67 - Capone's Coastal Hideaway: Secrets of the Miami Mansion

[00:00:04] At the intersection of true crime and real estate, you'll find Crime Estate. I'm Heather. And my name is Elena. As real estate agents and true crime junkies, we view crimes through a different lens. So walk through the door of some of the most notorious true crimes with us and discover how sometimes the scene of the crime has its own story to tell. Hey, y'all.

[00:00:31] Thanks for joining us on Crime Estate again today. If you joined us last week, thank you so much. Our first episode of the year last week, we thought maybe it would be our first video episode, but alas, technology had other plans. So my sweet husband has spent most of this week trying to troubleshoot for us and we are hoping that the video works today. Yeah, we'll see. It is currently working right now. Whether it works through the whole podcast, we will see. Mm-hmm.

[00:00:59] Okay. So we actually have a really fascinating story for everyone today, Elena and Melanie. It is full of prohibition era history, a fabulous mobster mansion, and of course the crimes that go along with this infamous home and family. Today we're covering the story of Al Capone and his Miami mansion. Of course, I'm Heather. I'm here with my fellow co-host and fellow realtor Elena and our friend, producer, and commentator Melanie. Hey, ladies. Hey, how's it going? It's good.

[00:01:28] Good. Yeah. Yeah, it's good. It's kind of cold here in Dallas today. So I'm kind of excited to take a little trip down to Miami in this story. Me too. Me too. I had to show houses this morning before we recorded and I was all bundled up in a coat. I never wear a coat. So a little chilly today. So Miami vibes all the way. Now this is a story we've actually been wanting to cover for a while now on Crime Estate, but

[00:01:54] since Al Capone's birthday was just last week, I believe it's January 17th, we figured this was the perfect time to drop this story. And Elena, I feel like you would be very into mobsters. I do. And mobster crime. I do. Is this something we've talked about or is this just something like I feel because I know you so well? Well, I think probably both. I think we've touched on, like, I like Goodfellas. That's one of my favorite movies. So I think that kind of lends into that. Yeah, I do. It's fascinating.

[00:02:22] I forgot about you and the Goodfellas, but yeah, no, that absolutely makes sense. Like, you know, for those of us that are new to our podcast and maybe our YouTube, you know, we all have kind of different niches and either really scary, spooky crimes or like things that are kind of mobster-esque, I do feel like are in your wheelhouse. I love it. Yeah. Yeah. It's like a character study. It really is. I wonder what it says about your personality. My dearest friend,

[00:02:52] we'll watch mobster movies to go to bed. I watch Dateline. I don't know that there's really much of a difference other than one's true crime and one's fake crime. Right. I told my husband we were doing Al Capone today and he was like, why didn't you ask to watch The Untouchables last night? That would have been good. Or Scarface. Or Scarface. There is a plethora of mobster and in particular Al Capone movies out there. We oftentimes find a way to

[00:03:16] interweave movies or TV shows into our podcasts. And I think there could be a lot that you could be with Al Capone. Yeah. We did not watch that either. We did have family movie that night last night. We watched my cousin, Vinny. Because my son's very into mock trial right now. My husband will tell you that is the most accurate legal movie out there. Oh. No. Really? Yeah. That's his. Wow. So we watched that last night. But yeah, Scarface might be on the agenda for tonight.

[00:03:44] When my son first started getting into mock trial, we definitely went down watching pretty much every like legal movie for about a year. And so, yeah. And that was one of the first ones we started with. So I'm glad to know it actually is realistic. We said it seemed like, you know, mock trial-ish. Yeah. It's a good one. I forgot like Marissa Tomei and Karate Kids in it. Like it's a good movie. Yeah.

[00:04:08] Yeah. Okay. Well, I digress. So I'm sure you guys are wondering how Al Capone became one of the most infamous mobsters in our country. Now, whether this is truth or lore, the story goes like this. Capone's family came to America from Italy. Back in Italy, they were pasta makers. But when his parents moved here, his dad became a barber and they moved and settled into Brooklyn, New York.

[00:04:33] Now, when Al Capone was in sixth grade, he left school and his dad gave him a shoe shining kit thinking like this is a good way for you to go out, make a little money for the family if you're not going to be in school. Right. This sounds appropriate for the time. Sounds sweet. Right. I don't know about sweet, but appropriate. Yeah. And so one day while shoe shining, Al Capone notices some tough guys shaking down one of the local business owners for money. And he has this like

[00:05:00] aha moment. And he's like, I can make a lot more money if I went out and shook down the other local shoe shiners and had them give me a little bit of their profit every day. And so he goes to his older cousins and he's like, let's go like rough up these guys and make sure they know they have to pay me if they want to be a shoe shiner on this block. Insane. Yeah. In sixth grade or sixth grade age? Sixth grade. Wow. Yeah. That'd be crazy if we could do real estate like that.

[00:05:30] I mean, can you imagine if we went- Taking 5%. Right. Or if we went to one of the top dogs in the neighborhood and we're like, unless you want to be beat up and your arm's broken, I will take a little percentage on every sale. Should we try it? I mean, you could say, this is my neighborhood. Yeah. You know, get a map and kind of go, this block, you know, area's mine. This one's yours. Yes. You can have 75214. Thanks. You and I won't fight each other for the zip codes.

[00:06:00] What's funny is that on my block, I can actually throw a ball, like literally throw a tennis ball and hit two other realtors' houses. So like, I can't claim even my own block. We're just, you know, duking it out every day. All right. So like any good businessman, he's obviously looking to move up the corporate ladder, make even, you know, a little bit more money. And so what does he do? He finds a couple of good, really good mentors. That sounds right to me. Like, that's what I did in the business.

