Ever wondered what life inside a mafia mansion looks like? Fans of Growing Up Gotti, a reality TV show which aired in the early 2000s and documented the lives of New York mobster Carmine “The Bull” Agnello’s wife and three sons, might have some idea. However, nearly 20 years after the show first aired, the once-glitzy Long Island mansion is now a shadow of its former self following an FBI raid. Click or scroll on to tour the dilapidated gangster retreat...

A member of New York's Gambino crime family, Carmine Agnello’s rap sheet includes charges of assault, arson and racketeering. In 1984, he made the risky decision to marry mob boss John Gotti’s daughter Victoria, pictured here, against her father’s wishes. The couple moved into a five-bedroom mansion in the Long Island village of Westbury, New York in 1989, where they lived with their three sons, Carmine Jr, John and Frank.

Agnello's criminal activities eventually caught up with him, and he was sentenced in 2001 to nine years in prison for racketeering, extortion and arson. While he was in jail, his wife Victoria divorced him in 2003 on grounds of constructive abandonment and was awarded the house. Together with her sons, Victoria went on to star in reality shows Growing Up Gotti and Growing Up Gotti: Ten Years Later. However, the Gotti mansion, where the show was largely filmed, has since fallen into disrepair...

The family home hasn’t been occupied since 2016, when it was raided by the FBI in relation to a tax fraud investigation. An auto parts store in Queens run by Victoria's sons and her ex-husband was also searched. In 2018, Carmine Jr accepted a plea deal for operating an illegal scrap metal yard, skirting jail time. Still, the mansion clearly just wasn't the same for the family following the raid, and it's been left to languish for more than seven years. But in spite of its vacancy, vestiges of the money once poured into its decoration are still apparent, including this dramatic butterfly staircase and tiled foyer.

A video tour in 2022 by urban explorer Urbex And Chill and his friend, DarkExploration, reveals the mansion's state of deterioration, with personal belongings and ornate furniture abandoned throughout the empty house. A myriad of items including books, dishes, knickknacks and a highly impressive liquor cabinet have been left to collect dust, almost as though the Gottis could be expected back at any minute.

The kitchen has certainly descended into disarray. Paperwork is scattered across the ornate marble island, a broken door is propped up in the corner and kitchenware still litters the countertops. Perhaps this is the state that FBI agents left the home in when they turned it over back in 2016. Interestingly, when the urban explorers visited the house, they discovered what appeared to be a script written by Victoria Gotti on the island, entitled The Senator's Daughter. Gotti, who has gone on to become a best-selling author and columnist, published a book of the same name back in 1997. 

However, china, curios and manuscripts aren’t the only things the Gotti clan left behind. The urban explorers also discovered two automatic rifles propped up ominously in a corner of the kitchen. We hate to think what these might have been used for once upon a time...

Despite the home's nefarious undertones, glimpses of its former grandeur are clear to see still. This lavish bathroom features a platform tub with gilded taps, an extravagant home feature of its day, encircled by pink marble and flanked by vast mirrors. A gold-framed shower sits adjacent. The former trophy home was evidently the Gotti pride and joy for a time. 

Perhaps the most exciting find made by the urban explorers was a secret room hidden behind a bookcase on the second floor of the guest house. The room seemed to have been used as a closet or storage area, and was piled high with old clothes and other detritus. However, while the YouTubers were able to force the concealed door open, they also discovered a keypad locking mechanism, which suggests that the space was once more carefully guarded and may have previously contained more condemning items than clothing.

Outside, the grounds of the home are suffering from years of neglect. The sprawling estate encompasses a basketball court, tennis court, garage, guest house and swimming pool with a swim-up bar, which obviously hasn’t been used in quite some time. The YouTubers also discovered a number of abandoned cars and even a jet ski in the overgrowth at the rear of the property. 

