the gangster convention: when nucky and al capone held hands on the boardwalk (lol JUST KIDDING maybe...)

in may 1929, atlantic city was already living halfway between sin and spectacle. prohibition hadn’t slowed a thing. the hotels were full, the boardwalk was humming, and liquor ran like tap water. nucky johnson ruled the city with a wink and a handshake.

that’s when al capone rolled into town.
legend says he wasn’t alone. lucky luciano, meyer lansky, frank costello, dutch schultz. all checking into the president and ambassador hotels, draped in fur and smoke. they drank, they schemed, and supposedly stood barefoot in the surf, carving up the country like a sunday roast.

it’s a great story. maybe too great.
historian marc mappen went digging for proof and found almost nothing. no headlines, no records, just one photo of nucky and capone on the boardwalk. his theory? the “mob summit” was really a quiet chicago sit-down, not a national syndicate meeting.

but the legend stuck. because that’s atlantic city. half truth, half show. a few gangsters probably came, drank too much, made peace, and left. history turned it into a movie.

and maybe that’s the point. this town has always been a place where people come to reinvent themselves, even history.

want the full deep dive (and the weird protestant hotel subplot)? it’s on the paid substack.

get the whole story by clicking here, wise guys