Handgun Owned By Al Capone To Go Up For Auction
LONDON (CBS) -- How much would you pay to have a piece of Chicago mob history?
As WBBM Newsradio 780's Michele Fiore reports, we'll find out this week at Christie's Auction House in London, as an infamous gun belonging to Al Capone goes on the auction block.
The bids will go out Wednesday on the six-shot revolver a .38-caliber Colt Police Special. It could sell for more than $100,000.
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The nickel-plated handgun is expected to be a top draw Wednesday at Christie's auction of "Antique Arms, Armour and Collectors' Firearms."
The 1929 model handgun — manufactured the same year as the infamous Valentine's Day Massacre Capone is suspected of ordering — is expected to sell for between $80,000 and $112,000, according to the Christie's website.
To confirm its authenticity, the revolver is being sold with a letter and a 1990 sworn affidavit from Capone's sister-in-law, Madeleine Capone Morichetti.
She lists the weapon's serial number and describes it in her 1976 letter as "a gun which previously belonged to and was used only by Al Capone while he was alive," according to the auction house Web site.
In guessing the likely sale price for the handgun, experts looked at other bad-boy guns.
Jack Ruby's Colt Cobra .38 special that killed Lee Harvey Oswald was auctioned off for $200,000, and a handgun used in the Batman movie went for $400,000.
The Chicago Sun-Times contributed to this report, via the Sun-Times Media Wire