[00:06:29] I had a great mentor when I started. And he looks to the New York mobsters of the time. So his first mentor was John Torrio. And John Torrio was regarded as an underworld genius. Capone started running errands for him. And according to the Netflix show, How to Become a Mob Boss, which I absolutely watched yesterday morning while I was having my coffee, he learned the following important lessons from Torrio. Number one, dress for success. I agree with that. Was he a good dresser? Oh, yeah.

[00:06:59] Oh, yeah. Yeah. Number two, keep your mouth shut. I don't disagree with that either. I mean, I think, you know, you're really good about both of you being access to people's private information and private kind of, you know, maybe they don't want other people to know that they're selling or how much their budgets are. Like, you know, you keep very good boundaries. You know, especially because it's a small world and you may be helping out friends or colleagues.

[00:07:57] Yeah. Now, Capone worked at Yale's bar on Coney Island as a busboy and probably a few other things. And from Yale, he learned, always show you mean business. I'll agree with that too, I guess. Maybe I don't agree with the next one. Never get outgunned. And make sure your reputation precedes you. So, I think what we've learned is that five of the six lessons for mobsters also apply to real estate. I love it. I agree 100%.

[00:08:27] Okay, great. Now, one day while working at the bar on Coney Island, Capone sees a woman that he finds very attractive. She makes it clear she isn't interested. And he makes some sort of unwanted advance. Unfortunately, another mobster with different loyalties and a different association who, like, somehow is peripherally related to this lady. I don't know, was she a cousin? Was she, like, his buddy's sister? There was a relationship. Okay. Right?

[00:08:57] He takes offense. And so, what happens is this guy and Al Capone get into a fistfight. And Al Capone is, like, a pretty strong fighter at this stage of his life. He's pretty young. And he totally has the upper hand until this guy pulls out a knife and slashes him across the face. Giving Al Capone his nickname, Scarface. So, Capone's pretty upset about this.

[00:09:23] And look, if I knew anything about the mob in the 1920s and 30s prior to researching this story, it's that, like, retaliation against different crime families when you were slighted by them is really an essential part of, like, the power dynamic. Right? And so, Al wanted his own revenge. However, Frankie Yale's like, no, we are not going to have a mob war start over what is essentially you being shot down by a lady. However, Capone never forgot the slight.

[00:09:53] And eventually, he makes the head of that rival crime family one of his errand boys much later in life. So, now, it's unclear how Capone met May Coughlin, the woman that would go on to become his wife. Some people think they met at a party, while others think that Capone's mom set them up. Now, May is actually two years Capone's senior, a fact that she tries to hide for the rest of her life. Two years? Two years.

[00:10:21] So, he would have been, like, 18 and she was 20 or 19 and 21. They were sort of in that age bracket. And while, like, I think her family sort of thought she was marrying down, Al Capone was super charming and he got into their good graces so much so that when she became pregnant out of wedlock, it wasn't, like, the travesty that it normally would have been in the 1920s. They allowed her to continue to live at home.

[00:10:49] And shortly after their son was born, she was, the two got married. So, they had, they married in 1918. Like I said, not long after their son by the name of Albert Francis, who they called Sonny, was born. That's cute. I like that. You like it, Sonny? Yeah.

[00:11:09] So, two years after they marry in 1920, Capone sees his chance to make a significant amount of money by moving from New York City to Chicago, just as Prohibition is starting. And as I sit here drinking my screwdriver, we're recording at brunch time, I should add. Yeah. It's totally fine. It's a Sunday brunch. I can't even imagine how crazy everything was when alcohol became illegal. I mean, think about that.

[00:11:37] Something people had ready access to, now all of a sudden you can't have access to it. It's like TikTok. Like my 15-year-old was going crazy last night. Because it was down for 12 hours or something? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Well, maybe there's some sort of like mobster TikTok access that's coming our way. I don't know.

[00:12:00] But what I do know is that like with any illegal substance or vice like TikTok, those that want them will find a way to procure them. And so did you know that whiskey could be sold as medicine as long as you had a doctor's prescription? I did not know that. I mean, I grew up in the South. We used whiskey for a chest cold all the time. My husband would be very happy with that. He's really into whiskey right now.

[00:12:30] Is he? Okay. It's a new thing. I guess he's trying to drink less wine. So he's replacing it with whiskey. I've always been a whiskey girl. Oh, yeah. But I didn't know you could drink it for a cold. Oh, 100%. So like a hot tea with some honey and lemon and a big shot of whiskey? Yes. Make a little hot toddy. Oh, you do like hot toddies? I do like a hot toddy. Okay. Yeah, I do like a hot toddy too.

[00:12:57] And so additionally, there were rum runners. They would smuggle spirits from overseas and they would like grab it right off the boats. And then bootleggers took over shuttered breweries making their own beer. And then when the cops would come, the bootleggers would very much make it worth their while monetarily to just sort of look the other way. And I know in the Chicago area, they were doing a lot of the bootlegging from Canada because it was not prohibited in Canada.

[00:13:26] So in Chicago, being on the Great Lakes, it was a fairly easy access. To like boat it down the river. That's right. So I imagine during this time, like you had some very wealthy doctors and police officers as a result of, and mobsters, obviously. But, you know, the people that were on the periphery of the prohibition also, I think, made a lot of money. Totally. Yeah.

[00:13:51] So when Capone first moved to Chicago, Big Jim Calissimo, how much do you love that? I love it. Was the mobster running the town. But he did not want to be involved in bootlegging. So of course, he had to go. Okay. Or go. Maybe that's the better hand gesture. Across the neck, not over the shoulder. Oh my. Okay. And so Capone and his old mentor Torrio called up his other old mentor, Frankie Yale, and

[00:14:19] they paid Yale $10,000 to do the job. Yale shoots Big Jim at his restaurant, and this murder goes on to rock the Chicago underworld. It also, Elena, shifts the power dynamic and opens up the bootlegging business for Capone and Torrio. Okay. Okay. All right, ladies. So over the course of three years, Capone and Torrio took over nine breweries, and they were making over $3 million a year.

