While in New Orleans, I visited the Museum of Death. It’s an extension of a museum by the same name set up in Hollywood. I was with friends from a forensic science conference, including a coroner, so it seemed appropriate. The exhibits were organized, although the space was limited.
Located in the French Quarter, one block up from the rowdy Bourbon Street, the museum offers a small gift shop with mostly T-shirts. Still, it contained some promising displays. According to the website, the museum originated in a mortuary building in San Diego that was once owned by Wyatt Earp. The intent was to provide an education in death.

The first exhibit was devoted to serial killers. I will admit, I’ve seen much better serial killer exhibits, including more interesting letters from them. Only a few killers were represented, with quite a lot of space devoted to John Wayne Gacy, because they had some of his original artwork. I liked the lipstick kiss from Dana Sue Gray, but some of the “educational” quotes about serial killers were so 1990s.
Moving on, there were exhibits devoted to cannibals, crime scenes (notably O. J. Simpson and Charles Manson), mass disasters, executions, car accidents, suicide (including assisted), and funeral displays. Two massive caskets were on display (don’t open!), as well as various items associated with autopsies. As you walked around, you’d hear tapes playing of various documentaries, such as the 9-11 World Trade Center attack.

The curators were enthused about their collection and interested to know what visitors thought. They keep changing things, they said, and were open to suggestion. For a small fee, it was a good way to spend an hour or so in the Big Easy. 
Whenever I travel, I try to tour museums like this, although most are devoted specifically to crime. Such museums popped up during the 19th century in different cities under the supervision of prominent figures in criminology such as Hans Gross and Cesare Lombroso. Initially meant for professionals, they soon opened to the public. (Now, we see them in many major cities, including one in Washington, DC.)

In Rome, for example, the Prison Administration acknowledged that “the public is enormously interested in the vicissitudes and the phenomena of criminal life” when it set up the Criminology Museum. The exhibits of torture implements, executions, and criminal escapades were intended to show the general “what science brings to the treatment of crime” to give people a “font of culture and guidance.” As a result, they might grow wiser about their own safety.