1922 Stanley Steamer Limo Linked to St Valentines Day Massacre to be Auctioned



February 3, 2005 -- Chicago's infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre happened seventy-six years ago, February 14, 1929. Now a survivor is about to appear in public for the first time. It's a 1922 Stanley Steamer 740D Informal Limousine, owned by one of "Bugs" Moran's mobsters, Albert Kachellek. Kachellek, who used the alias James Clark, was one of the seven men gunned down in the SMC garage on North Clark Street by thugs disguised as cops.

Though no one was ever convicted in the most famous mob hit in history, "Scarface" Al Capone was linked to the massacre by the intended target, bootlegger Bugs Moran. It might have been, in part, revenge for an attack three years earlier on Capone's headquarters in Cicero, Illinois. With side window glass removed and gunmen blasting away, seven big touring cars and limousines rolled past the Hawthorne Hotel. A thousand bullets riddled the building, but Capone escaped.

Though documentation has disappeared or been destroyed through the years, the "Valentine Steamer" is thought to have been part of that caravan drive-by shooting. In fact, one of the re-installed rear side windows is still crooked.

No one knows where the car was on the Valentine's Day Kachellek died, but the car disappeared into private hands. A steam engine aficionado in central Texas eventually bought it, restored the body and updated the boiler system, all the while trying to conceal the car 's shady past, apparently to avoid sullying the reputation of steam-powered automobiles. For years the car sat in a corner of a working auto garage, forgotten.

Now the current owner is about to sell it; and for the first time, the public will see one of the most unusual vehicles in American crime history. The auction sale will be concluded on the 76th anniversary of the massacre. Details and the vehicle auction can be accessed online at www.collectorcarcentral.com

And what would a story like this be without a ghost Al Capone eventually died, haunted, it's said, by a ghost--the ghost of Albert Kachellek, aka James Clark--the man who owned the Valentine Steamer.

Collector Car Central's president, L. C. Mixon, is managing the sale and the search into the car 's murky past. He's available to talk about the car and point out what's known, what's suspected, and, maybe even more importantly, what's not known about it.

Collector Car Central LLC
4218 S. General Bruce Dr.
Temple, TX. 76502
254-771-5414
www.collectorcarcentral.com





1922 Stanley Steamer Limo Linked to St Valentines Day Massacre to be Auctioned