Al Capone’s Missing $100 Million, and the TV Journalist Who Embarrassed Himself to Find It
History Unplugged Podcast
History Unplugged
4.2 • 4K Ratings
🗓️ 28 May 2026
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On the night of April 21, 1986, an estimated 30 million Americans sat in front of their televisions waiting for a moment that almost no one alive had ever seen: a live, prime-time excavation of a gangster's secret vault. Geraldo Rivera, recently fired from ABC News and hungry for a comeback, had convinced Tribune Broadcasting to stake its credibility on a two-hour live special built around a single, tantalizing question: what had Al Capone hidden in the sealed basement of his Chicago headquarters? The network flew in IRS agents to handle the expected cash, a county medical examiner to process any bodies, and locksmiths to crack whatever fortress Capone had left behind. What they found, on live television, in front of 30 million viewers, was dirt and a few empty gin bottles.
William Hazelgrove, author of Capone's Vault, joins the show to explain why the special was a ratings triumph anyway, and why that's the more interesting story. Capone had been dead for nearly 40 years, yet his myth was so potent, his legend so carefully self-constructed during his lifetime, that the mere possibility of a hidden room full of gold and skeletons was enough to hold the country's attention for two hours. The empty vault didn't kill the spectacle, it completed it, proving that anticipation is a more powerful television engine than any actual revelation. What Geraldo Rivera stumbled into that night, almost by accident, was the blueprint for every reality TV cliffhanger, true-crime docuseries, and hype-culture livestream that would follow in the next four decades.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Life is a song. |
| 0:01.6 | And what if your faith could help you hit the high notes? |
| 0:04.7 | Grammy nominated and dove award-winning artist Torin Wells invites you into the high notes. |
| 0:09.1 | It's the high note. |
| 0:09.7 | A podcast about real life, real struggles, and a real God who meets you right where you are. |
| 0:14.4 | With honesty, insight, and encouragement, Torin tackles the issues you're facing every day |
| 0:19.0 | and helps you rise above the noise. |
| 0:21.0 | If you're ready for a fresh perspective on your faith, tune in to the High Note podcast with Torn Wells. |
| 0:26.4 | Welcome to the High Note. |
| 0:27.4 | Available now wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:34.7 | Scott here with another episode of the History and Plug podcast. |
| 0:45.3 | In 1986, more people watch the mystery of Al Capone's vaults than either the Super Bowl or David Frost's interview with Richard Nixon. It was a high-wire, high-reward, high-disaster broadcast that was meant to be a comeback for journalist Geraldo Rivera, who'd been fired from ABC after 15 years. |
| 0:54.9 | This was one of the most hyped events in modern television history, with expectations that |
| 0:59.9 | there'd be millions and millions of dollars of gold bullion, all of Capone's wealth and never |
| 1:04.4 | been recovered by the IRS, and basically the Art Deco version of King Tutankhamments, too. |
| 1:10.6 | On April 21 21, 1986, |
| 1:12.8 | Geraldo gave the signal at the midpoint of the broadcast to blow open with dynamite, |
| 1:16.6 | the subterranean vaults of the Lexington Hotel, |
| 1:19.4 | ready to show 30 million people the great secrets and treasures of Capone, |
| 1:23.2 | but things didn't go to plan from there. |
| 1:25.8 | This was one of the biggest letdowns and face |
| 1:27.7 | plans that ever happens, but the fact that so many people watch the spectacle and television |
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