‘The Estate of Al Capone’
Upcoming auction, granddaughter’s book reveal intimate perspective of mob boss
Al Capone’s fondness for Hot Springs is no secret. The notorious mob boss and businessman chose the Spa City as a “getaway place” to go with his wife, with numerous photographs to document the visits — and now some of those memories are headed to the auction block.
“I’ve seen numerous pictures,” Diane Patricia Capone, Al Capone’s granddaughter and daughter of his only son, Sonny Capone, recounted in an interview on Wednesday. “I mean, way over a dozen; all of them that were taken in Hot Springs (especially of my dad and grandmother) with big grins on their faces. There is no question they were having a great time. For a family that could, at that time, afford to go pretty much any place, Hot Springs was the place they chose.”
An upcoming family auction will include one particular Hot Springs photo, featuring Al Capone and his associates standing at Happy Hollow.
Witherell’s Auction House will present “A Century of Notoriety: The Estate of Al Capone,” a live auction event on Oct. 8 at The Sutter Club in Sacramento. Capone’s estate is expecting to draw global interest as his personal items reveal “riveting new details” about his private life.
Nearly 200 family treasures will be sold, from extravagant diamond jewelry and antique guns to vintage home movies and intimate prison letters hidden away for decades by his granddaughters and authenticated by Witherell’s.
Brian Witherell, co-founder of Witherell’s Auction House and guest appraisal expert on PBS’s popular series, “Antiques Roadshow,” said, “It comprises the items he lived with during his life. It’s an interesting glimpse into him as a person that can’t be understood until these come to light.”
For instance, “looking through the family photo album you have pictures of him with business associates, like the one in Hot Springs, Ark.,” Witherell said. “In addition to the last photograph taken of him, roughly about a month before he passed away … that adds another element to our understanding of Al Capone. That being he clearly is not as ill and demented and mad as some of the biographies would lead you to believe.”
In fact, Diane Capone said that after her grandfather went to prison he began to regret his life.
“Certainly this was true after he went to Alcatraz. In August of 1934, he was transferred to Alcatraz and (it was) a very bitter and difficult time for him. There were numerous attempts made on his life. He was more isolated than he had ever been from family. He went for months at a time without being able to see my grandmother. He began to chat with a Catholic priest … and little by little he began to read the Bible again, began to go to Mass, and (receive) holy communion. He wrote to my grandmother in letters from Alcatraz. He had gone to confession and was receiving the sacraments again,” she said.
“My grandmother told me years and years later that my grandfather had had a conversion experience while at Alcatraz. He had been put in solitary confinement and while there, over a period of days, he really was at his lowest point ever, he really believed he had been spiritually given a second chance,” she recalled.
“His life was turned around,” she said, “Over the last few years of his life, between 1940 and 1947, he had many, many years of time to reflect and to pray. He believed by the time he passed away he had made peace with God and had made peace with the world.
“Throughout all of this, my grandmother never gave up, she never stopped praying, she never stopped believing in his goodness and in the fact that he could find himself.”
Capone said she still holds a few fond memories of her grandfather who she lovingly refers to as “Papa.” She was only 3 years old when he passed away, but recalled that they shared birthdays close to each other and she remembers sitting on his lap and blowing out the candles with him as they celebrated the birthday together.
“The memory that is most profound,” Capone said, “is that he was a loving grandfather. He always had a smile on his face. He always had a twinkle in his eye. And was so affectionate and thrilled with us. I am one of four granddaughters. … Everyone who came in the house said how much we were the light of his life.”
Living quietly for decades in a small Northern California town, his granddaughters are now revealing their true identity along with personal stories about their grandfather, widely considered one of the most notorious American gangsters of the Prohibition era.
“That is the unknown Capone I talk about in my book,” Diane Capone said in a news release, “and it’s the story that comes to life with these family treasures.” She will headline an auction preview event and sign copies of her book, “Al Capone: Stories my Grandmother Told Me.”
The preview is Oct. 7 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Witherell’s Gallery, 300 20th St. in Sacramento.
Auction highlights include:
• Fine jewelry — Capone’s stunning platinum and diamond monogram Patek Philippe pocket watch, his “tuxedo set” of abalone and diamond studs and cuff links, 14k gold monogram “AC” pendant necklace adorned with 33 diamonds, sapphire and diamond-studded tie pin.
• Personal effects — Capone’s 18k gold and platinum belt buckle, white gold diamond monogram match book cover, platinum diamond monogram pocket watch and gold initialed “AC” money clip that he was known to carry every day.
• Guns — Capone’s favorite Colt .45 semi-automatic pistol and his Colt .38 semi-automatic blue pistol.
• Furniture and China — Al and Mae Capone’s ornate bedroom set, decorative cigar humidor, monogram sterling silver tea service set, Lenox gold rim porcelain fine china.
• Photos and home movies — home movies taken by Al Capone of his associates, vintage family photos of Al Capone and his family and the last known photograph taken of Al Capone before he died.
• Family letters — A personal letter from Al Capone to Sonny from Alcatraz.