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Crime in Miami
Current Exhibitions

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Crime in Miami

February 19, 2010 through August 29, 2010

Top left Illegal alcohol still, 1939.
Miami News Collection, HMSF, 1989-011-3748.
Top center   Al Capone mug shots taken by the Miami Police Department.
HMSF, 2005-267-1.
Top right US Marshall and prisoners, 1982.
Miami News Collection, HMSF, 1995-277-3720.


Pollice detective with stolen jewelry, 1976
City of Miami police investigator with stolen jewelry recovered in 1976.
Miami News Collection, HMSF, 1994-370-1282
 

Crime in Miami explored the dual impact of crime and law enforcement in the city of Miami for the past century. Visitors could:

  • Learn about prohibition-era rumrunners and infamous gangsters such as Al Capone, unsolved murder cases of the 1950s and the drug wars of the 1980s.
     
  • Uncover the forces underlying Miami’s unique criminal history and test your amateur detective skills against those used by the pros.
     
  • Use the fingerprint/ID activity to learn how finger prints were examined in the 1920s and 1930s.
     
  • Get your mug shot taken and stand before a two-way mirror to try to identify suspects (other visitors) in a line-up. 

Other multi-sensory interactive included a booking station and holding cell, where visitors could experience the claustrophobia of the space, and a display of crime lab equipment and techniques used to solve modern–day crimes.

On display were artifacts, photographs, and documents from the Historical Museum of Southern Florida’s collection along with material from other institutions, including the Miami-Dade County Clerks Office and the City of Miami Black Precinct Museum. First-hand accounts from victims, witnesses, and police investigators captured on video were displayed on monitors throughout the exhibition.

 

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