Truth or Fiction – Did Tony Keswick Drive Al Capone’s Bulletproof Limo round Shanghai in 1941?

OK – a little Shanghai mystery I’d like to get to the bottom of – did Tony Kewsick, seen below, (fully Sir William Johnstone Keswick, 1903-1990 – they say it kind of like “Kezzick”), Shanghai taipan of Jardine Matheson from 1935-1941, Chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Council just before the Japanese invasion and head of SOE for the Far East during WW2 actually ever own and drive (or be driven) around Shanghai in a bulletproof limousine formerly owned by Al Capone? It’s a great tale but I’m just not sure. Certainly Keswick needed a bulletproof limo – in January 1941 Keswick was shot twice by an aggrieved Japanese ratepayer. Keswick’s wounds, one to the left side of his chest and the other to his left forearm, were not considered serious, with doctors commenting that his heavy coat had probably saved his life.

And so to the tale – it appears un-footnoted in a couple of publications. Ashley Jackson, in his 2006 book The British Empire and the Second World War claims that, after the 1941 shooting ‘Keswick drove around in a bulletproof car once owned by Al Capone.’ The tale is retold in Leroy Thompson’s 2012 The World’s First SWAT Team – WE Fairbairn and the Shanghai Municipal Police. 

Now it could be possible – we are probably talking about Capone’s 1928 V-8 Cadillac Sedan (below) which has sparked many a rumour including that FDR rode around in it at the time of Pearl Harbor (disproved). Funnily enough this car came up for auction in 2012 with a provenance attached. Sadly there is no mention of Keswick buying the car and shipping it to Sjhanghai for his personal use. That provenance has the car’s history noted as ‘well-known and heavily documented. ‘

“After being shipped to New York and shipped to England, it was displayed at the Southend-On-Sea amusement park and later at the Blackpool Fun Fair. Dance hall owner Tony Stuart purchased the car for $510 at an auction in February of 1958 and sold it months later to Harley Nielson, a businessman and car enthusiast from Todmorden, Ontario. Neilson undertook a comprehensive restoration, and in the process, most of the heavy armor plating was removed, but other features, including the bulletproof glass and drop-down rear window, were retained. In a Letter to the Editor of Esquire, Neilson explained that in 1939, the U.S. government asked the British government to intervene and take the car off display because of the “poor public relations it could cause by pointing up American Gangsterism.” ”

No record whatsoever of the car going to Shanghai

So, either a) the authors above are wrong; b) we’re talking about another car once owned by Capone that appears to have never been commented on much

Any leads much appreciated? Until then it appears to be a great tale, but sadly not a true tale!