Capone’s Vault

An inside look at the historic televised reveal of Al Capone's vault that would define Geraldo Rivera's career and change television forever.

In 1986, more people watched "The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults" than the Superbowl. More people watched the two-hour live event than David Frost's interview with Richard Nixon. Both events were high-wire, high-reward, high-disaster broadcasts. Geraldo Rivera had been fired from ABC after fifteen years and the live broadcast from Chicago of Al Capone's vault was to be his comeback.

On April 21, 1986, at nine fifteen Eastern, Geraldo gave the signal at the midpoint of the show to blow open the subterranean vault with dynamite and reveal to the world the great secrets of Al Capone. A medical examiner was on hand to examine the bodies. IRS agents were there to catalog Capone's millions. The men in hardhats blasted through a wall of earth with the studio lights delving into the loamy darkness. Geraldo burst into the chamber. A single lone pathetic bottle of bootleg gin was all he had to show to thirty million viewers. It was the greatest catastrophe of modern television. Geraldo had staked the comeback of his career on this moment and in defeat turned to the viewing audience, "Seems like we struck out."

Capone's Vault consists of two narratives: One following Geraldo's background and career and the other the history of Capone and the development of the show. These will merge on the night of the show with the disaster of the two-hour program and the results. "The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults" was a simple bet that Geraldo Rivera would open a vault in the basement of a nineteenth-century hotel and show the world something from Al Capone, but it would instead reveal basic truths about television.