Well, even though it ended with Geraldo sporting that 'deer in the headlight look' I enjoyed the show tremedously. It really was fun.
Posted on 04/21/2026 12:46:51 PM PDT by Ciaphas Cain
It’s time again to dig up the story about Al Capone’s vault.
Forty years ago this Tuesday (April 21), a live syndicated television special drew a record 30 million viewers with a tantalizing premise: Crews were going to blast their way into a mysterious sealed chamber in the basement of Al Capone’s onetime crime headquarters, the Lexington Hotel, in Chicago’s South Loop.
Would they uncover riches? Bodies of Capone rivals? IRS agents and a medical examiner would be standing by.
Prohibition-era gun discovered in walls of distillery linked to Al Capone Alas, the final moments of “The Mystery of Al Capone’s Vaults” yielded only dust, debris and an empty bottle or two.
“It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, when we opened the damn vault … the vault was empty,” recalls veteran journalist Geraldo Rivera, who hosted the 1986 program four decades ago. “They’re still talking about it. I think that that’s an accomplishment, even if they inscribe it on my tombstone.”
(Excerpt) Read more at newsnationnow.com ...
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
Can barely believe it's been forty years since that night.
Vault as empt as Geraldo.
Well, even though it ended with Geraldo sporting that 'deer in the headlight look' I enjoyed the show tremedously. It really was fun.
Geraldo Rivera has always been a paid hack, never a journalist.
Reality TV learned from that and now just puts things in the storage lockers.
/sarc
His REAL name is........
I always got a chuckle when Rush would say, “Every time I see Geraldo reading the news I wonder who died. That’s the only reason they bring him out.”
This was almost as far back as when he was going by “Jerry Rivers”...
as i recall, they also found an old license plate ...
Al Capone’s vault was Jerry rivers career in a nutshell
One big flop.
When that idiot was embedded with a US military unit in Iraq and began drawing their planned attack in the sand they should have shot him on the spot.
He looks like he’s going to pull up lobster traps.
What didn’t help him was the ridiculous lead-up to the big Al Capone vault reveal. It was orchestrated to suck in a lot of suckers. I was one of them.
Geraldo was of course the inspiration for the Wayne Gale character in Natural Born Killers.
I was madly in love with the TV show, “The Sopranos”, which I think was based on or got a lot it’s ideas from Capone. My son was amazed that his “dear, sweet” mom liked it and bougt me the entire set of DVDs. No idea where they are right now or I’d play them again, Better than everything on TV now.
I do like the cop/mystery series “Bones” starring David Boreanaz, IMHO the best looking man on the planet. Well written show, amazing how much better that old show is than anything on TV now.
Jerry G. has always been a joke, a farce.
The 1-2 times I watched about 30 seconds of Jerry, he does what every liberal creepozoid does. He CONSTANTLY talks over everyone.
Life is far too short to include Little Jerry.
Kilroy Was Here
Jerry Rivers !
It was a Big Deal.
Boy did I feel jiped 😄
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.