Al Capone's Favorite Gun Sells for $860K at Auction
Al Capone's family sold several of the infamous Chicago gangster's prized possessions over the weekend in California, collecting at least $3 million, according to the Chicago Tribune, the Associated Press reported.
Capone's favorite gun, a .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol, sold for $860,000. Other auctioned items included diamond jewelry, family photos and a bear-shaped humidor.
Although Capone died nearly 75 years ago, he is survived by three granddaughters who live in California and held the auction.
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.
The event, called A Century of Notoriety: The Estate of Al Capone, was held at a private club in Sacramento and attracted nearly 1,000 registered bidders, including 150 who attended the nearly four-hour event in person.
Most of the buyers' identities were kept private. But one whose name has been made public is Kevin Nagle, a Sacramento investor and business owner. Among the items that once belonged to "Scarface" Capone that he picked up was a decorative humidor for $120,000 and an 18-karat yellow gold and platinum belt buckle for $22,500.
Capone's story is a familiar one, thanks in large part to a host of movies, television shows and books about the mobster. Called Public Enemy No. 1 after what is known as the Valentine's Day Massacre in which seven members of a rival bootlegger gang were gunned down in a parking garage in 1929, Capone was convicted of income tax evasion in 1934.
He spent 11 years locked up in Alcatraz, a federal prison in the middle of the San Francisco Bay, and died of a heart attack in 1947 in the Florida home where he and his associates were believed to have plotted the massacre years earlier.
