Welcome to the “Sin City of the Bible Belt”. The loose buckle, if you will. A sanctuary for outlaws and gangsters; where the likes of Al Capone, Frank Costello and Charles “Lucky” Luciano came to relax, soak in the thermal baths, maybe gamble a little – and then get back to running the criminal underworld of the United States. It’s where Bonnie and Clyde came to nurse their wounds in the medicinal waters and Bugsy Siegel had a flutter on the horses.
From the early 1930s until the 1960s, the little town of Hot Springs in Arkansas made a name for itself as the vacation destination of choice for some of the most notorious American criminals of all time. It was described as a “Vegas before Vegas”; a place where illegal gambling and illicit booze ran through the veins of Central Avenue and out into the neighbourhoods.
