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Geraldo Rivera uncovered ‘The Mystery of Al Capone’s Vaults’ on live television 40 years ago

Geraldo Rivera poses on the stairs heading down to the Lexington Hotel’s basement, where Al Capone supposedly kept a hidden vault. Forty years ago, millions of Americans tuned in to watch Rivera’s two-hour live television special revealing the contents of the “vault.” Steve Kagan / Getty Images
April 24, 2026

On April 21, 1986, television reporter Geraldo Rivera completed his final on-air shot in a live broadcast from the Chicago hotel where Prohibition-era Mob boss Al Capone supposedly had an underground vault. With 30 million viewers watching, the vault contained not much more than a couple of decades-old bottles and a cloud of dust. Afterward, sensing that critics would pounce, Rivera went on a bender, convinced his career was over. “He said he got tequila drunk across the street,” William Elliott Hazelgrove told The Mob Museum. Hazelgrove is the author of the newly released book, Capone’s Vault: The Real Story of the Biggest ...

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Irish drug kingpin living in Dubai attracts new attention

Irish drug kingpin Daniel Kinahan is back in the spotlight with a magazine story noting that he is living freely…

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William Bioff pictured outside the Los Angeles courtroom in 1939. UCLA/Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection

Hollywood fixer Willie Bioff killed in automobile blast 70 years ago

Chicago Outfit associate Willie Bioff rose to power as a corrupt union official, extorting millions from Hollywood studios on behalf…

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This month marks 30 years since the debut of the Martin Scorsese film Casino. In this publicity photo, Scorsese, left, chats with Joe Pesci, who played Nicky Santoro, based on Chicago mobster Tony Spilotro. Universal Pictures

Las Vegas Mob classic ‘Casino’ celebrates 30th anniversary

Three decades after Casino was released in November 1995, screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi says the nearly three-hour film portrays the end of…

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Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, one of the defendants named in today’s indictment, was arrested this morning. The NBA has suspended Billups indefinitely. Erik Drost / Creative Commons

FBI indictments link New York mobsters, professional athletes in two cheating schemes

If you thought the traditional Mob was dead, think again. The FBI on Thursday announced sweeping indictments implicating members of…

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‘Beer Baron’ Dutch Schultz gunned down 90 years ago

On October 23, 1935, Dutch Schultz was shot in a Newark restaurant along with three of his associates. In the…

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Bookmaker Matthew Bowyer arrives at a Santa Ana, California, federal court for sentencing on August 29, 2025. Earlier that month, he pleaded guilty to his illegal gambling-related charges. AP Photo / Jae C. Hong

Mathew Bowyer, bookie for baseball star Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter, vows to turn his life around

As he prepared to begin serving a federal prison sentence for booking sports bets illegally, Mathew Bowyer pledged never to…

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Con man “Count” Victor Lustig, pictured here in federal custody, had his career cut short in August 1935. Courtesy of Cipollini Collection

The long con of underworld grifter ‘Count’ Victor Lustig

The sensational exploits of Depression-era con artist Victor Lustig are now underworld legend. But many oft-told tales overlook his surprising…

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