Criminals Hall of Fame

Last updated
Criminals Hall of Fame
CHOFlogo.png
Official Criminals Hall of Fame logo
Criminals Hall of Fame
Established1977 (1977)
Dissolved2014 (2014)
Location Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
Type Wax museum
Collection size40 statues
Visitors10000+ per year
Public transit access Niagara Falls Transit
Website Official website

The Criminals Hall of Fame Wax Museum was a wax museum on 5751 Victoria Avenue in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. One of many wax museums in the region, it was located at the top of Clifton Hill. [1] The museum featured forty wax statues of notorious criminals, from mobsters to serial killers. The museum was created in 1977 [2] and closed late 2014.

In 2002, columnist Gene Collier of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette characterized the museum as "a cheesy little monument to brutality," [3] while in 2005, the same paper's Dennis Roddy called it "a garish little exhibit." [4] In 2003, the Boston Herald dubbed it "tacky." [5] In 2010, Doug Kirby's roadsideamerica.com noted in its review that the museum had "more gore than most horror wax museums and better lighting, too," which it took as "a good indication that this attraction is drawing enough of a crowd to pay its electric bill." [6]

Statues

Among the museum's featured criminals are contemporary serial killers such as Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy and Charles Manson, which are interspersed with infamous historical figures like Billy the Kid, Pretty Boy Floyd, Clyde Chestnut Barrow, Lucky Luciano, Jesse James, Al Capone and Elizabeth Báthory. [6] [7] In 1999, the figure of Adolf Hitler was stolen from its glass case. [8] [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pittsburgh Steelers</span> National Football League franchise in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North Division. Founded in 1933, the Steelers are the seventh-oldest franchise in the NFL, and the oldest franchise in the AFC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Serial killer</span> Murderer of multiple people

A serial killer is a person who murders two or more people, with the killings taking place over a significant period of time. The serial killers' psychological gratification is the motivation for the killings, and many serial murders involve sexual contact with the victims at different points during the murder process. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) states that the motives of serial killers can include anger, thrill-seeking, financial gain, and attention seeking, and killings may be executed as such. The victims tend to have things in common such as demographic profile, appearance, gender or race. Although a serial killer is a distinct classification that differs from that of a mass murderer, spree killer, or contract killer, there are overlaps between them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bridgeville, Pennsylvania</span> Borough in Pennsylvania, United States

Bridgeville is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 4,804 at the 2020 census. It is a residential suburb of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madame Tussauds</span> Wax museum in London

Madame Tussauds is a wax museum founded in London in 1835 by the French wax sculptor Marie Tussaud. One of the early main attractions was the Chamber of Horrors, which appeared in advertising in 1843.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Niagara County Community College</span> Public college in Sanborn, New York, US

Niagara County Community College (NCCC) is a public community college in Sanborn, New York. Founded in 1962, NCCC is sponsored by Niagara County and offers associate degrees as part of the State University of New York system. Dual admissions programs facilitate transfer to four-year colleges upon completion of the two-year degree programs. NCCC operates the Niagara Falls Culinary Institute as a remote campus within the former Rainbow Centre Factory Outlet in downtown Niagara Falls, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dennis Rader</span> American serial killer (born 1945)

Dennis Lynn Rader, also known as BTK, is an American serial killer who murdered at least ten people in Wichita and Park City, Kansas, between 1974 and 1991. Although Rader occasionally killed or attempted to kill men and children, he typically targeted women. His victims were often bound, sometimes with objects from their homes, and either suffocated with a plastic bag or manually strangled with a ligature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Myron Cope</span> American sports journalist (1929–2008)

Myron Sidney Kopelman, known professionally as Myron Cope, was an American sports journalist, radio personality, and sportscaster. He is best known for being "the voice of the Pittsburgh Steelers".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clifton Hill, Niagara Falls</span> Tourist area in Niagara Falls, Ontario

Clifton Hill is one of the major tourist promenades in Niagara Falls, Ontario. The street, close to Niagara Falls and the Niagara River, leads from River Road on the Niagara Parkway to intersect with Victoria Avenue, and contains a number of gift shops, wax museums, haunted houses, video arcades, restaurants, hotels and themed attractions. It is a major amusement area and centre for night life, particularly for families and teenagers.

<i>Pittsburgh Post-Gazette</i> Newspaper in Pennsylvania, United States

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Descended from the Pittsburgh Gazette, established in 1786 as the first newspaper published west of the Allegheny Mountains, the paper formed under its present title in 1927 from the consolidation of the Pittsburgh Gazette Times and The Pittsburgh Post.

