“I hope Mr. Capone doesn’t mind.” How the US Secret Service confiscated Roosevelt’s first presidential armored car because they had no money

The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, led the United States to enter the war against the Axis forces. That is the big story, but History is also made up of small stories, such as that of the first armored car used by a US president as a result of the attack on Hawaii. That armored limousine that was recovered from the organization of the mafia most famous of all time, Al Capone.

Hours after Pearl Harbor, the Secret Service found itself in a bind. President Franklin D. Roosevelt Roosevelt was due to deliver his Day of Infamy speech to Congress the next day, and although it was a short drive from the White House to the Capitol, agents were unsure how to transport him safely. Especially since Roosevelt liked to ride in a convertible.

Budget constraints and Al Capone

The White House already had a specially built limousine for the president that he used regularly, but it was not bulletproof, and the Secret Service realized that this could be a serious problem now that the country was heading to war. Roosevelt’s speech was to take place at noon on December 8, and time was running out. They had to get an armored car. And they needed it now.

At the time, the Secret Service was faced with two insurmountable problems. First, regulations at the time restricted federal agencies from purchasing any vehicle costing more than $750 ($10,455 today). Second, they had less than a day to procure an armored car.

Even if the agents found a car that fit the budget (something impossible, since a Cadillac 75 Imperial Sedan (The standard version already cost between $1,300 and $3,000), it was pretty obvious that they weren’t going to get an armored model in less than a day.

However, as the agent recalls in his memoirs, Michael F. Reillythe federal government already had a car in its possession that could serve, a 1928 Cadillac that belonged to Al Capone. Confiscated after his conviction for tax evasion, it had been parked on the Treasury Department premises since the trial, he said.

The vehicle had a soft top, which was less desirable than closed sedans, and had a windscreen and window glass that were 25 mm thick. However, the body of the vehicle remained standard and had no armour.

It is said that when President Roosevelt was told where the car came from, Roosevelt replied: “I hope Mr. Capone doesn’t mind.”

Storytelling or reality?

It’s a nice story, no doubt, but most likely it’s all an invention of Michael F. Reilly and that the Secret Service maintain because it is simply a priceless promotional story. It is story telling the good one.

What makes us doubt the veracity of this story? First of all, because in Reilly’s book, the anecdote about Roosevelt travelling in Al Capone’s car occurred on December 9, that is, the day after the speech and the first day of the US at war.

It is also surprising that someone like Al Capone, with so many enemies, would use a convertible as an armored car. But the most relevant thing is that the December 8, 1941When Roosevelt drove to the Capitol to give the speech that would lead Congress to declare war on Japan, he did so in a sedan, not a convertible.

Mike Sampson of the U.S. Secret Service Public Affairs Office in Washington DC, in response to the author of The Capone Filesconfirmed that Roosevelt traveled that day in a sedan, although there was a convertible in the motorcade, the president did not use it.

Sampson accompanied his response with three photographs (which we cannot reproduce here for legal reasons, but can be consulted at the link above) from that day in which the cars of the motorcade can be seen. And there is no 1928 Cadillac.

So did Al Capone have an armored car? It’s difficult to answer with certainty. Like every criminal, most of his property was not in his name. Most of it was in the name of his wife, Mae Capone, or trusted third parties.

The family is known to have owned several luxury cars (such as two Cadillac V16 confiscated by the federal courts) and some armored cars, such as the Cadillac V8 Town Sedan de 1928undoubtedly the most famous of all, and which was in his wife’s name.

Green and black, like the cars in the Chicago PoliceAt the time, the car had full armour, windows and body panels, which added over 1,000kg to the weight. Initially, the original 90bhp V8 had not undergone a power increase to compensate for the extra weight.

However, there is no evidence that Roosevelt ever used any of these cars. The 1928 Cadillac V8, for example, had been purchased by a private individual and was in the UK in 1941.

As for the first new armored car delivered to a US president, this would not arrive until 1942, when Lincoln made an armored limousine available to the White House on the recommendation of the Secret Service.