BEHIND THE SCENES
The Lincoln Continental and The Mob
In the last installment of CUT RIGHT THROUGH ME, I featured the image of a Lincoln Continental because it was driven by Rey Samuelson, the fixer for mob boss Moses Bernstein. Both Moses and Rey are fictional characters made up wholly from my imagination and not based on any real mob characters.
When I put Rey behind the wheel of a long, sleek Lincoln Continental, my first thought was this car feels like a mob cliché. I could have chosen other car models but didn’t think a Jeep or Toyoto Prius fit the image I was after. After some digging, I learned that, in fact, the car is the most famous car driven by real mobsters, celebrities, and presidents. Several mobsters met their death while riding in a Lincoln as did President John F. Kennedy when he was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, in 1963.
The car was first manufactured in 1920 when Henry Leland started the Lincoln Motor Company and produced its first Lincoln Model L. Leland named the company after Abraham Lincoln because Lincoln was the first president for whom he ever voted. Ford Motor Company bought Lincoln in 1922. Two years later, Ford supplied the Model L to President Calvin Coolidge to use for official business.
In 1938, Edsel Ford (1893-1943), the only child of Henry Ford, commissioned the car’s re-design because he thought American cars looked too boxy and wanted a more European style “Continental.” The car was first called the Lincoln Zephyr and then changed to the Lincoln Continental. It was produced between 1939 and 2020.
Gangsters liked the Lincoln Continental, especially the Mark III-VIII, because it portrayed wealth, style, and status, and is most practical since you can fit two bodies comfortably in the trunk.
A week before Chicago mob boss Al Capone (1899-1947) was released from Alcatraz prison, his St. Louis attorney and bookkeeper, Edward Joseph “Easy Eddie” O’Hare was shot and killed while driving his 1939 Lincoln Zephyr in Chicago. O’Hare had been working undercover for the IRS in Capone’s tax evasion conviction. No arrests were ever made.
The aftermath of O’Hare’s assassination in Chicago.
The Lincoln Continental has been featured in more than 2,100 films and TV shows most notably The Godfather, Goodfellas, The American Gangster, The French Connection, and The Lincoln Lawyer.
Other gangsters like Paul Castellano (1915-1985) who headed the Gambino crime family, drove a Continental. John Gotti (1940-2022), who ordered Castellano’s death and took over the Gambino family, also owned one.
When Castellano exited his Lincoln at Spark’s Steakhouse in Manhattan, he was shot to death by Gotti’s gunmen. One theory claims that Gotti personally supervised the hit and escaped with his men in a 1985 Lincoln Town Car.
On Dec. 16, 1985, mob boss Paul Castellano was gunned down, along with his bodyguard Thomas Billotti, outside of Sparks Steak House in New York City. Credit: New York Daily News via Getty Images
Mafia contract killer Richard Kuklinski (1935-2006) mentions in his biography, that when he was a teenager, he wanted a Lincoln Continental. In the book, he said he killed a man with his bare hands, but the act left his clothes and shoes bloodied, so he drove home naked in his Continental. (The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer by Philip Carlo, 2006).
During the Great Depression (1929-1939), gangsters started driving flashy, expensive cars. The Lincoln Continental fit that bill. The car’s menacing look turned heads with its long, low frame and dark gray or black colors, not to mention its “suicide doors,” which gave onlookers another reason to dread when the beast pulled up to the curb and gangsters leaped out of the car shooting.
From 1961-1969, Lincoln manufactured the Continental with rear-hinged doors. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader was the first to call them “suicide doors” and described them as dangerous in his book Unsafe at Any Speed: The Dangers of the American Automobile (1965).
In the case of the Lincoln Continental and other luxury cars, early vehicles didn’t have seat belts or door locks, so at high speeds an unlocked rear-hinged door could get thrown open and the extreme airflow could push the passenger out to fatal results.
In 2019, when Lincoln celebrated its 80th anniversary, it manufactured a series of 80 limited-edition Continentals featuring rear-hinged back doors. Fortunately, any vehicle manufacturers today with a rear-hinged door is safe because of clamshell locks or blocking lock technology.
In June 1961, the U. S. Secret Service leased two versions of the Lincoln Continental for use as a presidential state car and kept them in use through 1977. Ford Motor Company leased the car to the Secret Service for $500 per year.
The SS-100-X was a 1961 limousine modified by Hess & Eisenhardt of Cincinnati, Ohio. It was an open car with a series of tops for inclement weather. It was this convertible model, painted a dark metallic blue, that President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) was riding in when he was assassinated in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.
President Kennedy in the presidential limousine, Dallas, Texas, Nov. 22, 1963
Author’s Notes:
Following Kennedy’s assassination, the Lincoln Continental Presidential Convertible was significantly altered to improve security measures. Today, Kennedy’s car is on exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. However, the car has been repainted black with a permanent roof.
On Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 1981, President Ronald Reagan rode in the 1972 Lincoln limousine.
The Lincoln Zephyr, considered the first streamlined car in America, was displayed in 1951 at New York’s Museum of Modern Art as one of eight cars epitomizing design excellence. The car was noted for its studied elegance, tapering lines and shape, prow-like leading edges, a thin, linear grille, and simple hub caps.
Eddie O’Hare, Al Capone’s bookkeeper, is also notable for being the father of Medal of Honor recipient Edward Henry “Butch” O’Hare, (1914-1943) the namesake of Chicago’s international airport. O’Hare was a U.S. Navy Lt. Commander and the Navy’s first fighter ace in WWII.
Architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) called the 1940 Lincoln Continental “the most beautiful car ever designed.” He bought two.
Crooners Elvis Presley (1935-1977) and Frank Sinatra (1915-1998) drove the Lincoln Continental Mark II. Both owned several.
The Ford Motor Company gave a 1948 “Yankee Blue” Lincoln Continental to New York Yankees’ great Babe Ruth (1895-1948). Before he died, Ruth traveled the country in his Lincoln giving speeches and hitting lessons to Little Leaguers.
As a “thank you” to Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011) for acting in the film Giant (1956), Warner Bros studios gave her a Mark II in a custom color that matched her eyes, which were violet. (“Luxury Lineage: A Brief History of the Lincoln Continental” by Michael Solomon, editor of Forbes Life, Forbes, April 15, 2015).
To avoid the appearance of being unsafe, car manufacturers never used the term “suicide doors.” Rolls-Royce preferred the term “coach doors,” Mazda called them “freestyle doors,” Opel used “flex doors,” and Saturn had “rear access doors.”
The last American car manufactured with suicide doors was the Ford Thunderbird which was built from 1967-1971. The last modern vehicle with suicide doors was the 2003 Toyota Tundra truck, which due to no pillar between the front and rear doors, made it easier for owners to load bulky items inside.
This is so interesting! My grandfather drove a Lincoln Town Car in Grants Pass, OR, and we rode in it when we visited. It must have been a 1980s style. So large, and smooth!
A very interesting read and pictures!
Zoltan injects his humor into this history lesson with the line, “ Gangsters liked the Lincoln Continental, especially the Mark III-VIII, because it portrayed wealth, style, and status, and is most practical since you can fit two bodies comfortably in the trunk.”