Capone, the boss of the Chicago Outfit, obtained the gun in 1928 while he was living part time in a palatial estate in Miami Beach. While there, Capone decided he needed some extra firepower for protection. He had a friend, hotel manager Parker Henderson Jr., purchase six revolvers and six shotguns from a Miami pawn shop, which had procured them from Wolf & Klar.
Capone was arrested in Miami that year on a minor charge. While searching his house, police confiscated the pearl-handled .38 revolver that was among those Henderson had purchased for him.
This gun was seized by the IRS after a Police Captain gifted to one man, who then gifted it to another man, who then sold it to the propertier of an illegal casino which was raided by the IRS in 2004. It is now on display in the Mob Museum in Los Vegas, Nevada.
Al Capone owned several other firearms including this Colt 1911 pistol which sold at auction for $1.04 Million and this Colt 1908 .380 that he carried frequently which sold for $240,000.
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Why are they such outliers except for the last one? If I was the most wanted person in the US, I’d have liked the most generic guns. Probably bought by random people for a premium. Pearl handle is nice, but you don’t purchase a gun for it, you purchase a gun for holes in people it can make if needed. Him being caught with that sounds stupid.
Just a guess, but this was before the RICO Act so it was a lot harder to arrest crime bosses. Knowing some one runs a origination full of unsavory people is a lot different than being able to prove that person is guilty of a crime pre-RICO.
RICO= Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act
Basically the act allows you to arrest the heads of organizations for crimes their thugs did.
Also it was in the building but not on his person when he got caught by the police.
Hm. One another rabbithole to dig. Do you have any recomendations?
I don’t have any easy sources to cite on this (I learned about it in college) but I would recommend watching a YouTube video or something digestible. I found this one which seems promising but I haven’t watched it: https://youtu.be/iGrYbBNlNZI?si= (I have seen some of their other works)
TLDW: The US Federal Government enacted the RICO Act to fight organized crime by attacking the heads of criminal organizations in the 1970s.
It’s like the third time I see this The uploader has not made this video availiable in your country on Youtube, and it leaves me even more curious. Thanks god VPN exists. Thanks for suggesting it.
When you’re a world class crime lord with unimaginable power, you do what you want.
that 1911 has seen some use, wonder how many rounds went through that thing back in the day
