The Top 10 Mob Boss Mansions

Finding a list of lavish properties proved to be as difficult as I thought, as Tony Accardo told his boys, to keep low level and below the radar. I have chosen these ten with the help of Rob Bailot Jr. who has also provided the pictures for this piece, thanks Rob.

1. Al Capone’s Florida Mansion

Bought For $40,000 in 1923
Now Worth $15,000,000

This is the Capone mansion at 93 Palm Avenue on Palm Island, Miami Beach — bought in 1923 for $40,000 and estimated today to be worth $15 million. Capone used it as his primary retreat from Chicago, hosting lavish parties and conducting business away from the eye of the Illinois authorities. It is said that Capone planned the St Valentine’s Day Massacre here while maintaining the alibi of being in Miami. Capone was also living here when he was finally arrested and convicted of tax evasion in 1931. Tragically, it was also where Capone spent his final years, increasingly debilitated by the neurological effects of syphilis, and where he died on 25 January 1947.

Read about Al Capone’s net worth →

2. Paul Castellano’s Staten Island Mansion

Sold For $5,000,000

Paul Castellano’s Staten Island mansion — known as ‘The White House’ for its striking resemblance to the presidential residence — was the most ostentatious home of any New York mob boss of his era. Castellano became boss of the Gambinos after the death of Carlo Gambino in 1976 and spent a great deal of his time conducting business from this property.

It was also his undoing. Gloria Olarte, his Colombian maid and lover, was turned by the FBI and agreed to plant a bug in the kitchen. Over 600 hours of Gambino family business were recorded in that kitchen — conversations about murders, drug deals and extortion that formed the basis of the RICO prosecution that was building against Castellano when John Gotti had him shot outside Sparks Steakhouse in December 1985. Castellano’s wife sold the mansion for $5 million after his death.

3. Tony Accardo’s River Forest Mansion

Now Worth $2,000,000

Chicago Outfit boss Tony Accardo’s mansion in River Forest, Illinois is worth over $2 million today. He lived here from 1951 to 1963 — and then, taking his own advice about keeping a low profile, moved to a less grand ranch-style house also in River Forest. The original mansion was simply too conspicuous for a man who prided himself on operating below the radar. Accardo never spent a night in jail across eight decades of criminal activity and died of natural causes at the age of 86 in 1992.

4. Albert Anastasia’s New Jersey Mansion

Sold For $5,000,000 in 2016

Albert Anastasia’s New Jersey Italianate-styled mansion — which he had built in the 1940s — was a 25-room estate chosen for its sweeping views of the Manhattan skyline across the Hudson. It was a property befitting the Lord High Executioner’s sense of his own importance. After his murder in the barbershop of the Park Sheraton Hotel in October 1957, the estate was purchased by Del Webb, the New York Yankees co-owner, and subsequently by comedian Buddy Hackett. The mansion was most recently sold in 2016 for $5 million.

5. Vito Genovese’s Mansion

Now Worth $2,500,000

Vito Genovese’s house, bought in 1935, is worth approximately $2.5 million today. Genovese’s rise to power began during the Castellammarese War and culminated in his seizure of control of the New York underworld in 1957 — the same year he ordered the murder of Albert Anastasia and the attempted murder of Frank Costello. He was head of the Genovese family from 1957 until his death in prison in 1969, and was briefly considered Boss of All Bosses from 1957 to 1959 before his narcotics conviction sent him to federal prison.

6. Vito Rizzuto’s Canadian Mansion

Worth $2,000,000

Montreal mob boss Vito Rizzuto’s house on what locals called Mafia Row in Canada is worth around $2 million. Rizzuto was the most powerful organised crime figure in Canadian history — head of the Montreal-based Sicilian Mafia with connections to both the American Commission and the Sicilian Cosa Nostra. While he was behind bars serving an extradition sentence in the United States, a string of family members were killed back in Canada — including his father Nicolo Sr. and his son Nick Jr. Rizzuto returned to Canada in 2012 and died of natural causes on 23 December 2013.

7. Carlo Gambino’s Long Island Mansion

Worth $3,000,000

Carlo Gambino’s Long Island residence at 34 Club Drive in Massapequa was worth approximately $3 million and served as his summer vacation home. In keeping with his legendarily low profile, Gambino also maintained the house next door so that his bodyguard could live there — giving him security without the ostentation of a compound. Carlo Gambino died of natural causes at this property on 15 October 1976, having never been successfully prosecuted in nearly twenty years as boss of the most powerful crime family in America.

8. Joey Merlino’s Florida Mansion

Worth $1,000,000

Philadelphia mob boss Joey Merlino’s house in Boca Raton, Florida is worth around $1 million. The property is owned by the CEO of the company that Joey worked for as a carpet fitter — one of the more creative employment arrangements in mob history. Merlino has been one of the most colourful and controversial figures in the modern American Mafia, repeatedly prosecuted and repeatedly acquitted or beating charges that would have put most men away for life. He is considered the last traditional boss of the Philadelphia crime family.

9. Sonny Franzese’s Long Island Mansion

Worth $3,000,000

Colombo crime family underboss Sonny Franzese’s Long Island residence is worth approximately $3 million. Franzese was one of the last surviving figures from the golden era of the American Mafia — controlling most of the bars and nightclubs on Long Island, serving as the muscle behind several successful record labels, and investing in films including The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Deep Throat. He served multiple lengthy prison sentences and outlived virtually every other figure of his generation, dying in 2020 at the extraordinary age of 103.

10. Jerry Angiullo’s Massachusetts Mansion

Patriarca crime family underboss Jerry Angiullo’s waterfront home in Nahant, Massachusetts was one of the more remarkable properties on this list — a seaside residence fitting for the man who was effectively the ruler of organised crime in Boston for decades. Patriarca appointed Angiullo underboss of the Providence-based family, and Angiullo ran Boston’s underworld with iron discipline. Retired State Police Colonel Thomas J. Foley said: “He [Angiullo] is probably the last very significant Mafia boss in Boston’s history. In these times you don’t have anybody who exerts the control, the force or even maintains the discipline like he had with his organisation during his day.” Angiullo was convicted on racketeering charges in 1986 following an extraordinary FBI bugging operation of his Prince Street headquarters.

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