Al Capone’s heirs are selling off his possessions over fears of wildfires

Al Capone’s three granddaughters have been looking after some of his belongings

File: Chicago mobster Al Capone attends a football game in Chicago in this 19 January 1931 photo (AP)

The personal belongings of notorious mobster Al Capone are being auctioned off by his family, partly because of the threat of possible wildfires destroying them.

Capone's three granddaughters are selling 174 personal items belonging to the prohibition-era gangster who died at his Florida estate in 1947.

Diane Capone, one of the granddaughters who is now 77 years old, said the decision of the granddaughters to auction his belongings was made partly because of her desire to “distribute the processions while they are still alive”.

But Ms Capone and her sisters have also been worried that a wildfire, like the ones currently burning in the US, would threaten their North California homes where the possessions are stored.

The granddaughters have been looking after Capone’s belongings which were once housed at his estate in Miami Beach. The sisters will be putting the items on sale with the help of Sacramento-based Witherell’s auction house.

“It was a tremendous relief for the memorabilia of my grandparents to be removed because there’s no way we could save it from a wildfire. We would lose it all,” Diane Capone told The Washington Post.

The climate crisis has led to a rise in the global temperature which in turn has caused a spike in extreme weather events, including wildfires in the drier parts of California, where the granddaughters currently live.

A Colt .45 pistol, considered Capone's favourite gun, a Patek Phillipe pocket watch monogrammed with 90 diamonds, and bedroom furniture from his Palm Island home at Miami beach are among the belongings up for sale.

The combined inventory value of the 174 items that will be auctioned on 8 October is said to be pegged at $715,000, according to The Guardian.

Earlier in 2017, a diamond watch from Capone’s personal collection was auctioned for $84,375. Another engraved 1932 silver-plated cocktail shaker was sold for $68,500 in 2014.

Capone was part of the “Chicago Outfit,” an Italian-American organised crime syndicate that was founded in the US in the early 20th century.

Capone headed the outfit for seven years until his imprisonment in 1933. He gained notoriety for ordering a hit at a garage where rival gang members were bootlegging liquor.

Mobsters disguised as policemen barged into the garage and killed seven men after forcing them to line up against the wall and then firing at least 70 shots at them.

The hit was known as the “St Valentine’s Day Massacre”.

Ms Capone, speaking to The Washington Post, said she has not been able to reconcile the reputation of her grandfather as a dreaded mobster and her perception of him as a loving family man.

“How is it possible that a man who was so loving and so generous and so devoted could have been capable of some of these things that were alleged?” she questioned.

“I don’t know how to reconcile it, but I suppose I’ll have to wait until I get to heaven, and I can find out then,” she added.