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Al Capone's Car.... I Am Told This Is a True Story!
I got this email recently from a friend:
"A BIT OF HISTORY I BETCHA DIDN’T KNOW……………
Hours after Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941, the Secret Service found themselves in a bind. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was to give his Day of Infamy speech to Congress on Tuesday, and although the trip from the White House to Capitol Hill was short, agents weren’t sure how to transport him safely.
At the time, Federal Law prohibited buying any cars that cost more than $750, so they would have to get clearance from Congress to do that, and nobody had time for that. One of the Secret Service members, however, discovered that the US Treasury had seized the bulletproof car that mobster Al Capone owned when he was sent to jail in 1931. They cleaned it, made sure it was running perfectly and had it ready for the President the next day.
Al Capone's 1928 Cadillac V-8 "Al Capone" Town Sedan
Became the President's Limo December 1941
Mechanics are said to have cleaned and checked each feature of the Caddy well into the night of December 7th, to make sure that it would run properly the next day for the Commander in Chief. And run properly it did. It had been painted black and green to look identical to Chicago ’s police cars at the time. To top it off, the gangster’s 1928 Cadillac Town Sedan had 3,000 pounds of armor and inch-thick bulletproof windows.
It also had a specially installed siren and flashing lights hidden behind the grille, along with a police scanner radio.
See the source: http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/presidential-wheels/6/"
Although this came from a fairly reputable source, I am forced to hold confirmation off for now. Check out http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/r/FDR-Capone-Car-102113.htm#.V... where they say a spokesperson at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library told the TruthOrFiction.com team that FDR did not ride in Al Capone's car to deliver his speech on December 8, 1941. The spokesperson added that a retired member of the Secret Service, once assigned to protect President Roosevelt, wrote about the 1928 armored Cadillac Town Sedan that once belonged to Al Capone.
Footnote: The car was sold at auction in 2012 for $341,000.
A Bite of History: by Mike Thies
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1948 Rover P3 Saloon
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ContinuePosted by Michael Thies on July 14, 2025 at 8:39am
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