So imposing they called it the "White House", this sprawling estate was once the home of the legendary mob boss known as "Big Paul" Castellano, head of the Gambino crime family. Castellano commissioned the Staten Island mansion himself in 1976, shortly after he succeeded his brother-in-law as the don of the family crime syndicate. It has recently been put up for sale for $16.8 million (£13.9m) but behind this property's impressive exterior lurks a bloody past. Click or scroll to take the tour and get to know some of America's major mafia organisations...

Constantino Paul Castellano was born to Italian immigrant parents in Brooklyn, New York in 1915. He began mob life as a member of the Mangano crime family, a precursor to the more infamous Gambino crime family. While Castellano identified more as a businessman than a mob don, taking over illegitimate businesses and turning them into legitimate ones, his corporate interests thrived from his mafia ties. After the death of his brother-in-law, Carlo Gambino, in 1976 Castellano took over as the don. Nine years later on a wintry December evening, he emerged from his limo outside Sparks Steakhouse in midtown Manhattan. In an instant, he was shot down by a quartet of assassins, clad conspicuously in trench coats and opulent Russian fur hats. Close by, in a strategically positioned car, the orchestrator of this ruthless operation, John Gotti sat and watched, making sure that "Big Paul" was dead.

Before his unsanctioned murder, Castellano enjoyed only five years in his Staten Island home before his murder – but that brief period was spent in the lap of luxury. With its pillared portico entrance, circular front drive (complete with an ornamental fountain) and numerous terraces, the house cut an imposing figure against its sleepy surroundings. The home’s interior design is no less opulent, with a dramatic white marble foyer, sweeping split staircase and plenty of Rococo ornamentation.

Since the assassination of Big Paul in 1985, public records indicate that the home has changed hands twice and has undergone substantial refurbishments in that time. However, the home still boasts lavish design elements reflective of Castellano’s extravagant taste and deep pockets. With eight bedrooms and an astonishing 17 bathrooms across four stories, the 33,000-square-foot mega-mansion is certainly not lacking in luxury.

The home was not only where Castellano lived and raised his family – it was also where he conducted much of his business, so it needed to impress. In addition to standard entertaining spaces such as the formal living and dining rooms, dark wood-panelled chef’s kitchen and elegant solarium, the home also includes a host of decadent bonus features, including a beauty parlour, wine cellar, home theatre, gym, sauna and library.

The home is largely decorated in a neo-classical style, with reproduction Louis XIV furnishings, parquet floors and elaborately moulded cornices and ceilings. Large windows throughout the property maximise views of its breathtaking grounds and expertly landscaped gardens. Castellano wanted the property to resemble the White House, from which it derived its nickname, and he was evidently so successful in his goal that in spite of its dubious commissioner, Hillary Clinton held a fundraiser at the property in 2015, The Post reported.

In addition to its more classical design elements, the home also boasts some sleek modern features engineered to showcase Castellano’s wealth and power, including an elevator, Olympic-sized indoor and outdoor swimming pools and a 13-car showroom. Meanwhile, 2.5 acres of lush, manicured grounds, nestled securely behind private gates – a must for a mafia don – offer an unobstructed view of the Verrazano Bridge. However, with such an ambitious list price, it remains to be seen who is willing to splash out for this prestigious property with a speckled past.

Part of New York's Gambino crime family, Carmine "The Bull" Agnello married up when he wed the boss' daughter Victoria Gotti in 1984. 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, NYC, 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. Myriad 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. Elsewhere in the home, the YouTubers discovered some more sinister reminders of the Gotti's residency: several automatic rifles and a secret room. 

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. 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 (£2.2m).

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 in the late 1930s to California, where he built a large mansion.

Bugsy Siegel was shot and killed in 1947, 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 (£14m), 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; 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 an M1 carbine at him through the window of the home. 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's 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 30 guests – a table significantly bigger than the polished wooden number 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 in an attempt to evade the police, who nevertheless saw through the ruse and arrested him for murder. However, Siegel was acquitted of that crime. 

Infamous identical twin brothers Ronnie and Reggie Kray were born in 1933 in Hoxton and became the most feared 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 £11,000 ($14.2k) 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 million ($2.6m).

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.

