On this day, April 21, in 1986, television reporter Geraldo Rivera opened Al Capone’s vault on live television and found nothing. “The Mystery of Al Capone’s Vault” was a one-time live syndicated broadcast that was hyped as a revelation of great riches or bodies on live television.
The vault was hidden under the Lexington Hotel in Chicago, where the Prohibition-era gangster Capone ran his criminal operations until his arrest in 1931. In the 1980s, construction crews found a series of tunnels connected to taverns and brothels.
Rivera excavated what he had been told was the site of Capone’s treasure. For the TV special, he brought in a medical examiner and IRS agents. When the vault was cracked open, the only things inside were dirt and empty bottles. Although the term “Al Capone’s Vault” has became synonymous with overhyped events that deliver little results, “The Mystery of Al Capone’s Vault” became the most-watched syndicated television special, with an estimated audience of 30 million.