But back in its heyday, the storied mobster home was one of the most attractive pieces of real estate on Long Island. In fact, before Victoria and Carmine snapped the home up, it's rumoured to have belonged to Victoria’s father, “Dapper Don” Gotti, the head of the Gambino crime family, who's thought to have splashed plenty of money on the place. This image from before the years of neglect shows the pristine, columned exterior, complete with manicured walled gardens and an impressive sweeping driveway. Let’s step back in time and take a look at how the Gottis decorated the home during their tenure...

Pictured as they were back when the family resided here, the interiors will look familiar to any Growing up Gotti fans. Matriarch Victoria has previously described the home as “very warm, very woodsy, very comfortable yet very elegant.” As you can see, this opulent living room was covered in fine wood panelling and lined with bookshelves.

The bedrooms were just as luxurious, featuring ornate pillars and four-poster beds. Despite the home's past grandeur, Gotti made several attempts to sell the property over the years. In 2008, it was listed for a pricey $3.5 million (£2.7m). The following year, the house was threatened with foreclosure when Gotti fell into arrears with her mortgage repayments. Since then it was listed and taken off the market seven times. 

While the family never returned to live in the home following the 2016 FBI raid, the mansion remained under the ownership of Victoria Gotti until December 2022. Having finally fallen in foreclosure, the residence was auctioned off and reportedly snapped up by JP Morgan Chase National Bank for just under $2.7 million (£2m). Who knows what the future holds for this former mafia mansion...

Read on to take a tour of more infamous gangster homes...

Built from seriously ill-gotten gains, the infamous estates of history's most prolific mafia kingpins are seriously extravagant and dripping with opulence. From the Kray Twins' rural English countryside bolthole to Vincent Palermo's Houston hideaway, click or scroll on and let's take a tour of the most fascinating mobster homes and hideouts.

Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel had a fearsome reputation and was one of the founders of Murder, Inc., which acted as the enforcement arm of the Jewish mob and Italian-American Mafia during the 1930s and 1940s. Siegel was a bootlegger during the Prohibition era. He then got into gambling, moving to California in the late 1930s where he built a large mansion.

Bugsy Siegel was shot and killed 75 years ago in this Spanish Colonial-style mansion in Beverly Hills, which hit the market in early 2023 with an asking price of just under $17 million (£13m), and now appears to have sold. Described as a 'ruthless gangster' responsible for much of the early development of Las Vegas, Siegel had plenty to spend on luxurious living quarters and the late mobster’s mansion boasts seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms and 7,092 square feet of living space.

However, Siegel never actually owned the property, but instead was leasing it at the time of his death for his mistress, Virginia Hill, who served as a courier for the mob. On the night of 20 June 1947, Siegel was visiting Ms Hill when he was shot and killed by an assassin who fired at him through the window of the home with an M1 Carbine. Despite an extensive police investigation, the assassin was never identified and the case remains unsolved to this day.

The home has changed hands many times since Siegel’s death, but the vast majority of its character and original detailing has remained intact. The two-storey entryway stuns guests with wrought iron gates and railings, a sweeping staircase and original hand-painted floor tiles. “You walk in the entry with the staircase and the balcony and all of that has been completely maintained just the way it was done in 1928,” says Myra Nourmand of Nourmand & Associates, who held the listing.

“A lot of Spanish homes that were built in the 20s have a musty, heavy, dark feeling,” says Nourmand, explaining that, “unlike those, this house is full of light with windows and high ceilings everywhere.” For all its glamorous old Hollywood features, anyone familiar with Siegel’s life story from the biopic Bugsy is bound to be disappointed to learn that this house did not serve as the backdrop for the film’s dramatic recreation of the murder – the climactic scene was in fact shot at an Italian mansion located in Hancock Park. 

In addition to his mistress' mansion, Siegel also owned a primary residence, a city bolthole located in the exclusive LA neighbourhood of Holmby Hills, constructed in 1938 with the proceeds of his many crimes. Sitting on a total of 1.8 acres, the house has five bedrooms, an enormous living room, an oak-panelled library, an imposing dining room and a spacious home cinema.

