Scarface’s Last Big Haul

I didn’t know that Al Capone’s granddaughters lived in the San Francisco Bay area—where he was imprisoned (on Alcatraz Island) for four and a half years—much less that they remain in possession of a trove of “Scarface’s” belongings. But I learned all of that this week from a story in the San Francisco Chronicle:

Notorious gangster Al Capone’s granddaughters, who’ve lived quietly in the Bay Area and Auburn area for decades, are preparing to action off much of their grandfather’s personal possessions, including his favorite .45 automatic, hand-tinted photographs with family and “associates,” and a letter sent from Alcatraz to his only child, son Sonny.

Also up for sale in the Oct. 8 auction in Sacramento are several other firearms owned by Al and Sonny; a gold money clip from the mobster; his platinum-and-diamond pocket-watch; Dresden figurines; fancy furniture, including a decorative cigar humidor; china, silver and jewelry; and a home-movie reel “featuring Al Capone and associates.”

The auction catalog for what’s being called “A Century of Notoriety: the Estate of Al Capone” lists 174 items.

Diane Capone, 77, one of three living granddaughters of the infamous mob boss known as Scarface, said they decided to sell the estate because they’re all in their 70s. They also worried about having to hurriedly pack up and save the collection if a wildfire threatened their foothill homes.

“We decided it was time to deal with this and to let the public have it,” she said.

Chronicle reporter Michael Cabanatuan goes on to quote Diane Capone saying “she hopes the memorabilia will also help show what she considers the kinder and gentler side of the man dubbed Public Enemy Number One,” and that she finds it difficult “to reconcile stories of her grandfather’s violent gangster life with the gentle grandfather she knew. ‘It was very much like a double life,’ she said. ‘I really don’t know anything about his public life other than what I’ve read. It’s a riddle, a conundrum. It’s hard to believe that some of things we’ve been told about his public life could have been done by the same person we knew as this loving, gentle grandfather figure. It’s a riddle I’ll have to figure out when I go to heaven—I hope.’”

(Hat tip to Randal S. Brandt.)

READ MORE: “Al Capone’s Personal Items, Kept Within His Family for Decades, Head to Auction,” by Fang Block (Barron’s); “What Cigars Did Al Capone Smoke?” by Dan Stevenson (Cigar Cigar).