National Museum of Crime & Punishment

The National Museum of Crime & Punishment was a museum in Penn Quarter, Washington D.C., dedicated to law enforcement and criminal history in the United States. The exhibition space covered roughly 28,000 square feet and displayed more than seven hundred objects from different eras of American crime history.

Television host John Walsh and entrepreneur John Morgan founded this private museum in May 2008 with an investment of roughly 21 million dollars. The facility closed its doors several years later and the collection was disbanded.

The museum exhibited collections about colonial crimes, pirates, Wild West outlaws, gangsters, mass murderers, and included reconstructions of Al Capone's prison cell.

The museum offered 28 interactive stations where visitors could try different aspects of police work themselves. Simulators for car chases and shooting practice following FBI standards allowed hands-on experience with law enforcement methods.

The exhibition included a recreation of Al Capone's prison cell and displayed items connected to notorious American criminals. Visitors could apply forensic techniques such as ballistics, fingerprint analysis, and facial reconstruction in a recreated crime scene to solve fictional cases.

Location: Washington, D.C.

Inception: May 23, 2008

Address: 575 7th St NW, Washington, DC 20004

Website: http://crimemuseum.org

GPS coordinates: 38.89716,-77.02156

Latest update: December 5, 2025 22:31