Pearl Harbor 1941 -- Secret Service finds 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 the $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 Cadillace 314A Town Sedan.
Became the Presidenets' 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 light hiddin behind the grille, along with a police scanner radio.
To top it off, the gangsters 1928 Cadillac 341S Town Sedan had 3,000 pounds of armor and inch-thick windows.
Mechanics are said to have cleaned and checked each feature of the CAddy well into the night of December 7, 1941, to make sure that it would run properly the next day for the Commander in Chief.
In 2012 - The car sold at auction for $341,000.
Now you know that bit of American History......
At the time, Federal Law prohibited buying any cars that cost more the $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 Cadillace 314A Town Sedan.
Became the Presidenets' 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 light hiddin behind the grille, along with a police scanner radio.
To top it off, the gangsters 1928 Cadillac 341S Town Sedan had 3,000 pounds of armor and inch-thick windows.
Mechanics are said to have cleaned and checked each feature of the CAddy well into the night of December 7, 1941, to make sure that it would run properly the next day for the Commander in Chief.
In 2012 - The car sold at auction for $341,000.
Now you know that bit of American History......
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