Mobster Al Capone's former luxury lockup will be open to the public this weekend, with artifacts including his visitation records on display.
Closed as a prison since 1971, the former Eastern State Penitentiary near Philadelphia remains a bleak presence with forbidding 30-foot stone walls and massive castle-like guard towers.But when Capone glanced at the cell where he served his first prison term in 1929, he reportedly smiled and pronounced it "very comfortable."
"Capone got special treatment," says Sean M. Kelley, program director of the Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site. Kelley was in charge this week of moving Victorian antiques, a carpet, a painting and other trappings into the crumbling cell for the special exhibit.