National Museum of Crime and Punishment

The National Museum of Crime and Punishment, also known as the Crime Museum, was a privately owned museum dedicated to the history of criminology and penology in the United States. It was located in the Penn Quarter neighborhood of Washington, D.C., half a block south of the Gallery Place station. It is now operated as Alcatraz East, a museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. The museum was built by Orlando businessman John Morgan, in partnership with John Walsh, host of America's Most Wanted, at a cost of $21 million, and opened in May 2008. Unlike most museums in Washington, DC, the Crime Museum was a for-profit enterprise. It was forced to close in September 2015 by its building's owners after it failed to meet sales targets specified in its lease. More than 700 artifacts in of exhibition space related the history of crime, and its consequences, in America and American popular culture. The museum featured exhibits on colonial crime, pirates, Wild West outlaws, gangsters, the Mob, mass murderers, and white collar criminals. Twenty-eight interactive stations included the high-speed police chase simulators used in the training of law enforcement officers, and a Firearms Training Simulator (F.A.T.S.) similar to that utilized by the FBI.