[00:14:48] But it's not prohibition without a lot of infighting and violence amongst the different bootlegging gangs. And in one violent incident, Torrio was shot and then miraculously somehow wasn't killed. And so he decides, maybe it's just time for me to retire. So he moves back to New York, making Capone the big boss of Chicago at only 26 years old. That's sort of like the story arc of his career.

[00:15:18] Like he started in sixth grade, you know, shaking down guys, and he's just been fast and young moving up. Yeah. I mean, yeah. 26 sounds so young. But when you realize that he started on this path at such a young age, it's sort of a miracle he's still alive. Yeah. Really. Yeah. Exactly. So now what is Al Capone supposed to do with like all of these millions that he's making? I know. You do? Real estate.

[00:15:47] Real estate. Yes. All right. And here we go. Tying it all together. So he buys a house in 1928 at the ripe old age of 29. Capone and his wife buy a mansion in Miami. Woohoo! Yes. Now, according to the website, myalcaponemuseum.com, which is fabulous, by the way. Oh, great. Capone was hooked on Florida and specifically to Miami by his mentor, John Torrio, who loved to travel.

[00:16:18] Capone loved it for several reasons. It was a great place to get away from the Chicago gang violence and like the constant police harassment that he was receiving there. He loved the weather. I mean, what's not to love about the Miami weather minus hurricanes? He loved the sporting life that Miami offered along with year-round horse and dog racing. I think he liked to gamble. Oh, yeah. You think? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. One other plus for the tropical city, it was a midpoint to Cuba and the Bimini Islands,

[00:16:48] which offered, shall we say, business opportunities to the industrious Capone. Okay. I mean, think about all that rum being a- Exactly. Now, have either of you spent any time in Miami? I have. So we had a work retreat there a couple years ago. I had never been before and it was not on my bucket list based on what my mental perception of what Miami was like was. I loved it.

[00:17:16] It was, we had the most fun. It was beautiful. Great restaurant scene. The beaches were amazing. I mean, all the things. I've not been as far south as Miami, but I think I would really like it. Yeah. I love Miami and I probably doesn't surprise you. No, no. I spent a lot of time in Miami. You know, I've been there, I don't know, half dozen times for pleasure.

[00:17:42] And we've taken the boys a couple of times, but I also lived there one summer. I don't know if I've told you about this. So when I was in business school, you know, I went to, I did my MBA at Georgetown and I interned that summer for American Express, funny enough, in Fort Lauderdale, but I wanted to live closer to Miami. And so I got like an Airbnb kind of rental for the summer on North Miami Beach.

[00:18:11] And so spent most of that summer going down to South Beach and, you know, the key is a lot. I'm so sorry for you. Exactly. So, I mean, I am no means an expert in Miami, but I've been there enough to know my way around. Have you been? Maybe that's like the place we go because we're always talking about it on the podcast. It's in the States. It is a beach. Okay. There's like a nice lake. Oh, there's a fun Latin vibe. Okay.

[00:18:38] The music, the dancing, the, you know, the sight. I'm feeling like this is the answer actually. This could be. Okay. Yeah. Because we want to always do a beach trip with her, but you know, she's. Actually, many things. Yeah. But I think you would really like the culture. Like, I think you would really, like, it's got a funky vibe. The art deco. I think you would really like the art deco. Yes, I agree. Okay. Okay. We've done it. All right. Okay. Summer 2025. And cheap flights from Dallas. Like that was part of the thing.

[00:19:08] So when I lived in Miami that summer, my husband lived in Dallas. And so he was able to get cheap flights like every other weekend and he would come out. I love that. I'm excited. Okay. Okay. Well, we'll plan it right after this episode. Right. And we will go take a picture. So of this area. So this area. Okay. That's a good way to put it. Okay. Okay.

[00:19:30] So ladies, the problem with Al Capone wanting to move to Miami is that the affluent, lovely people of Miami did not want Al Capone to live in their city. Yeah. I get that. Do you think you can just be like, no, I don't want you to live here? I don't want. I mean, yeah, I can't. You can get wanting, but it doesn't be like, what are you going to do about it? It's just neighborhood gossip. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, well, I mean, people gossip about anything.

[00:19:59] So I could see them gossiping about somebody coming into town, but I bet it's also not, not necessarily Al Capone, but what he might be bringing. Right. Exactly. Like they were afraid that he would like the violence from Chicago would follow him to Miami. And this is sort of off script, but it seems like from our research that maybe prohibition did bring a lot of new things to Miami.

[00:20:26] Like, I'm not sure that quite the gambling scene was what it was before Al Capone and maybe some other people ended up in Miami during prohibition. It seemed like that, that era changed Miami, not just Al Capone. Yes. But he, you know, there are theories that he helped to influence the gambling increase in that time period in South Florida. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. But like any good mobster, Al Capone got a little creative in order to get what he wanted.

[00:20:55] And so he enlisted his friend, hotel owner, Parker Henderson Jr., who also happened to be the son of Miami's former mayor, to contract on the house in his name. And then when it was time to sign the final paperwork, Capone put the house in his wife, Mae's name. Something that I don't actually think you could do today very easily, unless you had like an and or signs in the contract. Yeah. I think a lot of people would do like a, like a trust. Yes. You could do a trust. Yeah. That's right. Yeah.

[00:21:24] I would think that's sort of similar in the sense of that the person's name isn't necessarily on the paperwork. I was reading about, you know, for those listening, this where we've been right after the L.A. fires and a lot of the homes in the Palisades are in the names of trust because and so it's not in part of it is a lot of celebrities and rich people. There's a privacy issue there. For a privacy issue.

