“Five Things People Don’t Know About the Night Geraldo Opened Capone’s Vault.”

I interviewed Geraldo Rivera extensively for my book Capones Vault that is out in one month April 16. Here are five things that surprised me 1. When Geraldo was about to go on he asked where the teleprompter was and was told there wasnt one. It was then a producer grabbed him by the shirt and said, "you fucking got this...go out and kill it!" Geraldo said that stopped all his nervousness and from then the whole show was spontaneous. 2 They were going to blow up the wall leading to the vault with dynamite but Chicago didnt give the producers a permit until 4 PM the afternoon before the broadcast. When Geraldo pushed down the plunger some people feared the whole building would come down. 3 The first moment of doubt came when the 5000 pound slab came down the first chamber was too clean. There was no debris or left over artifacts except for two blue bottles. Everyone proclaimed thhey were from the twenties but privately they were identified as being from the forties. 4 Geraldo began to sit on a milkcrate in the darkness between takes when he began to realize along with the producers that there really might be nothing in the vault. 5 After the broadcast Geraldo got tequilla drunk and hung a DO NOT DISTURB sign on his door thinking his career was over. Doug Llellyn the producer slid the ratings under his door and it was then he realzied 30 million people had watched The Mystery of Capones Vault. A pile of messages by his phone turned out to be tweleve job offers. Geraldo had proven that people just wanted the ride.