Al Capone’s Automobile Riddled With History at LiveAuctionTalk.com

Added: (Sun Oct 25 2009)

Pressbox (Press Release) - Santa Fe, Oct. 25, 2009 -- If you could believe Al Capone’s business card he was a second hand furniture dealer, not the most bloodthirsty gangster in Chicago’s history.

Capone did in fact stock a storefront on South Wabash Avenue with junk in the 1920s. But he never sold any of it and if you called to find out store hours you most likely heard, “We ain’t open today.”

The place was a perfect cover for Capone’s seedy activities which grew to include smuggling, brothels, bootlegging, horse and race tracks, nightclubs and general gun-slinging.

The car doors in Capone’s automobile were reinforced with ¼ inch steel armor and bulletproof window glass. The side windows had round ports cut in them which weren’t designed for ventilation. Under the dashboard and above the front passenger seat rested a police band radio. Behind the rear seat was a gun compartment.

Capone’s 1930 Cadillac Series 452 V-16 armored Imperial Sedan is probably the most modified and detailed Cadillac of its kind. It sold on Aug. 14 at Bonham’s auction house in a sale held at Quail Lodge in Carmel, Calif.

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Rosemary McKittrick is a storyteller. Her weekly art, antiques and collectibles column breathes life into objet d'art.