From Hemmings Blog

(August 4, 2012) PLYMOUTH, Mich. — To most Cadillac enthusiasts, the four-door, five-passenger 1928 town sedan is one of the least desirable body styles of the Model 341 range, but two weeks ago one example alleged to have been modified for gangster Al Capone sold for $341,000, well above what Cadillac V-8s of that era typically fetch.

What’s even more remarkable is that the car’s ties to Capone aren’t as solid as one would expect from a typical celebrity-owned car. RM Auctions, in its description for the 1928 Cadillac, claims that “the provenance of the ‘Al Capone’ armored Cadillac has never been questioned,” but actual ownership documentation only dates back to 1933 and the strongest evidence that this particular car belonged to Capone comes from the son of the man who allegedly installed the flip-down bulletproof backlight when the car was new.



Then again, even a man as brazen as Capone wouldn’t exactly splash his name across one of the most basic and anonymous sedans of his day, and the Cadillac does still feature nearly inch-thick bulletproof glass and a flip-down bulletproof backlight (steel plate used as body armor within the door panels had been removed during a late 1950s or early 1960s restoration), making it – according to RM – one of the earliest known examples of armored sedans.

At one time exhibited in carnivals across America and in England as a a Capone car, the Cadillac eventually returned to the United States in the mid-1960s and passed through a number of museums — the Niagara Falls Antique Auto Museum, the Cars of the Greats museum, and the Smoky Mountain Car Museum — before the late John O’Quinn added it to his collection in 2006.

Offered at an RM auction at St. John’s with a $300,000 to $400,000 pre-auction estimate, the Cadillac sold for $341,000, including the 10 percent buyer’s premium. NADA’s stated value for a 1928 Cadillac Model 341 four-door town sedan is $41,200.

That sale price put the Cadillac squarely in the top 10 sales from that auction.