It was December 7th 1942, the Day That Would Live in Infamy. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor destroying a large portion of the US Naval fleet. There is not an American who lived through that time who does not remember it. The next day President Roosevelt was to go before congress to ask that they declare war with Japan. The Secret Service was concerned that there was a very real chance that someone sympathetic to Japan or Germany may attempt to assassinate the president before the declaration could be made. They needed a bullet proof car, but there was a problem.
The federal law limited the budget for automobiles to $750. No car may exceed that cost and an armored, bulletproof vehicle would certainly cost more that that. With less than 24 hours available there was no time to wait for legislation authorizing the extra expenditure needed. The Secret Service had an idea: the famous Chicago Gangster Al Capone was convicted of tax evasion in 1931 and his bullet proof 1928 341A Cadillac Town Sedan was seized. The night of December 7th an around the clock detail refurbished the car so that by the morning President Roosevelt could use it to make the journey to Congress and state the case for war.
The car was used until the 1939 Lincoln V12 convertible limousine (The Sunshine Special - So called because it was a convertible), which the president used regularly, could be updated with the same safety features. The $750 annual cap was not removed, but rather sidestepped by the US Government leasing the car for $500 a year. The Capone car was returned to the Treasury Department after its use. In 2006 it was sold at auction to a private buyer for $621,500. The Sunshine Special rests at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan.
-Professor Walter
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