Gangster cars.

[ron hausmann]

All - 

   Ok I have to add to this topic because I actually have an actual “gangster car”. See pictures.

   Our 1921 Kissel Sport Tourster was owned by a small time player in the Chicago mafia. He bought it new. Some time later in 1922, he stole 500 gallons of booze from the mob, and was a marked man. They hunted him. He was reportedly shot in the leg in the car, complete with a bullet hole in the cowl, but survived as did the almost-new Kissel. 
    He then went into hiding in Indiana along with his stolen booze and the Kissel. The Kissel, being so flashy, was stored then for decades which is why it still has only 14,600 miles. 
    I have a series of letters about this from the second and third owners of the car. 
   Thanks, Ron Hausmann P.E.
    

Edited October 20, 2022 by ron hausmann (see edit history)

[31plymouth]

  This 1922 Paige was for sale at Hershey about 8 years ago along with a description of it's accessories and this note.

 

A brief possible history, this car was found in a basement in Chicago, sometime in the 1940's. It may have been owned by a member of the "Chicago Outfit". Supporting this is that it's the only Paige Sport Touring with a rifle compartment built into the rear cowl, as well as two other hidden compartments.

 

I owned a car similar to this and pointed out to the seller that all Paige's like this had that "rifle" compartment (just a long storage compartment behind the front seat) and the 2 other storage compartments.  What do you think@Grimy?

 

The guy selling the car told me to keep quiet.

 

 

 

Edited October 21, 2022 by 31plymouth (see edit history)

[Grimy]

1 hour ago, 31plymouth said:

I owned a car similar to this and pointed out to the seller that all Paige's like this had that "rifle" compartment (just a long storage compartment behind the front seat) and the 2 other storage compartments.  What do you think@Grimy?

Agree that was the seller's puffery, as *all* Larchmont II cars have those compartments.  The lower, foot-level cross-car compartment, is for the jack, tools and supplies, and the upper twin mahogany compartments separated by the trouble light on a reel are described in the brochures as "Mahogany lockers in the Four Passenger; a place for incidentals"....

 

I would have like to have those disc wheels, though--like you also had on yours...

 

In the photo of mine below, the foot-level compartment is concealed by the floor covering.  There's a similar angled factory compartment, also covered by carpeting, in the rumble seat compartment of my 1930 Pierce roadster, also used for tools and supplies.

[lozrocks]

I'd have to disagree with the original comment. Clyde Barrow preferred any car that he could steal easily, and I think most gangsters of the day did the same. Yes he died in a 34 Ford and had previously almost been apprehended whilst driving a 32 Ford. But his career started many years before that and Model Ts and Model As weren't known for their speed. 

Like many gangsters of the era their list of cars isn't known. Al Capone is only known to have bought one Cadillac which occurred in 1928 and it was then armoured. I don't know of any list of his previous vehicles.

During Dillinger's best known interactions with police he was driving a 33 Ford and then later a 34 Essex, so I doubt he really had a preference for a particular make.

[Buick35]

In the movie " Brother Where Art Thou? , "what was baby face Nelson driving?

[Captain Harley]

5 hours ago, Buick35 said:

In the movie " Brother Where Art Thou? , "what was baby face Nelson driving?

A 1934 Ford, I think?!?🤔

 

Capt. Harley😉

 

"Skirts are for Women and not Car Fenders"

[John348]

Paul Castellano liked Lincoln's 

 

 

[Layden B]

Try this!

https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/281082/

[Angelfish]

There's a lot of really bad trigger discipline in this thread.

[John348]

 

 

12 hours ago, Angelfish said:

There's a lot of really bad trigger discipline in this thread.

 

Sometimes they blow up, Frank Triano's Lincoln must have had a fuel leak and maybe went off when he lit up his cigar? 

Edited October 24, 2022 by John348 (see edit history)

[60FlatTop]

I spent my teens in a suburban/rural used car business and saw a lot of the city activity with other dealers at auctions and wholesaling. Being an observant youth I noticed the automotive hierarchy in what cars certain members of the organization were allowed to own. The mid level underlings we knew had lincolns, maybe a modest Buick. That impression has stuck with me all my life and Lincolns just seemed second rate to me. Cadillac was the ride of high rank and eligibility carried a heavy sentence if one was caught. I still remember seeing a late Cadillac with the windows smashed and paint destroyed. Someone was saying "Who did he think he was, buying the Cadillac." Surely a rhetorical question.

 

Stereotypes of my youth. If they didn't keep doing the same thing there wouldn't be any stereotypes.

 

I did enjoy see Jack Nicholson playing Frank (Whitey Bulger) Costello and driving a Buick Roadmaster just like the one I sent my daughter off to Winterhill/Boston with.

 

Once in a while a Lincoln catches my eye but that stigma is still there. I'll stick with Grandma O'Brien's Buicks. The matriarchal families are more to my liking anyway.

[SC38dls]

Very few actual mob bosses drive there own cars. They have an underling start it long before they get anywhere near it if it is parked in a public place. The Lincoln picture above tells you why. If that car was a gas leak then Cicero, River Forest and Oakbrook Illinois had a lot of cars with gas leaks. 
dave s

[lump]

On 10/19/2022 at 7:15 PM, ron hausmann said:

All - 

   Ok I have to add to this topic because I actually have an actual “gangster car”. See pictures.

   Our 1921 Kissel Sport Tourster was owned by a small time player in the Chicago mafia. He bought it new. Some time later in 1922, he stole 500 gallons of booze from the mob, and was a marked man. They hunted him. He was reportedly shot in the leg in the car, complete with a bullet hole in the cowl, but survived as did the almost-new Kissel. 
    He then went into hiding in Indiana along with his stolen booze and the Kissel. The Kissel, being so flashy, was stored then for decades which is why it still has only 14,600 miles. 
    I have a series of letters about this from the second and third owners of the car. 
   Thanks, Ron Hausmann P.E.
    

Ron, 

Well, I assume one of those previous owners was Joe Antrim of Dayton, Ohio. And since he was friends with our family (and others in the Southern Ohio Chapter AACA), I'm sure my parents knew that story about the Kissel. But I never knew it before myself. And I was really familiar with that car. It would have been fun to know it then! LOL

[ron hausmann]

2 hours ago, lump said:

Ron, 

Well, I assume one of those previous owners was Joe Antrim of Dayton, Ohio. And since he was friends with our family (and others in the Southern Ohio Chapter AACA), I'm sure my parents knew that story about the Kissel. But I never knew it before myself. And I was really familiar with that car. It would have been fun to know it then! LOL

Yes it was/is the Joe Antrim car. 
unfortunately Joe is the one who patched the exterior bullet hole that was in the cowl.

Ron