Al Capone's gangster Mansion on the market

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One of Miami Beach's most notorious pieces of real estate is back on the block: the asking price is almost $8.5 million.

The sprawling, waterfront compound is where notorious Chicago gangster Al Capone died after being released from Alcatraz and is said to have plotted the St. Valentine's day massacre in 1929.

 

The 10,000-square-foot baby blue mansion sits on exclusive Palm Island, sandwiched in Biscayne Bay between downtown Miami's skyscrapers and South Beach's hotel district.

The current owner, a Florida company managed by New York accountant Anthony Panebianco, purchased the home barely six months ago for $7.4 million, according to Miami-Dade property records.

The mansion was built in 1922 by Clarence Busch, a member of the Anheuser-Busch brewing family. Capone, who made a vast fortune importing and selling liquor during prohibition, bought it in 1928 for $40,000 after being chased out of Chicago and later Los Angeles, according Ron Chepesiuk, a journalist and author of the book Gangsters of Miami.

 

After falling into disrepair in the 1970s and 1980s, the house was restored and put back on the market for nearly $10 million in 2011.

Despite being the site of Capone's death after he returned from Alcatraz as a mental patient, driven to insanity by syphilis, the house climbs in price each time it changes hands, said Albert Justo, of One Sotheby's International Realty, who is representing the owner.

 

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