Lester Ben ‘Benny’ Binion is perhaps the most notorious mobster that Texas has ever seen. The gambling icon created a criminal empire and spent some four decades running casinos across Las Vegas. The longhorn state native began his career in Dallas managing illegal lotteries, before expanding to the gambling capital of the world. When he wasn't presiding over his kingdom, the kingpin liked to lie low at Fincastle, a remote estate in Athens, Texas.

Located 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 where a criminal could pursue 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 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 in which to hide out and run 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 (£9.9m).

Pete Corrado, dubbed “Machine Gun Pete”, was one of the first members of the Detroit Outfit or Detroit Partnership, the Midwestern city's most active mafia organisation. He headed the Corrado clan offshoot from 1931 until his death from a heart attack in 1957. The mafioso lived in a 7,481-square-foot mansion on Middlesex Road in Grosse Pointe Park, just outside Detroit.

Corrado made his money organising and operating an illegal numbers racket, the so-called “Italian lottery”. He also had interests in real estate and lucrative cuts in a number of profitable businesses. His Georgian-Colonial mansion was paid for with the proceeds of these activities.

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 (£549k). He sold the property via auction in 2015 for $715,000 (£590k).

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.

Moran wasn't the only North Side Gang member who lived at the hotel. Optician-turned-criminal Reinhart Schwimmer also resided there. While Moran narrowly avoided being gunned down in the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, Schwimmer wasn't quite so lucky and was among the seven victims.

Following the massacre, Moran lost much of his power and influence in Chicago, and the ending of Prohibition in 1933, coupled with the Great Depression, pretty much finished him off. The mobster continued to reside at the Parkway before leaving Chicago in the mid-1930s. He was locked up in 1939 and spent much of his remaining life in prison, where he died in 1957.

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. The conversion was carried out sensitively, and the building still retains its Art Deco splendour.

The "Lord High Executioner” of the terrifying Murder, Inc. and the boss of what would become the Gambino crime family, Albert Anastasia was as ruthless as they come. The cut-throat mafia leader is thought to have masterminded the murders of hundreds of people, making him one of the most notorious criminals in history. Anastasia lived in this Spanish-style New Jersey property from 1947 until his death in 1957.

The menacing Mafia Don controlled his organisation's criminal activities from the mansion and is alleged to have tortured and killed people in the house. The Fort Lee home, which is located across the Hudson River from Manhattan, has a total of 25 sprawling rooms and sits on 1.3 acres.

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.

Looking at this picture of the property's wood-panelled office, it's not hard to imagine the scary mafia boss sitting behind the desk with a cigar in his hand, planning his next kill or directing his minions to execute it on his behalf. But the office is by no means the eeriest room in the house, not by a long shot. That would be the Jacuzzi room...

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 (£5.7m).

The brains behind the Chicago Outfit for a good 40 years, Paul “The Waiter” Ricca was Al Capone's de facto successor and operated in the Windy City from the 1930s to the early 1970s. He lived with his family in this fine five-bedroom house in the Chicago suburb of River Forest from 1938 to 1957.

Ricca served as underboss to Frank "The Enforcer” Nitti, but in reality, he called the shots. Nitti, who suffered from extreme claustrophobia, committed suicide in 1943 after he was reportedly pressured by Ricca and others to plead guilty to extortion charges to get them off the hook. Ricca then took over as leader of the Chicago Outfit and appointed Tony Accardo as underboss.

Like his suburban mansion, Paul Ricca commanded a veneer of responsibility, but nonetheless he was just as cruel and ruthless as the other Mafia bosses. If he wanted to get rid of someone, he would purportedly whisper “make-a him go away” to one of his enforcers and consider the job done. 

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 leading 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 (£742k) through Berg Properties.

Tony Accardo, AKA “Big Tuna”, allegedly took over from Paul Ricca in 1972 as the boss of the Chicago Outfit, having worked his way up from a small-time crook on Chicago's South Side. Like his predecessor, Accardo ended up purchasing a magnificent mansion in the Chicago suburb of River Forest. 

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 (£1.1m) in today's money.

