Al Capone's Secret Southwestern Michigan Retreats (And Where They Are Now)

Al Capone's Secret Southwestern Michigan Retreats (And Where They Are Now) In the late 1920s, Chicago newspapers called Berrien County "Capone's Playground." Almost every town in Southwest Michigan has an Al Capone story: secret tunnels, hidden rooms, a bullet hole in the bar. We sorted the legends from the records, 10 places, what really happened there and what stands there now: Purgatory near Constantine, Three Mile Lake in Paw Paw, Sleepy Hollow in South Haven, the Twin Gables in Saugatuck, the Lakeside Inn, the Four Flags Hotel in Niles, the House of David park, Louis "Little New York" Campagna's estate in Berrien Springs (later Muhammad Ali's farm), the Hotel Vincent in Benton Harbor and the Whitcomb Hotel in St. Joseph. Real names, real dates, nothing invented. Sheriff's office history, FBI files, Michigan historical markers, the State Historic Preservation Office and local historical societies. Legends (tunnels, hideouts, the bullet hole) are labeled as lore, not history. One key source per place below; the full list is pinned in the comments. Subscribe to Michigan Revealed for the real history of this state, one honest story at a time. Which of these places does your family remember? Tell us in the comments. CHAPTERS 0:00 Capone's Playground 1:12 #10 Purgatory, near Constantine (legend) 3:08 #9 Three Mile Lake, Paw Paw 5:25 #8 Sleepy Hollow, South Haven 7:24 #7 Twin Gables, Saugatuck 9:20 #6 The Lakeside Inn, Lakeside 11:21 #5 The Four Flags Hotel, Niles 13:22 #4 House of David Park, Benton Harbor 15:33 #3 The Campagna estate, Berrien Springs 17:57 #2 The Hotel Vincent, Benton Harbor 20:06 #1 The Whitcomb Hotel, St. Joseph 23:06 So did Capone really hide here? MUSIC "Night on the Docks - Sax", "Lightless Dawn", "Crypto", "Echoes of Time v2", "Long Note Four" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License ARCHIVAL MEDIA Photos: Library of Congress, Nationaal Archief / Spaarnestad (SFA), Boston Public Library Tichnor postcards, Wikimedia Commons contributors (CC licenses - authors listed in the pinned comment). Maps (c) OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). #Michigan #MichiganHistory #AlCapone #Prohibition #BentonHarbor #StJoseph #Saugatuck #Gangsters