Hours after Pearl Harbor 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 were not 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 fine and had it ready for the President the day after.
Al Capone's 1928 Cadillac 341a Town Sedan, Now the President's Limo,
December 1941. And run properly it did. Capone's car was a sight to
behold. It had been painted black and green so as to look identical to
Chicago's police cars at the time. It also had a specially installed
siren and flashing lights hidden behind the grille, along with a police
scanner radio.
To top it off, the gangster's 1928 Cadillac 341A Town Sedan had 3,000
pounds of armor and had inch-thick bulletproof windows. 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.
The car was sold at an auction price of $341,000 in 2012.
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 were not 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 fine and had it ready for the President the day after.
Al Capone's 1928 Cadillac 341a Town Sedan, Now the President's Limo,
December 1941. And run properly it did. Capone's car was a sight to
behold. It had been painted black and green so as to look identical to
Chicago's police cars at the time. It also had a specially installed
siren and flashing lights hidden behind the grille, along with a police
scanner radio.
To top it off, the gangster's 1928 Cadillac 341A Town Sedan had 3,000
pounds of armor and had inch-thick bulletproof windows. 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.
The car was sold at an auction price of $341,000 in 2012.
