What does the most famous gangster in American history have to do with an empty waterfront lot for sale in Miami Beach, Florida?
Chicago mobster Al Capone , who ruled an empire of crime in the Windy City in the 1920s, set his sights on Florida in 1927.
Capone initially rented a mansion, under an assumed name, on Indian Creek , a 300-acre island in Biscayne Bay, for his wife Mae and son Sonny as well as a penthouse suite in a Miami hotel, according to Miami History .
He later chose Miami Beach Mayor Newt Lummus Jr. as his real estate agent to find a permanent home, Miami History reported, and bought a villa at 93 Palm Ave. on Miami Beach’s Palm Island in 1928.
While Capone was of Italian descent, he was never known to have visited Italy, but he was drawn to the property because it conjured thoughts in his head of what the Italian shores might have looked like, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported.
On October 6th, 1931, Capone was convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to 10 years in prison. By the time of his release in 1939, he was suffering from the end stages of syphilis. Upon release, Capone went to a Baltimore hospital for treatment and then returned to his Palm Island home, where he stayed until his death on January 25, 1947.