Fitted out with stunning parquet flooring, intricate plasterwork and high-end brick fireplaces, the house has all the trappings of a mafia leader's residence. Aside from several regal reception rooms and bedrooms, the property has a library, cedar-lined spa, large three-car garage and swimming pool.

The mansion hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons in 1978 after it was burgled. Accardo was on holiday in California at the time. Not long after, the three alleged thieves and four associates were found strangled with their throats cut. Accardo was suspected to have ordered the murders and the allegation was seemingly confirmed in 2002 by mobster-turned-informant Nicholas Calabrese.

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 (£900k).

Vito Rizzuto, “Montreal's Teflon Don”, was the alleged boss of the Sicilian mafia in Canada and head of the widely feared Rizzuto crime family, subjects 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.

The Tudor-style five-bedroom house is situated on the affluent neighbourhood's leafy Antoine Berthelet Avenue, which is nicknamed “Mafia Row” by locals. At least four alleged mafiosos have owned homes on the thoroughfare, including Rizzuto's brother-in-law, Paolo Renda.

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.

Other selling points include a palatial family room, ensuite bathrooms for each of the home's five bedrooms, two powder rooms and a state-of-the-art kitchen in tip-top condition with solid mahogany cabinets. The Rizzuto family obviously insisted on the best when it came to kitting out their home.

Rizzuto was released from jail in 2012, and a power struggle for control of the crime family's operations ensued, resulting in several high-profile murders. The big boss passed away in 2013 from complications related to lung cancer and the house sold that same year.

Mobster-turned-FBI-informant Vincent Palermo, AKA Vinny Ocean, was the de facto boss of New Jersey's DeCavalcante crime family, inspiring the character of Tony Soprano in the award-winning HBO series The Sopranos. After turning in his associates, Palermo was placed in the Witness Protection Program and snapped up a gated mansion in Houston under the pseudonym Vincent Cabella in 2003.

A veritable palace, the five-bedroom cabana property on Memorial Drive is fantastically ritzy. Surrounded by lush gardens, which boast a fancy fountain and pool, the mansion impresses with a plethora of luxurious features, from marble flooring and columns to elaborate plasterwork.

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 (£3.3m). 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 (£2.4m). We wonder if the new owners have an inkling of its shady past...

Al Capone, boss of the Chicago Outfit, otherwise known as the South Side Gang, made most of his money bootlegging booze. Based in the Windy City, Capone had a habit of leaving town to avoid both his enemies and the cops, and at the height of his power in 1928, he bought a spectacular villa on Palm Island, in Miami's South Beach.

Capone paid $40,000 for the 30,000-square-foot estate, around $589,000 (£486k) in today's money. Sheltered by palm trees and stunning tropical gardens, it was a quiet oasis away from the hustle and bustle of the mainland. The Spanish colonial-style mansion was 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 (£2.4m) 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!

Later 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.

Demolished in August 2023, the former mafia hideout, which dated back to 1922, contained many 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 combined modern finishes like this sleek Shaker kitchen with carefully preserved period fixtures, including sash windows and original covings. The mansion's floor plan offered seven bedrooms and five bathrooms spread over 7,500 square feet of living space. But in August 2021 the historic home was snapped up for almost $11 million (£9m) 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 led off from the main reception rooms offered 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. 

A campaign to save the property was launched by Miami Beach locals, who claimed the site's redevelopment would represent a loss not just for local history but for American history too, while adding little to the community. 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. 

However, after the Florida legislature unanimously signed a law in May 2023 prohibiting local authorities from preventing the demolition of houses without historic designation that sit at or below base flood elevation, Capone's former mansion was razed by developers in August 2023. A shame, as a lot of colourful history has been lost, along with a unique family home with no shortage of space for entertaining, including this covered loggia, which overlooks the water and boasted some of the best views in the house.

Along with Capone's mansion, the lot itself offered just under 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 benefitted from 100 feet of pristine water frontage – ideal for making a hasty getaway.

However, in spite of various campaigns to save it, the infamous mansion has now been reduced to little more than a pile of rubble. A preservationist reportedly called the demolition of the historic landmark "devastating", according to local news. It remains to be seen what will now go up in the mansion’s place, but we can only hope the new incumbent will be slightly less notorious…

Loved this? Check out more scandalous properties and their amazing histories