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The buyer of a scenic property in northern
Wisconsin will get more than just its bar and restaurant: They'll
have a former hideout of Chicago mobster Al Capone.


      The 407-acre wooded site, complete with guard towers and a stone
house with 18-inch-thick walls, will soon go on the auction block
at a starting bid of $2.6 million.


      The bank that foreclosed on the land near 

, about 140
miles northeast of Minneapolis, said Capone owned it in the late
1920s and early 1930s during Prohibition. Local legend claims that
shipments of bootlegged alcohol were flown in on planes that landed
on the property's 37-acre lake, then loaded onto trucks bound for
Chicago.


      "He spent a lot of time there," Chippewa Valley Bank Vice
President Joe Kinnear said. "Whether it was for getting whiskey
out of Canada or whoever knows. It is an incredible property."


      The property was more recently used as a tourist attraction. It
includes Capone's two-story stone home with a massive fireplace,
two guard towers - reportedly manned with machine guns whenever
Capone visited - a caretakers residence and other outbuildings.


      Kinnear said the bar on the property was built from what was
originally Capone's eight-stall garage and still includes some
portholes built to shoot through.


      The bank will auction off "The Hideout, Al Capone's Northwoods
Retreat" on the steps of the Sawyer County Courthouse in Hayward
on Oct. 8.


      The bank acquired the property after foreclosing on owner Guy
Houston and his company The Hideout Inc. in April 2008, according
to court records. The Houston family bought the property in the
1950s from Capone's estate and had operated it as a seasonal bar
and restaurant, known for its prime rib, and offered guided tours
focusing on the Capone lore.


      Kinnear said the bank's bid of $2.6 million to recover its money
is not expected to be the only offer. He said two or three other
bidders were interested, perhaps to use it as a retreat, and there
has long been talk about developing the property.


      "It was appraised years ago at $3.7 million," he said.


      Kinnear declined to comment on what led to its financial
troubles. Houston's attorney, Todd Smith of Rice Lake, did not
return telephone messages. Houston had an unlisted telephone
number.


      Capone - nicknamed "Scarface" - headed a massive bootlegging,
gambling and prostitution operation during Prohibition and raked in
tens of millions of dollars. He was widely suspected in several
murders but never charged.


      He was considered the mastermind of the gangland killing on
Chicago's North Side in 1929, known as the St. Valentine's Day
Massacre. Seven rivals of Capone's gang were gunned down in a
garage, but investigators never could collect enough evidence to
put anyone on trial for the deaths.


      Capone was eventually convicted of income tax evasion and spent
part of an 11-year sentence at the infamous Alcatraz prison. He
died in 1947.


      The Wisconsin property also was advertised in Chicago, in part
because Kinnear believes the Capone element could draw more
interest.


      "I am hoping there is some, especially with the success of the
gangster movie that came out earlier this year about Dillinger,"
Kinnear said, referring to "Public Enemies" starring Johnny Depp
as Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger.


      The Hideout had been a top tourist attraction in the area, said
Leslie Strapon, assistant executive director of the Hayward Area
Chamber of Commerce.


      "It is always interesting to go somewhere and touch that piece
of history," she said. "Al Capone is definitely a public figure,
a gangster he may be but still infamous."

Gallery

The story of Dillinger and other gangsters in St. Paul

The golden age of gangsters

The buyer of a scenic property in northern
Wisconsin will get more than just its bar and restaurant: They'll
have a former hideout of Chicago mobster Al Capone.


Al Capone's Wisconsin hideout for sale

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