This year's St. Paul Winter Carnival has a new attraction that dips into the capitol city's shady past.

CynCity Tours is making its Walking Gangster Tour part of the annual winter festival.

The tours (which take place mostly indoors) focus on the villains who once ran the streets of St. Paul, including John Dillinger, Babyface Nelson, Alvin "Creepy" Karpis and the Barker brothers.

Dressed in period costume, guides explain how in 1900 the chief of police hoped to keep the St. Paul safe by allowing known criminals to stay in the city. All they had to do was check in with police, pay bribes to city officials and commit no major crimes — in the city. (The rest of the state, apparently, was fair game.) The arrangement, which lasted for almost 40 years, made St. Paul a safe haven for gangsters.

The handicapped accessible tour includes KJ's Hideaway (now a jazz club), which was part of the popular gangster hideout the Green Lantern; the St. Paul Hotel, where bootlegger Leon Gleckman conducted business from the third floor; and even Flavo Korn (now known as Candyland), whose founder mysteriously disappeared.

The tour ends in the basement of the Landmark Center, once a Federal courthouse where Karpis was tried.

A portion of the proceeds from the wintertime tours will go to the Winter Carnival, said Cynthia Schreiner Smith, who co-owns CynCity Tours with her husband, Bick.

Lisa Jacobson, President and CEO of the St. Paul Festival and Heritage Foundation, said adding the tour to the carnival line-up was "a good partnership. We hope everyone enjoys it."

If you go: CynCity Walking Gangster will be held through Feb. 6. Tours leave from the Inform Building, 380 St. Peter St., St. Paul. $20. cyncitytours.com.