On anniversary of Geraldo's Al Capone vault broadcast, WGN unlocks another mystery safe

On this day 37 years ago, Geraldo Rivera’s legendary two-hour live special “The Mystery of Al Capone’s Vaults” was broadcast across the country.

[@gandydancer823]

I remember watching this and calling my grandfather and told him about it. I asked him what were those, were they actually vaults or something else? He said they actually retaining walls for either the river or Lake Michigan. They are not going to find anything but dirt and junk. We would fill those things with anything we could find. He went on to say... I probably work on those. He was a construction worker in Chicago during the 30's and 40's.

[@gregben4002]

This video was much more exciting and informative than the original Geraldo broadcast!

[@deanruthlessrecords]

I love how those old TV cameras were as big as a Fiat Car!

[@deanruthlessrecords]

I was just a 7 year old baby kid… and I still remember watching this with my Mom!

[@joshuas1960]

Great finds! Really good historical items.

[@TELEVISIONARCHIVES]

It ended not the way they wanted but the Show was actually very interesting.

[@sonniewesley5518]

I remember this OMG, it was both interesting and hilarious at the same time and I was a kid back then but what was more interesting is that building as a family we went by it quite often I was so sad when they tore it down. This also reminds me of an episode of Royal Pawn Shop where one of the brothers thought he had found Al's safe that he opened to find worthless stock bonds and that episode made me always remember Geraldo

[@ibtehaljabeen01]

Geraldo Rivera biopic shall be must with Tom Cruise in the role of onscreen Geraldo

[@cjb4933]

I remember watching this live on TV and remember Geraldo kept saying “and when we return, we’ll be opening the vault…” and then the next commercial break and he’d say the same thing - over and over and dragged this out forever. I got so frustrated at that. I was allowed to stay up late for it because we had school the next day. It might be partly the reason I can’t stand Geraldo, among the many other things lol

[@thekeith-donovanexperience]

He’s still as smart as the evidence in this video.

[@dennisdiehl8941]

Why no one thought to FIRST drill a hole into the vault and see if it was anything to bother with. Even Howard Carter did that with King Tut's tomb in the 20's.

[@NatPat-yj2or]

Well I think they were honestly just trying to be authentic and honest. You can't blame them for trying. We all seem to value honesty over sensationalism, yet when we are given honesty, we make fun of it, ridicule it and insult it.

[@sroevukasroevuka]

Max headromm trolled channel 9 before trolling was cool.

[@johnnyballenatl]

So WGN has kept their aircheck of the Max Headroom incident in that forbidden safe; what about WTTW’s (which was during Doctor Who)?

[@swampfizz]

that was the wine cellar..more valuable than gold to connoisseur's tongue...and that safe looks old?? not to me and I'm not that old

[@525Lines]

khyron is the name for the text on the TV screen, isn't it?

[@BudsCartoon]

Al Capone wasn't mafia.

[@SorryWereOpen247]

Only thing I got out of watching this was finding out how much of a momma's boy Mr.T turned out to be just cause he couldn't be a part of the show at the last minute.

[@Arlo360-Official]

Frasier Thomas, Bozo the Clown, Lunchtime Little Theater.

[@bryan4204U]

Geraldo hasn't moved up much. He's dishing crap now at Fox News lol.

[@ibtehaljabeen01]

He left Fox recently

[@NatPat-yj2or]

He took a chance. He was being honest. If that documentary was made today, you can bet your ass that it would be fake. Someone would have dug a tunnel in the back, filled it with prop cash and prop gold and prop whiskey bottles, throw the contents of a full vacuum cleaner dust bag all over it and told us it was real and untouched for X number of years.