Blog

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 ...

Learn More

Alleged former Philadelphia Mafia boss Joey Merlino rebrands himself as restaurant owner

Joey Merlino, a 63-year-old convicted felon and reputed former Philadelphia Mafia boss, has become a social media personality while also…

Learn More
In Mafia: The Old Country, a new release from 2K Games, you play as Enzo Favara, center, who rises through the ranks of the Sicilian Mafia in the first decade of the 20th century. 2K Games

Grounded in history, ‘Mafia: The Old Country’ is a game you can’t refuse

The Mob movie may be experiencing a lull, evident by the lukewarm receptions to this year’s The Alto Knights and Mob Cops,…

Learn More
Since getting out of prison in 2024, Owen Hanson has reconnected with his former USC teammates and coaching staff. Here he poses with Tino Dominguez, USC’s equipment manager for the last 35 years. Courtesy of Owen Hanson / @theofficialcakid

Owen Hanson goes from cartel kingpin to selling frozen protein bars

At one time Owen Hanson, a former University of Southern California national championship football player, was making millions as a…

Learn More
Despite his extensive body count, Detroit hitman Chester Wheeler Campbell was convicted of murder only once in 1955. Campbell is pictured here following a 1975 arrest. Courtesy of Cipollini Collection

‘Dr. Death,’ notorious Detroit contract killer, committed first murder 70 years ago

The shooting death of 43-year-old Luther Mixon on July 1, 1955, landed Chester Wheeler Campbell, 24, and two accomplices in…

Learn More

Chicago Outfit boss Sam Giancana killed 50 years ago

Late in the evening of June 19, 1975,  Sam “Momo” Giancana was cooking in his basement apartment, presumably for a…

Learn More
In 1961, Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal was subpoenaed to testify before a Senate Rackets Subcommittee after Oregon football player Mickey Bruce told the panel about Rosenthal attempting to bribe him to throw a game the year before. Rosenthal refused to answer any questions. Corbis

Lefty Rosenthal’s alleged sports-fixing past recalled in national sports story

In the 1970s, Mickey Bruce, a former University of Oregon football player, was called to Nevada to testify against Mob…

Learn More

Las Vegas casino pioneer a footnote in Southern California slaying

A high-profile murder in 1950s Southern California at the former home of a Las Vegas casino operator led to the…

Learn More