Learning that Geraldo Rivera may run for the US Senate reminded us of the Al Capone’s vault two-hour TV special.
We were sitting in front of our TV’s on the night of April 21, 1986, wondering what we would see inside of Al Capone’s secret vault.
Would there be stacks of cash or maybe gold or silver bars? Would there be dead bodies? At the very least there would surely be guns and ammunition left by the Capone gang as well as other items from the 1920‘s.
We were on the edge of our seats waiting to see what Geraldo Rivera would uncover.
While crews were looking over the old Lexington Hotel prior to planned renovations they found what appeared to be an elaborate tunnel system and a huge hidden vault.
Geraldo Rivera jumped in and planned a 2-hour syndicated show that would end with the vault being blasted open.
Medical examiners were on hand to scoop up the corpses they expected to find inside.
When the vault was finally opened and the dust settled there was just an empty room.
No dead bodies. No money. No gold or silver. No guns or ammunition. No nothing. Just a huge pile of dirt, an old stop sign and two empty gin bottles.
We were all duped.
Many have nearly forgotten the Capone vault fiasco. For those of us who haven’t forgotten, Rivera will forever be linked in our minds to the empty vault under that abandoned building that was once the Lexington Hotel in Chicago in the 1930‘s.
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