The 1974 NFL draft took place at the Americana Hotel in New York City, New York, on January 29–30, 1974. Each of the 26 NFL teams were granted 17 selections for a total of 442 picks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WWE Niagara Falls</span> Retail store in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada

WWE Niagara Falls was a retail store located in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. It was owned and operated by Canadian Niagara Hotels Inc., with its name and branding being licensed by the WWE. It was the second WWE establishment to open up after The World in 1999, and the first WWE establishment to open outside of the United States. After The World closed in 2003, it became the only official WWE retail store in the world.

Joan Orie Melvin is a former justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. In 2013, Melvin was convicted of several criminal counts related to her use of legislative and judicial staff to perform campaign work. She is a member of the Republican Party.

On April 4, 2009, a shootout occurred at 1016 Fairfield Street in the Stanton Heights neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, stemming from a mother and her 22-year-old son's argument over a dog urinating in the house. At approximately 7:11 a.m. EDT, 22-year-old Richard Poplawski opened fire on two Pittsburgh Police officers responding to a 9-1-1 call from Poplawski's mother, who was attempting to get the police officers to remove her son from the home. Despite Poplawski's mother telling the 9-1-1 operator that Poplawski had guns, the police officers were not told. Three police officers were ultimately confirmed dead, and another two were seriously injured.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2000 United States House of Representatives elections in Pennsylvania</span>

The 2000 United States House elections in Pennsylvania was an election for Pennsylvania's delegation to the United States House of Representatives, which occurred as part of the general election of the House of Representatives on November 7, 2000.

Dennis Roddy is an American journalist who was special assistant to former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, and a former columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bird Kingdom</span>

Bird Kingdom is an aviary in the tourist district of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. Opened in May 2003, it is the largest free flying indoor aviary in the world. The attraction encompasses approximately 45,000 square feet (4,200 m2), and houses over 350 birds, the majority of which come from Australia, South America, and Africa. It is also home to mammals, reptiles and amphibians which are part of educational programs. Bird Kingdom has been voted a top family attraction in Niagara Falls and was inducted into the Trip Advisor Hall of Fame in 2016.

Mindhunter is an American psychological crime thriller television series created by Joe Penhall, based on the 1995 true-crime book Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker. The series debuted in 2017 and ran for two seasons. Executive producers included Penhall, Charlize Theron, and David Fincher, the latter of whom served as the series' most frequent director and de facto showrunner, overseeing many of the scriptwriting and production processes. The series stars Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany, and Anna Torv, and follows the founding of the Behavioral Science Unit in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the late 1970s and the beginning of criminal profiling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keystone State Wrestling Alliance</span>

The Keystone State Wrestling Alliance (KSWA) is a professional wrestling promotion that was founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2000 by Lou Zygmuncik and Shawn Blanchard. KSWA's longtime ring announcer Bobby O purchased the promotion in 2005. It is the only promotion based in Pittsburgh and one of several groups in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area including the International Wrestling Cartel and Pro Wrestling eXpress. It currently operates in the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh.

References

  1. Farra, Harry (2 November 1980). "Wax Museums:Niagara's Other Wonder". Beaver County Times. Retrieved 6 August 2010.
  2. "About the Criminals Hall of Fame Museum". www.criminalshalloffame.com. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  3. Collier, Gene (3 July 2002). "Road to redemption can't erase that night drive". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . Retrieved 6 August 2010.
  4. Roddy, Dennis (10 July 2005). "Canadian-born killers". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 6 August 2010.
  5. Kramer, Lauren (13 February 2003). "Step by step, you too will embrace thrilling Niagara Falls". Boston Herald . Archived from the original on November 3, 2012. Retrieved 6 August 2010. ...few come for the city itself which is cheesy beyond belief replete with motels advertising red heartshaped hot tubs and tacky attractions such as the Criminals Hall of Fame Wax Museum.
  6. 1 2 "Criminals Hall Of Fame Wax Museum". roadsideamerica.com. Retrieved 6 August 2010.
  7. "The Criminals". Criminals Hall of Fame Wax Museum. Archived from the original on 5 March 2011. Retrieved 6 August 2010.
  8. "Wax figure of Hitler disappears". Toronto Star . 7 April 1999. p. 1. Archived from the original on February 1, 2013. Retrieved 6 August 2010.
  9. "Wax Hitler Stolen from Hall of Criminals". roadsideamerica.com. 18 April 1999. Retrieved 6 August 2010.

43°05′31″N79°04′35″W / 43.091879°N 79.076516°W / 43.091879; -79.076516