[00:21:52] So but that is something that's just kind of interesting that a lot of times people would put in the name of a trust. But I think this is a different way of doing it. But I did read that the person who was selling the house had no idea they were selling it to Al Capone. Well, OK, funny you bring that up. So, Mel, I think we have a picture if our podcast video experience is still working the way it's supposed to. I pushed a button. OK, there we go.

[00:22:19] So on paper, Al Capone never owned a house in Miami. And a telegram sent from the Miami Daily News to the seller after the deal closed read, Al Capone, notorious Chicago gangster, chief occupying your former Palm Island residence, stop. Mayor Loomis admits knowledge Capone probably would buy home from Parker Henderson when deal closed. Stop. Stop.

[00:22:49] In view, public indignation here. Appreciate you. Telegraph us. Statement. Collect whether such deal with Capone's agent was with your knowledge and consent. OK, so the newspaper is trying to figure out this whole deal. Right. And apparently the newspaper was like. Number one dog trying to not get Al Capone to move to Miami. I don't know who owned it, what their beef with him was, but the newspaper was really

[00:23:18] involved in trying to achieve himself. I love Western Union telegrams. Stop. Yeah. What did they say stop for? Is it like a period? Uh-huh. Yeah. Why didn't they put a period? Well, I guess the way they were. Well, I mean, my knowledge of telegrams is based upon movies where they're pushing like little buttons. And to me, it always felt like Morse code almost. Yeah, I have no idea. Yeah.

[00:23:45] So I do love little interesting fact when you're looking at this picture that the person that they were sending it to, I guess the, you know, the former owner of the home, the JW Pompim, he is at the Battle Creek Sanatorium in Battle Creek, Michigan. And weirdly enough, I stayed in Battle Creek. Of course you did. Of course you did. You're like the most well-traveled of anybody I know. No, just a few months ago, because when we went up to the UT Michigan game, you know,

[00:24:15] hook and horns, UT one, and we had flown into Chicago and we were driving into Detroit for, you know, for the game. We kind of need to stay somewhere in the middle. So we stayed in Battle Creek. And Battle Creek is a weird town. It is the serial capital of America. It's where all the big cereal companies got started. Like Kellogg's and... Yeah. And I don't have it in front of me, but like all those...

[00:24:42] And those cereals came out of the sanitariums because people, like it was supposed to be the health food. So cereals were a health food that was created in the sanitariums. What? Okay. I'm not going to say it because I got made fun of last week. But again, an example of Melanie going a little extra into the research. Oh, like who made fun of you? Oh, yeah, it was me. It was you. It was you. All right. Okay.

[00:25:09] So anyway, just thought there was a random fact to it, but let's go on. So the seller in a responding telegram stated he had no idea Capone intended to purchase his home and that that's what the paper should report. So the city of Miami Beach so feared the violence and corruption that swirled around the gangster that they sued Capone after he arrived in Florida, calling his new home a menace to the safety

[00:25:38] and well-being of residents. I mean, I know he's a bad guy, but that makes me sad for him. I mean, yes, I agree with you. I sort of, I think I have like a love of gangster for Al Capone, which is not appropriate because he did very bad, horrible things. But. Yeah. I feel like if you want to buy a house, you should be able to buy a house. Yeah. Maybe for all they knew, he wanted to start over. They don't know. That's exactly right. Yeah. They could have. I don't think that's what happened.

[00:26:08] I love how sweet you are. Okay. So when Al Capone purchased the house at 93 Palm Avenue in the Palm Island section of Miami Beach, he only paid $40,000 for it. And I remember this is like mid-1920s. The home, which was originally built in 1922, suffered damage from the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926. And then Capone went on to put over $200,000 into this house.

[00:26:36] He installed a gatehouse, a seven foot high wall with searchlights and a cabana along with a coral rock grotto. I love that. Right? Yeah. If I could stand up in it. A grotto. Oh yeah. Oh yes. Yeah. So Palm Island. And so if you're picturing kind of downtown Miami and then there's Miami Beach just to the

[00:26:59] east, these are two, or there's Palm Island and it's nearby Hibiscus Island are these man-made islands in the Biscayne Bay. Biscayne Bay is kind of the bay in between downtown Miami and Miami Beach. And it's only accessible by one road, a causeway, a small skinny causeway that goes from downtown Miami to Miami Beach. So you can just imagine in traffic how much this, you know, will get challenged.

[00:27:29] And so Palm Island is 82 acres into a man-made island by the Army Corps of Engineers in the early 1920s. And it's like a really skinny, I mean, you look at a picture of it, you realize it's man-made. I mean, nothing is that perfectly oval skinniness. And almost every home in this residential community has prime oceanfront property. So they're kind of like, you know, like little pie pieces along the edges on both sides.

[00:27:58] And most homes have private boat docks for the residents. So, you know, they don't always want to have to go on the causeway because there's all the traffic. So they can just take their boats to downtown Miami to go to, you know. Or they can have their boats driven to downtown Miami. Yeah, that's probably. Probably. I mean, and there's, you know, quite a lot of famous peoples who've lived in Palm Island and Hibiscus Island over the years. But today it's a quiet residential community for the super rich. I mean, it is very rich.

[00:28:27] But interestingly, right around the same time that Al Capone lived there in the 1920s and 30s, it was also a hotspot for entertainers. So they opened up, you know, the Palm Island Club in the 1920s where it defied prohibition by serving alcohol. Ooh. Yeah. So they didn't want Al Capone there, but they were happy to serve their own alcohol. And then in 1939, New York Club magnate Lou Walters, who interestingly was the father

[00:28:56] of Barbara Walters, you know, very interesting personality. And weirdly enough, Barbara Walters lives on Palm Island to this day. She's dead. Oh, well, okay. She did. She did. Is she dead? She's dead. She's totally dead. But I'm sure you're right. I'm sure you're right. But she did. I just thought it was interesting that she grew up there and then after retired to live there. But anyway, he, her dad, reopened the club as the famous Latin Quarter.