Siegel resided at the property with his wife and children. No expense was spared and the house was decked out with every mod con and luxury imaginable. The principal lounge room had 18-foot-long carved divan sofas and an ornate bar stocked with the most exquisite champagnes, cognacs and whiskeys.

A rarity at a time when even the most extravagant homes had only one or two bathrooms at most, the house wowed with six vanity rooms. The dining room was outfitted with a vast wood table that seated a whopping 30 – significantly bigger than the polished wooden table shown here. 

The grounds are equally lavish, featuring a pool and manicured gardens. The wardrobe in the master bedroom reportedly contained a secret trapdoor to the attic, which Siegel escaped through in 1940 to evade the police, who saw through the ruse and arrested him for murder. Siegel was acquitted of the crime. 

Infamous identical twin brothers, Ronnie and Reggie Kray were born in 1933 in Hoxton and became the most feared, leading perpetrators of organised crime in East London. Seen here in 1966 at their London home, the criminal twins drink tea after spending 36 hours helping the police with their inquiries into the murder of George Cornell. One year later, before being convicted of killing Cornell and murdering underworld associate Jack "The Hat" McVitie, the gangster duo purchased a rural bolthole mansion in their favourite part of the English countryside…

The Krays purchased the Suffolk mansion, 80 miles outside of London, for $14,200 (£11k) in 1967 as a weekend country retreat. Due to the pair’s criminal ways, the seven-bedroom abode was searched and raided by detectives investigating the gang’s extortion and protection rackets. Although it has now been taken off the market, the home was listed in July 2022 for the first time in 30 years for $2.6 million (£2m).

Dating back to the 16th century according to the listing, the property was extended and gentrified in the early 18th century with later Victorian alterations, boasting original features throughout. The entryway offers ornate stained-glass and a carpeted staircase that leads towards the first floor. According to tapes recorded at Broadmoor Hospital for the criminally insane, the brothers first fell in love with the Suffolk countryside after being evacuated from London to East House Lodge in Hadleigh during the Second World War. Ronnie Kray reportedly recalled enjoying "the quietness, the peacefulness of it, the fresh air, nice scenery, nice countryside – different from London.”

Residing within a six-acre lot, The Brooks abode stretches out across three floors and 4,200 square feet of living space. The dual-aspect drawing room hosts doors out onto the gardens beyond, alongside a marble fireplace with a wood-burning stove. Fireplaces can be found throughout the property, with one even situated in the cloakroom.

But it wasn’t all donkey rides and ice creams. Once the pair were arrested in 1968, police dug up parts of the garden at their Suffolk retreat while carrying out a series of searches. Nothing was found, and in fact Ronnie confirmed on tape that they were not involved with any criminal activity while living at The Brooks. In 1969, the brothers were jailed for life at the Old Bailey, with a sentence of at least 30 years.

Located around 90 minutes' drive from Dallas, the ultra-private estate spans 1,369 acres. It features three cabin-style homes, dense woodlands and plenty of lakes – the perfect hidden home for a criminal to carry out a crooked career undetected. The estate was actually owned by Binion's business partner, Dallas mobster Ivy Miller, who used the retreat to host a secret gambling society, according to Mansion Global.

The story goes that Miller allegedly arranged for a rival, who was encroaching on Binion’s territory, to be killed. This move set off a 20-year turf war, which led to plenty of grizzly deaths and kidnappings. Despite the dark tales, there are no traces of the property's sinister past inside. The rustic dwelling spans several thousand square feet and features light-filled and cosy living areas, complete with impressive vaulted ceilings, exposed brickwork and swathes of wood panelling. If only walls could talk...

Wherever Binion went, law enforcement wasn't far behind. In 1931, he pleaded guilty to murder by self-defense and was given a suspended sentence. Binion's crimes finally caught up with him in 1953 though, when he was found guilty of tax evasion – just like Al Capone. He was sentenced to five years in prison, but he was soon out and back to his old ways...

