Would you want Al Capone’s favorite gun? Or the dapper gangster’s diamond and pearl stick pin? It’s not just a thought experiment—his granddaughters are selling off some family heirlooms. The items are pretty nice things, with dollar values inflated by the mobster cooties all over them. The gun in question is a Colt .45, and there are family photos, a letter to his son sent from Alcatraz, some china figurines, and a couple of watches, all authenticated and appraised by Timothy Gordon of Antiques Roadshow fame, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Figurines that would ordinarily go for $50 are expected to sell for more like $250 because of the connection to the world’s most famous criminal. The online auction is set for Oct. 8 at Witherell’s in Sacramento, Calif.
The location and timing are not a coincidence. Capone moved to Florida after being released from prison. When his son, Albert Francis "Sonny" Capone grew up, he dropped the Capone and went by Albert Francis Jr., and moved to Northern California. That’s where he raised his family, and that’s where his daughters are concerned all of the family memorabilia will burn up in a wildfire if they don’t sell it off soon. "This is the second summer we’ve had our suitcases packed in case we were going to be evacuated, and we knew there was no way we could save these things that belonged to our grandparents," Diane Capone told CBS Sacramento.
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The Capone granddaughters insist the memorabilia reveals the loving, family-oriented grandpa they remember. Ethicist Erich Hatala Matthes told the Journal he was curious about the sale, but "knowing this is Al Capone’s stuff is enough to have moral concern." (More Al Capone stories.)
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