[00:29:24] And this luxury nightclub hosted performers Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, Milton Berle. So anyway, I think we can see why Al Capone was drawn to this area. So cool. As always, Helena is right. Barbara Walters died in 2022. I mean, not me too. She died. But yeah, it was right. Okay. But she lived there. Yeah. I love it. As, you know, did, I think, Gwen. And there's a lot of current celebrities that live there as well. Yes. Yes, absolutely.

[00:29:53] So from a security standpoint, though, like Mel said, this location was ideal because it's like one island. There's only one gated entry and exit to the island. And that, like along with this personal gatehouse that Al Capone built, which by the way was guarded 24-7 with men with guns. Yeah. And the security wall that he built made this house like a safe haven for this mobster who totally had a target on his back. Yeah.

[00:30:23] Okay. So I have two questions for y'all. One, and I could not find this. I found one article that said he had like a hidden speakeasy in the house. And I found another article that said there were like some reinforced rooms, but I really couldn't find anything that definitively or more than one source said what other safety features were in the home. Although, you know, he had them.

[00:30:50] Like you had your first line of defense, which was the exterior, and then you would absolutely have an interior line of defense. Right. But if you were a mobster today building a house, what security features would you add? Well, I definitely have a secret room behind a wall. 100%. Yeah. That's given. A panic room. Panic room. Yeah. Yeah. Gates that just came down with a click of a button. Oh, I like it. That's a good one. Like over every window and door.

[00:31:20] Yes. Yes. That'd be cool. Bulletproof glass. Oh, yeah. Certainly. Dogs. Ooh, dogs are good. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this was a big property to it. Yeah. There was room. See, as much as you would want, you wouldn't want to be living on top of all the security guards. I think there was enough room. Well, yeah. So in his house, remember he built the cabana. And so the security guards were said to live on the second floor of the cabana. So you had the bottom floor, which was like for pool use.

[00:31:49] And then the second story, which was to house the security. What we think of oftentimes is like in-law suites or like, you know, like a separate kind of work room over the garage. They had their private security. That's right. Of course they did. Question for both of you. Have either of you shown or even just looked at a home with a panic room? I've not shown a home with a panic room that I can think of, but I've shown a home with massive security cameras.

[00:32:18] Like every angle, like walking to the room. And I wasn't sure. I didn't know it was there. So it's kind of jarring. Like, oh, but what's going on? Yeah. What's going on in this neighborhood that you have to have like this many cameras? But really the question is, what are you doing to afford this home that you need to have so many cameras? I think it's, why do you need it? Yeah. Like a full wall of cameras. I think I've shown two or three houses with panic rooms.

[00:32:41] They're usually very well disguised and not shockingly, they're not well advertised as part of the listing until you have a very serious buyer who is maybe meeting the agent for a second time to walk through the home. Okay. Does that make sense? It makes a little sense. Yeah, because you're not advertising our security features to the public. I want to have that on the listing. Like, you know, like, okay, that panic room behind the garage. Right.

[00:33:09] You could add it as like a, you know, extra security detail. I'm coming up with this off the top of my head. Like a euphemism. Yeah. You could say something like extra security built into the house. Please see agent for details. Yeah. Yeah. Something like that. Versus saying, go under the stairs. Exactly. Code 1234. Exactly. Yeah. I mean, and we in Texas don't often infrequently have basements.

[00:33:39] So this would have to be sort of designed. Yeah. And the ones I'm thinking of are typically like behind a bookcase or another closet. Like there's a secondary. Totally right. Entrance. Behind a bookcase. Behind a bookcase. Yeah. So you don't really notice it unless you're looking for it. And then it opens. If you know, you know. Yeah. And I would say in Texas, they're actually more often used for gun safes than anything else.

[00:34:03] Like, you know, just in the general way, you would use them if you want to store your guns in a safe manner. That's a good place to do that. Reminds me of something else. I just showed a house this past week with a giant rifle sitting in the closet. What? Just like sitting there? Just sitting in the closet. No. No. I'm like, why? Why? And it was vacant. The home was vacant. No. A rifle. Yes. Did you call the agent and say, hey, you need to get rid of this gun in the closet? I should have. I didn't. I should have.

[00:34:34] That's creepy. No. I don't like it. That would turn me off. It's very creepy. Yes. And it did my buyers. They're like. Why do we need this? And when the house, like, was everything out of the closet? Had people moved out and there was just a gun sitting there? No. No. No. I'm out. I mean, I'm not. No. But remember how last. Although did you know that movers will not move guns? So if you had hired movers to move cross country and they were packing up for you after you left, it's possible they saw that and just left it because they will not move it.

[00:35:02] The agent needed to deal with it. You need to call her this week. Or him. Him. Sorry. That was very sexist. I will. Do you remember how in last week's Lacey Peterson episode, the person who bought the house after them said he found a knife in the closet? Like a. I mean, we. He was suspect. He did not. Let's be clear. Or if he did, he put it there. It was very suspect. Yeah. But, you know, he did get articles written about him. Anyway. Interesting. All right. Let's go back to Al Capone. Should we? Yeah. For a moment.

[00:35:32] Let's do that. Okay. So, according to an article in Mansion Global, which is a great real estate website, by the way, the Spanish colonial style mansion has views of Biscayne Bay, a private beach. Sounds amazing. A gatehouse and a 30 by 60 foot pool with a cabana, like we discussed. It was said to be the largest private pool in Florida for a very long time. So, that was true when they published this article.