It's likely Binion returned to Fincastle after his release. The perfect bolthole for hiding out and running illegal activities, the secluded estate boasts several boat docks – ideal for making a quick getaway. Binion remained part of the casino world and even helped to establish the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas during the 1970s. The gangster died on Christmas Day 1989 and his former gambling den was sold off in 2020 for a whopping $12 million (£9.2m).

Decorated in a classic 1950s style, the mafioso mansion has a decorative tiled entrance hall adorned with a pretty fountain. Aside from the numerous reception rooms and bedrooms, other highlights of the substantial suburban property include three bars, a wine cellar, spa and pool room, as well as a bomb-proof garage.

Given that this was a mob home, the property has several hidden spaces that were presumably used to hide Corrado's machine guns and other weapons. Adding to the mafia allure, a series of tunnels run under the house, one of which connects to a mansion across the road that was once owned by Detroit Outfit boss Anthony Zerilli.

Following Corrado's death in 1957, the house stayed in the family and became the home of fellow gang member Anthony "The Bull" Corrado until 1988. It was eventually purchased by former Detroit Tigers baseball star Kirk Gibson in 1997 for $665,000 (£513k). He sold the property via auction in 2015 for $715,000 (£552k).

Rather than a decadent mansion, Gangster George “Bugs” Moran preferred to live in a luxury hotel. Though his parents were French immigrants, the mobster, who was born Adelard Cunin, headed the mostly Irish-American North Side Gang, which battled against Al Capone's Italian-American South Side Gang for control of Chicago's illegal alcohol trade.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Moran resided at Chicago's opulent Parkway Hotel. The Art Deco building was conveniently located less than a block away from the North Side garage, where the gang stored the bulk of its illicit booze. The garage was later the scene of the infamous Saint Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929.

The luxurious hotel, which once housed a grand ballroom, high-end restaurant and of course the requisite speakeasy, has since been converted into the Pierre, a luxury condo development. Fortunately, the conversion was carried out sensitively, and the building still retains its Art Deco splendour.

The house is surrounded by high walls that were once covered in barbed wire and guarded by two vicious Dobermanns. Along with several reception rooms, the mansion has a number of capacious bedrooms, a retro kitchen and a glass-covered conservatory offering views of the New York skyline.

Known in Anastasia's time as “the slaughter room”, it contained nothing apart from a drain, into which the blood of his unfortunate victims would flow. Anastasia's reign of terror continued until 1957 when he was gunned down while having a shave in the barbershop at Manhattan's Park Sheraton Hotel. His mansion was offloaded and passed through various owners, before selling in 2017 for $6.9 million (£5.3m).

After a day's work enforcing his iron rule, Ricca would return to his well-appointed home with its four fireplaces, parquet floors, a handsome library and other splendid rooms. Like other mafia mansions, the property had plenty of places to hide incriminating items, including a wardrobe that was said to contain a secret door that leads to a concealed space.

Ricca was arrested in 1957 and subsequently charged with tax evasion. He was imprisoned in 1959 but only served 27 months of his nine-year sentence. When Ricca died of a heart attack in 1972, his former mansion passed to a professor at the University of Illinois who sold it in 2014 for $900,000 (£695k) through Berg Properties.

Accardo lived in the Colonial-style five-bedroom house on Ashland Avenue from 1964 when he was the underboss of the Chicago Outfit, through to 1972 when he was the Don of the organisation. It was built in 1963 at a cost of up to $160,000, which is around $1.3 million (£1m) in today's money.

Following the burglary, Accardo sold the property and decamped to a condo in the same neighbourhood, before moving into his daughter and son-in-law's home in Barrington Hills, Illinois. He died of respiratory and heart failure in 1992. As for the River Forest house, it was last sold for just over $1.1 million (£850k).

Vito Rizzuto, “Montreal's Teflon Don”, was the alleged boss of the Sicilian mfia in Canada and head of the widely feared Rizzuto crime family – the subject of Netflix's Bad Blood series. While Rizzuto is reputed to have been involved with the mafia since the 1960s, he managed to evade jail until 2004. Prior to this, Rizzuto lived with his family in a plush Canadian mansion in Montreal's Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough.

