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Al Capone question


Chili Ron

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I saw a number of guns for auction for the Capone family.

There was a Ruger and M1 carbine. 

How could he have owned guns that new?

Did someone pad the offerings?

I wonder if there is any proof??

Best

CR

 

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For the Capone Family... or claimed to be owned by Al Capone (THE Al Capone, not Alfred Capone the plumber).

 

THE Al Capone died in 47, Sturm Ruger was founded in 49.

 

But, if somebody else in the Capone family owned it, then technically it was from the Capone Gun Vault.

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I recall, several years ago, where they auctioned off Bonnie and Clyde's tommy gun.

 

Clyde Barrow did not use tommy guns. He used BARs.

 

But the woman that auctioned the gun had provenance. Her uncle, or possibly it was her great uncle, or maybe even her grandfather, had been a deputy sheriff in Texas in the 30s. And he told her, when she was a little girl, that he had confiscated that gun from Clyde Barrow.

 

She didn't even have something written down. Oral provenance.

 

At the time a Colt-made 1921 Thompson would have sold for about $25,000.  This gun sold for well over $100,000.

 

This proves that people that buy "named" guns are idiots.

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I bid on an Uberti that was owned by Black Bart. I dropped out at $6000.00 there was a letter with it and everything !:ph34r:

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they sure did,.. it’s a shame actually.  i’ve never cared for adjustable sights.

 

I could not stop laughing watching Drunk History’s Al Capone episode.

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According to another website I was reading, those are Millet sights, and the Millet company was not yet in business when Capone died. The sights, and the engraving, were done by Capone's kid after daddy shuffled off this mortal coil.

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On 10/12/2021 at 4:25 PM, Chili Ron said:

I saw a number of guns for auction for the Capone family.

There was a Ruger and M1 carbine. 

How could he have owned guns that new?

Did someone pad the offerings?

I wonder if there is any proof??

Best

CR

 

 

Here is a link to what seems to be the auction in question: https://www.liveauctioneers.com/catalog/216633_the-estate-of-al-capone/?page=1&pageSize=96

 

Most of the guns did not belong to Al Capone, they belonged to Al Capone's son Albert Francis "Sonny" Capone.

 

As for the 1911, it probably did belong to Al Capone at one point, just not in that configuration.  If I had to guess, Sonny Capone liked to shoot and at some point added adjustable sights and had the front of the grip frame stippled.

 

Auction houses have to walk a very fine line when writing up the description.  The description has to be accurate, but written in a way to emphasize the positives of the item and de-emphasize the negatives.  Their job is to maximize the consignor's profit (and theirs as well), but they don't dare lie or omit important information.  If they do they will quickly get a bad reputation and people will stop buying from them which leads to them being unemployed.

 

 

 

 

 

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Whether you watch it all or not - it's a half hour long - is up to you.

 

But you need to watch the auction scene. It starts at 6:17.

 

 An actual honest auctioneer.

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6 hours ago, Chantry said:

Most of the guns did not belong to Al Capone, they belonged to Al Capone's son Albert Francis "Sonny" Capone.

 

As for the 1911, it probably did belong to Al Capone at one point, just not in that configuration.  If I had to guess, Sonny Capone liked to shoot and at some point added adjustable sights and had the front of the grip frame stippled.

 

You are correct. It was discussed elsewhere that the 1911 originally belonged to Al Capone, but his son did all the modifications long after Daddy died. Despite that the pistol still sold for a cool million! Something about fools and money comes to mind... :rolleyes:

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King's gunworks' 1929 catalog listed mounting adjustable sights on 1911s as a service. They were S&W revolver sights, but folks were putting adjustables on 1911s back then.

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