[00:36:00] I think by now there's a larger one, but 30 by 60. That's huge. I can't picture it. I think my pool is like 10 by 20. Oh, wow. So, if you want to like extrapolate from that. To me, that sounds like a resort. Yeah. Like you're in a hotel resort pool or complex. And this home is stunning. And of course, we'll get to the question of the episode later. Like, would you live there? Would you list it?

[00:36:27] But from a purely aesthetic standpoint, this is one of my favorite homes we've ever covered. Um, it's white stucco with red tile, roof exterior, expansive porches and breezeways with like these arched openings that sort of showcase the landscaping. And now remember, this was remodeled by Al and May Capone in the height of the Art Deco era. So, the interior had some amazing period finishes.

[00:36:54] One of my favorite photos is this yellow and black tiled bathroom complete with a black sink and a black toilet and like this intricate tile design that feels very Art Deco inspired. And we actually have a treat for you this week that we'll post on our website and our socials because we're just trying to get, we're just trying to figure out this camera stuff now. We can't add a video.

[00:37:19] But Melanie found a video of the interior of the home on the Miami History website, which is so good. So, we have posted that social show notes and of course on our website. If you're intrigued, go check it out. So, back to the story of Al Capone. So, you know, when Alan May purchased this house in Miami, despite the city being appalled and doing their best to prevent them from moving to town,

[00:37:41] in an effort to like gain favor with their neighbors, which is good PR on their parts, they started throwing some huge parties. In fact, they threw a huge birthday pool party for their son with over 50 kids in attendance, all of whom received a box of chocolates as a party favor when they left. That's sweet. And I'm showing a picture right now of the pool. I mean, it's only one part of the pool, but you can kind of get an idea of how big it is.

[00:38:08] And what, you know, I initially thought was the house is known. No, this picture is literally just the cabana at the back of the house. And if you can kind of just see off to the right, you can see the ocean, Biscayne Bay. So, this is, I mean, this is just a small snapshot, but it's gorgeous. Gorgeous.

[00:38:29] Now, not only was the mansion on Palm Island a refuge for Capone, it also served as his alibi on Valentine's Day 1929, when an attempt to eliminate the head of the Northside gang, Bugs Moran, ended with seven men being shot with machine guns. It was believed that Capone was responsible for the hit because the Northside gang had hijacked some expensive whiskey that Capone's gang was smuggling in from Canada.

[00:38:58] Like we said, Mel, like it was coming down. Especially by Chicago, but even in New York, you know, coming in from that, from Niagara Falls area. Historically, ladies, this went on to be known as the Valentine's Day Massacre. And it is on record as still unsolved to this day and one of like the largest unsolved gang mob hits of the time.

[00:39:24] So, Capone, though, went on record as saying I couldn't have been involved. Indeed, he was actually in Dade County, Florida, when the crime happened, being interviewed by the police for another crime. So, it wasn't even like he was just at his house. Like he was at the police station being interviewed. Right. All that to say, though, he might not have been there, but he was absolutely planning it from this house. Yeah.

[00:39:52] And I think, oops, we mentioned earlier, this is our first time trying the camera all the way through. So, it looks like we lost Heather on camera, but we got her on audio. That's right. Here I am. You can't get rid of me. Okay. Let's just keep on going. Right? Yeah, definitely. So, here's the thing. Like we're talking about this Valentine's Day Massacre. The police cannot pin it on Al Capone. Everybody thinks he's responsible.

[00:40:22] He probably planned it from the house in Miami. But that's just sort of the way it seems to go for the authorities chasing Al Capone. He always seemed to have a way of wiggling out of the trouble he found himself in. That is until the IRS got involved. Capone was sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion.

[00:40:43] And after being convicted of tax evasion in 1931, Al was sent to the infamous Alcatraz prison in California for 11 years. It's actually interesting. I'm going off script for a minute, ladies. But I heard that another person there that had a house on Biscayne Bay often had President Hoover out to his house. And they complained because they could hear the music from Al Capone's parties.

[00:41:14] And Capone said to the guy one day when he brought this up, when they like ran into each other and down, he's like, well, you and President Hoover just come on over. And then Hoover was the one that really was like, we are going to get this guy on something. And so while they did not get him on any mob related charges, tax evasion is what they figured out. That's crazy. It kind of makes me sad for him again. Kind of makes me sad for him. See, I mean, I pay a lot in taxes. I don't, I'm not happy for anybody that's like not paying the IRS.

[00:41:43] I mean, I don't want to pay them, but I do. And so if you're getting away with it, I, yeah. There's lots of legal ways to get away with tax evasion that. Yeah. So I mean, there's people doing that shit all the time. I know. You're right. You're right. I think part of this has to do with this was, you know, almost 100 years ago.

[00:42:02] And I do feel like that we give a lot of latitude with some of these old criminals who grew up in a different world than we grew up in that had different, you know, societal pressures, economic pressures. And, you know, I mean, I've told you before, like I can handle older crimes a lot more than I can handle really recent ones. Well, and to be fair, we have glossed over the crimes.

[00:42:31] When you say there's gang violence, we're not actually talking about the stories of the people that were shot or murdered or, you know, it's, it's a, this is a much higher level conversation on this story than we do in many of our stories that are much more personal in terms of the victims. And I do think like gang violence, it's always sort of been like, well, you were in a gang or you were in that world, you know, like you got what you, you know, you sort of knew what was, you know, what you're getting yourself into.

[00:43:01] Versus some of these, like, you know, the Lacey Peterson crime last week, you know, like completely out of the middle of nowhere. You, you know, you could not at all, and not that you should ever victim blame, but like, you know, if you're in a gang mob, you know, there's a good chance you might. You knew what you, you knew what you were getting into at that point. Yeah. All right. So Capone goes to prison and while in prison, his physical and mental health severely deteriorate.

