Al Capone’s beach house in Miami has been demolished despite more than 26,000 people signing a petition to save it.
The former home of the Chicago mob boss, who spent his last years within its walls, was demolished last week, much to the dismay of conservationists.
Located on Miami Beach’s exclusive Palm Island, Capone’s wife Mae had sold it in 1952 five years after his death, and it has changed hands several times since then.
The mansion’s fate was sealed last year when the owner of the property applied for a demolition permit from the City of Miami Beach.
In an effort to save the historic building, which dates back to 1922, locals launched a petition to stop the demolition.
Al Capone’s former home is seen during a tour of the historic home on March 18, 2015 in Miami Beach, Florida
Police Photo of Chicago Mobster Al Capone, this photo was taken by the Miami Police Department
Daniel Ciraldo, the executive director of the Miami Design Preservation League, shared local10: ‘The growth of South Florida is very closely linked to the Prohibition era.
“There’s nothing like seeing real historic buildings that connect us to our past. We don’t think we should abolish culture.’
The state had amended property laws last summer to prohibit local authorities from stopping the demolition of homes in designated flood zones.
Homeowners previously had to go through a tedious approval process, including meeting with the city for approval.
New laws caused the Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board to cancel a hearing last July to decide whether the house should be considered a historic destination.
The board was reviewing such a request when the city attorney determined that it had no authority to consider the application without the consent of the property owner.
Ciraldo described the new law to the outlet as “a game of Whac-A-Mole with very well-paid lobbyists and it looks like they won.”
He continued, “While we understood and expected the demolition to take place, it is still heartbreaking to see this really important part of our history being brought down and bulldozed.
Demolition of the house was completed last week, much to the chagrin of conservationists
Photo shows men from the Dade County Sheriff’s Department entering Al Capone’s home in Miami Beach, Florida, for a raid
An aerial photo shows what once was of Capone’s vacation home, now demolished
According to the Miami announcesAt a hearing last March that questioned the historic value of the property, Commissioner David Richardson said he was troubled by “the idea that we were somehow celebrating a gangster” who was once known as a “public enemy”. no. 1′.
The petition launched by locals gathered just under 26,000 signatures and said, “The City of Miami Beach, Historic Preservation Board, Design Review Board and the current owners must do EVERYTHING in their power to prevent the demolition of this building. to stop and designate this house as historic in order to preserve it for future generations.
“Don’t cancel Al Capone!”
The crime boss’s former home was built in 1922 by the Clarence Busch brewery.
Capone had purchased the property for $40,000 in 1928 and regularly hosted lavish parties prior to his stay in Alcatraz.
Born in 1899 to Italian immigrants, Brooklyn-born Capone was influenced by a life of crime by friend Johnny Torrio.
Capone had bought the property for $40,000 in 1928 and regularly hosted lavish parties there
Spiral staircases can be seen in the pool house of Al Capone’s Palm Island villa
Capone is pictured here relaxing in the house on Palm Island in 1930, smoking a cigar and wearing a robe and slippers
Al Capone became one of the most feared men in the US – a criminal kingpin who rose to the head of the Chicago mob at just 26 years old and whose campaign of extortion and murder hit the world of politics.
Capone – nicknamed “Scarface” after a teenage attack that left him with a marked left cheek – had made his fortune as the brutal leader of the Chicago Outfit.
The Outfit, which had ranks all over the US, ran smuggling and smuggling operations, and Capone would bomb the stores of those who resisted their protection rackets.
He married his wife Mae Coughlin in 1918 and his son Sonny was born on December 4 of that year.
Al Capone’s involvement with the mob reached its peak in the Valentine’s Day massacre of 1929, when seven members of a rival gang were executed, earning Capone the nickname “Public Enemy Number One.”
Capone was the leader of the Chicago Outfit and
He was indicted in 1931 on 22 counts of tax evasion and was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Capone ended up serving seven years in Alcatraz, a fortress prison on San Francisco Island in 1934.
He died on January 25, 1947, at the age of 48 after developing dementia due to a contraction of syphilis at his Florida home.
It is said that he spent his last years at home fishing and playing one-man tennis against a wall as his mind deteriorated.