...Al Capone Revolver...

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ParadiseRoad

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...The .38 revolver was manufactured by Smith & Wesson in 1925. It was shipped from the factory and sold by Wolf & Klar Company, a gun dealer in Fort Worth, Texas. Wolf & Klar was known for installing pearl grips on the revolvers it sold.

Capone, the boss of the Chicago Outfit, obtained the gun in 1928 while he was living part time in a palatial estate in Miami Beach. While there, Capone decided he needed some extra firepower for protection. He had a friend, hotel manager Parker Henderson Jr., purchase six revolvers and six shotguns from a Miami pawn shop, which had procured them from Wolf & Klar.

Later that year, one of the shotguns and two of the revolvers were recovered from an abandoned car believed to have been used by the gunmen responsible for the murder of Brooklyn crime kingpin Frankie Yale, Capone’s former employer. Historians have long suspected that Capone orchestrated Yale’s murder.

Capone was arrested in Miami that year on a minor charge. While searching his house, police confiscated the pearl-handled .38 revolver that was among those Henderson had purchased for him.

The revolver would change hands several times over the ensuing decades. A police captain involved in Capone’s arrest sometime later gave the pistol to a tour bus operator named James Campbell. Campbell had been paying the captain in order to park his tour bus in prime locations, and the captain gave him the gun as a gift.

Campbell later moved to Grosse Point Park, Michigan, where he rented out apartments, including one to a man named Warren Hogancamp starting in 1954. Hogancamp did odd jobs for Campbell and became like a son to him. Around 1959 Campbell gave the gun to Hogancamp as a gift and told him the story of how he had received it.

Hogancamp moved to Kentucky in 1965. He sold the gun in 2003 to a man named Billy Clayton, who operated an illegal gambling business in Mayfield, Kentucky. IRS Criminal Investigation agents raided Clayton’s operation in 2004 and seized the gun.

IRS CI – the same federal law enforcement agency responsible for busting Capone for tax evasion – has had the revolver ever since...

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If everyone will indulge me for just a moment. A quick comment about Capone's palatial estate in Miami Beach...

The home was actually on Star Island, an incredibly beautiful and exclusive island (with it's own bridge) just west of the southern main part of Miami Beach. Many celebrities have homes there.

Back in the late 1970s I had a job with the Dade (now Miami-Dade) County government. Capone's old house has of course been sold on several occasions since he was around, and the owner at that time was former Miami Dolphin Bob Kuechenberg.

A major seawall repair was being made at the residence, and my job was to inspect the work, and be sure all county permit requirements were being met. (They were.)

After completing my inspection, the caretaker asked if I'd like to take a quick tour of the place... of course I said YES!

We walked up a set of stairs as grand and beautiful as any you'll ever see. It was like some royal palace. He first showed me to the master bedroom, and said "this is where Al Capone spent his evenings with the ladies." The room was larger than my living room and dining room combined, and had two walk in closets, each as big as my bedroom at home.

There was a electric button on the wall just behind the headboard of the bed. The caretaker says, "Do you know what THAT is for? Go ahead and push it."

I do what I'm told, and when pushed, I could hear a faint sound from somewhere outside the bedroom balcony.

I was informed that Al would push that button when he wanted to have intimate female companionship. The more times he pushed the button, the more ladies would come over. There had been a second-story catwalk from his bedroom balcony to a nearby "guest quarters." What a plan. Wow!

Anyway, it was an interesting experience I'll never forget.

Best wishes everyone!

Roger aka Mr. Wonderful
 
The hammer is nickeled. The trigger looks black, which could be a reflection and it could also be plated. At any rate, neither appears case-colored. So the whole gun was likely refinished at some point. Maybe the gangster liked his things extra shiny? ;)
 
Very questionable provenance. A refinished gun with a vague oral history like this makes me laugh. It reminds me of the long slide 1902 Colt automatic that sold recently. Supposedly, it was strapped to the thigh of Bonnie Parker and no one noticed except the coroner. She actually had only one small gun (and note that she was a very small woman), a Detective Special, which was recovered by Frank Hammer. We all know what P.T. Barnum said.
 
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