[00:43:30] May sent her husband many letters, she traveled more than 3,000 miles from their Florida home to visit him. And she sort of like just handled his affairs while she was gone. And many people say like, you know, May doesn't get a lot of credit or notice in the history of Al Capone, but she was the one that was cooking dinners for them when they showed up at 2 a.m. after going out and doing whatever illegal activities they were doing.

[00:44:00] Everybody, like historians really think May knew it all. Okay. And how much she was involved, it's really hard to say, but she was very aware of what was going on. Okay. When questioned by the press about her husband in prison, May stated, yes, he is going to get well. He is suffering from dejection and a broken spirit, aggravated by intense nervousness. I think it's kind of cool that he was in Alcatraz. I don't know why. Like, you know, that's what.

[00:44:30] It's the only prison I've ever been in. Like, I toured it. And so you can visually like know where he is. Yeah. How did he get to Alcatraz? New York, Chicago, Miami. Well, I think, I mean, y'all fact correct me or fact check me, but I think it was considered to be like one of the highest security prisons of the time. Oh, well, that makes sense. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So that's probably why he ended up there. That makes sense. But I need to back up and give you a little bit of background that I skipped over on Al Capone.

[00:45:00] And we know from what I told you earlier that like how he got a scar on his face, he sort of had a thing for the ladies. Right. And unfortunately, safe sex was just not something that was really practiced in the 1920s. And as a result, Al Capone contracted syphilis from a prostitute. Can I tell you last night, I told my mom, we're going to do Al Capone tomorrow. And she's like, well, you know how he died, don't you? I'm like, yeah, well, he had syphilis.

[00:45:29] I'm just like, yeah, you're going to talk about that? Yeah. Yeah. Is she horrified that we were going to talk about syphilis? Terrible like murders and decapitations. But in STD, your mom's like, nope, you cannot mention that on the podcast. Draw the line there. Yes. If there's any sexuality. I didn't know this. She's very Catholic. I didn't know this either. Like, I thought this was interesting. I did not know it at all. I'm trying to remember when John and I got married in Oklahoma. With syphilis. No. No. No.

[00:45:54] But we did have to have a note from a doctor that we didn't have some specific STD. Sorry, what? And I can't remember if it was like syphilis or gonorrhea or like something. But there was one STD that we had to have like a doctor's note that we didn't have. What? Or maybe they did a check. Like, there was one STD check when you got married. Okay. That's just. That's insane. Can you fact check me on like Oklahoma STD check marriage law? I'm mad for you. I mean, I was just sitting here looking up Sonny component trying to understand what happened to him.

[00:46:24] And now I'm looking up syphilis. Well, and so there are two things about Sonny. I don't know what ended up happening to him. But historians think that maybe he had syphilis as well contracted from his mother during birth because he had like a hearing issue. And then May and Al Capone only had one child. And they think perhaps that was also part of the only having one child.

[00:46:51] But I don't have a lot of authority on any of that. Yeah. I read some ideas that he may have had syphilis or contracted it from his birth. But to give him in defense, he lived a nice 85 years. Oh, that's good. And he didn't pass away until 2004. Wow. And he apparently was not into crime. So, you know, go Sonny.

[00:47:17] So an article on PBS.com, which is a totally valid source, reads that meanwhile, the syphilis he had contracted years before started to get worse. Bad enough that when he was released from Alcatraz, he immediately entered a hospital for brain treatment. When he finally returned to Florida, the man who is synonymous with prohibition era violence was far from the vigorous gangster we picture. The flashy, vicious Scarface who enjoyed the spotlight was losing his faculties.

[00:47:47] By 1938, he was exhibiting dementia. Now, May never told the press that like his organs were decaying as a result of syphilis or that his brain really had left him with like the mental capacity of a 12-year-old. And after Al Capone was released from prison, May made it her top priority to care for him and to prevent others from knowing the extent of his decline. Now, at this time, the mob had decided to give him $600 a week just for his silence.

[00:48:19] But Al Capone at this point was like prone to blabbering. He started speaking to invisible guests. So, May became like really increasingly protective about her husband and tried to keep him away from the public eye lest he be silenced by the mob. Wow. Yeah. May ensure he received the best medical treatment possible. And on the 25th of January, 1947, Al Capone died from complications of a stroke and pneumonia.

[00:48:47] Reporters lined up at the home on Palm Island after his death and Capone's older brother, Ralph, whose nickname, by the way, was Bottle Capone because he handled the beer bottling operations for the family, was handed, was, excuse me, photographed handing out beer to the reporters. Love that nickname. Bottle Capone. I mean, I see, that's where it's harder to get mad at the mobsters because you're kind of like, that's cute. Yeah, that's funny.

[00:49:17] Now, he probably was a really bad guy or maybe he wasn't. But when you hear things like that, that's amusing. I'm with you. Yeah. And so after her husband died, May was reportedly deeply lonely. She never ascended to the second floor of their home in Miami again and instead slept on the first floor. She also never ate meals in the dining room and she burned all her diaries, not wanting anybody else to read the love letters that she had written to Al Capone.

[00:49:45] She continued to live in the home on Palm Island for another five years and then sold it in 1952 for only $54,000. Now, remember, they bought it for $40 and put $200 into it. That's a pretty good deal. Yeah. Now, after Capone's death, his crime organization stopped supporting May and Sonny, his son, but Ralph continued to support them. However, given the cost of upkeep on the Miami mansion, it was sold in an effort to provide the capital they would need to live comfortably.

