Car-face! $1m bulletproof Cadillac driven by Al Capone
LIVING like a big-time crime boss comes at a price – $1 million, to be exact.
A bulletproof Cadillac once owned by Al Capone is being sold with the eye-watering pricetag.
The green motor is lined with 3,000lb of armour and fitted with glass an inch thick. Originally, the side windows could be rolled up 2in further than normal, exposing holes at the bottom, allowing passengers to shoot out.
The back compartment could also be opened to let gangsters fire at police. Capone, pictured, even added a siren, enabling him to clear traffic in a getaway.
The 1928 Series 341A Town Sedan was used by Capone, who was also known as ‘Scarface’, after he bought it from a relative.
It was eventually purchased for a Southend amusement park, spending 25 years in Britain. According to Richard Capstran, whose father added the armour plates at his Chicago garage, Capone paid twice the price when he came to settle the $100 bill. Capone even gave young Richard $10 – £115 in today’s money.
Mr Capstran said: ‘My dad had said, “we don’t do that kind of work here”. And Capone’s men said, “you do now”.’
After Capone was jailed for tax evasion in 1931, the car was sold to a travelling carnival. In 1933, it was purchased by the owner of Southend’s Kursaal amusement park and exhibited around England.
The car passed through several owners before returning to the US. It is being sold by Celebrity Cars in Las Vegas.
Capone ruled gangland Chicago during the Prohibition and orchestrated the Valentine’s Day Massacre of seven rival bootleggers in 1929. He died in 1947 aged 48.