Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Al Capone's Cicero Hangout


Al kept his wife, mother, and son at the family home in Chicago, but also kept this apartment building at 1600 Austin Blvd., in Cicero, as a crash pad for late night parties. Not far from his Cicero business headquarters, this unassuming home was protected by a heavy steel door (which appears to have been replaced -- see below), a 8 foot backyard fence, underground escape tunnels, and two or more bodyguards prowling the grounds at all times.

The block is one of the most well-kept in Cicero, but the current owners seem to have purposely allowed the shrubbery to obscure the entry and windows.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

where is this place? how do you know about the tunnels?

Kendall said...

The home is located at 16th and Austin Blvd., in Cicero, Illinois.

The tunnels are cited both in Herbert Asbury's Gem of the Prairie and in Laurence Bergreen's exhaustive biography, Capone: The Man and the Era.

Anonymous said...

OMiqOSh tHiSz HOUSE iS 3 HOUSESz dOWN fROM MiNE &&+ ii kNOE tHE pEOplE WHO OWN it ii HAVE tO qEt iN tHERE ANd SEE fOR MySELf ANd tAkE PiCtURESz!!!

Anonymous said...

I wouldnt do that if I were you

Shintaro Dee said...

My dads old gf used to own this building

Anonymous said...

It seems like every 6 months there is a For Rent sign up and I always wondered why. I was going to rent the first floor once. My kids' father checked it out and said it was huge and the layout wz different. This is cool to find out the history behind it.