The Real Haunted History of Las Vegas
Haunted Las Vegas
Las Vegas is a young city with an old habit of keeping secrets.
The city began in 1905 as a railroad stop in the Mojave Desert. Within a few decades it had become a place people came to reinvent themselves, and sometimes to disappear. That mix of fortune, risk and reinvention is exactly the kind of ground ghost stories grow in.
The mob era
The Flamingo, opened in 1946 by Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, helped turn a desert town into the Las Vegas Strip. Siegel was killed in Beverly Hills the following year, and according to local legend, some guests and staff say they have felt his presence near the hotel's garden ever since.
Downtown, the former federal courthouse and post office, completed in 1933, is now the Mob Museum. The building once hosted hearings into organized crime, and it is a favourite stop for anyone chasing the city's darker history.
Haunted Las Vegas today
Las Vegas even has a museum dedicated to the paranormal: Zak Bagans' The Haunted Museum, which opened in 2017 in a historic house near downtown. Its collection of reportedly haunted objects draws visitors who come to test their nerves.
For a more intimate encounter, Ghost Stories brings true ghost stories into a candlelit speakeasy at Mandalay Bay, where mentalist Kent Axell invites the audience to decide for themselves what is real.