Needless to say, like all good mafia-connected homes, the sizeable estate has plenty of high-end touches, including numerous luxury chandeliers, quality parquet flooring, sumptuous Persian carpets, antique furniture and a sweeping staircase in the entryway.

Talk about furnishings fit for a billionaire! Palermo didn't hold back when it came to decorating his Houston hideaway. The main open-plan reception room boasts crystal chandeliers, expensive antique and reproduction furniture, Murano glass mirrors, plush carpets and a fabulous grand piano. 

The ostentatious vibe carries through into the bedrooms. The master suite is graced with a solid mahogany four-poster bed, ornate chandelier and marble fireplace. The majestic home even features a lavish home cinema – perfect for watching all those Sopranos reruns.

Palermo's cover was blown in 2009 when the New York Daily News ran an exposé of his new life in Houston. Several weeks later, he put the mansion up for sale with an asking price of $4 million (£3.1m). It failed to sell, so he took it off the market. The property was listed again in 2015 and purchased the following year for $2.9 million (£2.2m). We wonder if the new owners have an inkling of its shady past...

Capone paid $40,000 for the 30,000-square-foot estate, around $589,000 (£455k) in today's money. Sheltered by palm trees and stunning tropical gardens, it's a quiet oasis away from the hustle and bustle of the mainland. The Spanish colonial-style mansion is accessed via a gatehouse at the entry gates that Capone installed himself – no doubt to keep an eye out for unwanted visitors.

Home to a dazzling swimming pool, Capone paid as much attention to privacy as he did to the property's luxury amenities. The security-conscious kingpin reportedly spent $200,000 on added extras, which is about $2.9 million (£2.2m) when adjusted for inflation. These included the installation of a seven-foot-high wall complete with searchlights, as well as a cabana and grotto – sounds like a pretty luxurious backyard!

Now decked out with stylish wood floors and white, minimalist décor, it's hard to imagine what these walls may have witnessed. The gangster was at his Miami retreat when the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre occurred on 14 February 1929, which took out five members of arch-rival Bugs Moran's gang and two affiliate members. A few months later, in May of the same year, Capone was imprisoned for nine months in Philadelphia for carrying a concealed weapon, then jailed again for seven years in 1931 over tax evasion charges.

The former mafia hideout, which dates back to 1922, still retains many of its original Art Deco features, including a swish powder room and tiled fireplaces. It was here that Capone retreated to when he was released from Alcatraz in 1939. Seriously ill with late-stage syphilis, he spent the last years of his life with his devoted wife Mae at the Miami mansion, where he died in 1947. Mae Capone eventually sold the property in 1952. 

Fully renovated in 2015, the interior combines modern finishes, like this sleek Shaker kitchen, with carefully preserved period fixtures including sash windows and original covings. But the future of this historic home looked uncertain in August 2021, when it was snapped up for almost $11 million (£8.5m) by developers who intended to raze the house and build a modern home in its place. 

Ideal for indoor-outdoor living, the covered terrace that leads off from the main reception rooms offers an alfresco dining spot and an outside lounge framed by Art Deco archways. It's hard to imagine why anyone would want to bulldoze this tropical retreat – the developer's proposed plans were for an eight-bedroom, nine-bathroom mansion encompassing a sprawling 10,200 square feet. However, their vision never came to fruition...

The mansion's current floor plan offers seven bedrooms and five bathrooms spread over 7,500 square feet of living space, and it looks as though that's how it'll stay. A campaign to save the property was launched by Miami Beach locals and at the end of September 2021, mere weeks after the home's sale, the developers had a change of heart and withdrew their planning application, before quickly selling the property on for $15.5 million (£12m), according to the New York Post. 

Along with Capone's mansion, the lot itself offers just less than 0.7 acres of sought-after land on one of Miami's most desirable island enclaves. If the vast swimming pool and deck weren't enough, the residence also benefits from 100 feet of pristine water frontage – ideal for making a hasty getaway, though hopefully the new buyers don't have as infamous a past as the home's previous resident.

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