That was Al Capone. He was a very scary and powerful man.

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Behind the scenes, Al Capone was also a family man. He is survived by four granddaughters who inherited all of his prized possessions. It's basically the history of their infamous grandfather.

As the four sisters grew older, they were concerned about the future of these historical Capone artifacts so a couple of years ago they decided to put many of them up for auction so the items could have safe homes.

Mob Museum

The most famous artifact they put up for auction was Capone's favorite gun. It's a Colt 1911 .45-caliber pistol from World War I. Al referred to it as a woman and nicknamed it his sweetheart. The Mob Museum in Vegas purchased the weapon and they're are putting it on display in an exhibit called "The First Public Enemy" for all to see.

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