[00:50:15] She passed away at a nursing home in Florida on the 6th of April, 1986 at the age of 89. She lived a pretty good long life considering that she may have had syphilis. She might've had syphilis. And also, like as a mobster's wife, she would probably be worried that people would want to like keep her quiet too. So anyway. I wanted to interrupt real quickly because you asked me to fact check you.

[00:50:45] Yes, please. Thank you. And so prior to 2004, Oklahoma used to require a premarital blood test for syphilis. See? Yes. Yes. But eliminated in 2004 for good reason. Because at that time, in over 300,000 blood tests in the prior five years, they had only turned up five cases of syphilis. So when John and I were married in 2002, we were required to have a blood test. So you do...

[00:51:15] Well, I don't know about today, but at least as of 2002, you're clear. But it was interesting because as of 1980... How are you worried about today? I was good in 2002. I think I'm okay now. I mean... Yeah. But just kind of interesting, as of 1980, there were 34 states that demanded a premarital blood test. But basically, every state has repealed it.

[00:51:43] And at least as of this article in 2015, at that time, at least only Montana was requiring a blood test. Oh, Montana. It's frisky out there. You know, all those Yellowstone mobsters. I don't know. I love it. Well, thank you for the fact check, Mel. Okay. So y'all want to know what happened to the house after May sold it? Absolutely. Okay. So the house was fully renovated to its prohibition... Prohibition? Prohibition. Can I say that?

[00:52:11] Prohibition era opulence in 2015 after falling into some disrepair. One article I read said that in Capone's day, the gigantic pool rose and fell with the tide, which blows my mind. I'm like picturing this concrete moving. I don't know how that would work. I mean, that's amazing. I mean, and this is a bay. So I don't want to say it's not on the ocean, but this is not like, you know, there are... It's not the same thing as if you were right on the ocean.

[00:52:39] It's supposed to have some buttressing away from all the waves. So whatever they did today, the water level in the pool is no longer tied to the ocean. Thank God. Thank God. But the swimming area is otherwise dazzling again, it says in this article. As of 2015. As of 2015. There's also a pond with a lighthouse, a bridge and a small cave made of red coral. That's the... What did we call that earlier? The... Grotto? The grotto.

[00:53:09] Thank you, Melanie. You know, just something most people probably don't have in their backyard. A little extra. Yeah, a little extra. Like Alana. What? And when it was listed for sale in 2018. I love you. And side joke. When it was listed for sale in 2018, one description read, the house... Oh, sorry. She's now getting it. Oh, I got this. I didn't. Okay. All right. Sorry. We digress.

[00:53:35] When it was listed for sale in 2018, one description read, the house has a charming 1920s feel. It has very lush tropical gardens and it's super private. But now, from what I read, the house had sunk to almost three feet below sea level. And so as part of the renovation, they had to extract water from under the house. And I actually thought this is a really good example of how like different parts of the country have different challenges when it comes to purchasing real estate.

[00:54:02] You know, we obviously here in Dallas don't deal with homes sinking below sea level. But if I were buying a house elsewhere, you know, I'd want a real estate agent who knew like what the issues were and what type of due diligence I should be doing as part of my purchase process. So like we'd want to know like a foundation. Yes. Foundation here is a big deal. A tornado spot. Like where you would go. Yeah. As a house. Yeah. That's right. And what else?

[00:54:33] I think White Rock in our area of Dallas, like if you're going to do any renovations or pool or anything, you'd probably want to know about that kind of stuff. Yeah. I mean, I know here we dug down like 18 inches and we hit solid rock and then had to bring in like bulldozers and excavators. So just expensive. I think also knowing what is sort of normal maybe for your area, because I mean, like foundation. Foundation issues are really common in our area of East Dallas.

[00:55:00] I mean, it's just I mean, we got this clay soil that moves. And, you know, and so there's like, OK, what is your you're going to be hard pressed. At least you guys can probably tell me if I'm right or wrong. But I remember somebody saying that even in a new build house, you're going to be hard pressed after a couple of years to not see some cracks occasionally. Well, can you look around this office right now and see like the cracks over these doors? Now, we have our original foundation that was like reset and redone as part of the construction,

[00:55:29] but actually just had a structural engineer out this week and he's like, no, no, your foundation's fine. You've got a lot of like water soil movement drainage because you've changed the roof line of your house. And so you need a drain here and a drain here. And then, you know, are you still going to get cracks? Maybe like it's just cosmetic. But if you want to stop the cracks, like that's what you need to do. Yeah. And that's my husband was trying to argue with me that I mean, I'm very old house, so I'm sure there's foundation issues.

[00:55:56] But, you know, because we had a lot of standing water last year underneath our house so that we ended up having to have it all pumped out and then put in what, sun pump? A sun pump. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, we've had a lot of movement over the last year. And part of that is pretty normal. And part of it is the fact that we had to take out. So, you know, we've kind of fixed it going forward, but we have cosmetic issues that we probably need to address. So you went from like having too much moisture to having a normal level of moisture.

[00:56:27] And so now your house is. It is as, you know, moved. And so we need to. But thank God your house didn't sink below sea level. Exactly. But that also goes to show the importance of having someone, especially people in flooding areas, how it's good. You know, having a local realtor who kind of knows what is normal, what is not. But like in my neighborhood, who is OK with understanding some of the historic rules and regulations about what you can or cannot do in a in a historic neighborhood. Yeah.

[00:56:56] Well, and I think, you know, given our conversations from last week or a week ago, whenever we did the Lacey Peterson episode, but we were also talking about Florida and the Pacific Palisades. Like, what are your fire protections? What are your earthquake protections? Like, real estate is very local and you need local knowledge. So, OK, let's go back to Al Capone for a minute and this house.

[00:57:18] So the house last changed ownership in 2021 when it was purchased for $15.5 million by Miami businessman Albert Claramonte and his wife. I'm going to call her Carice. It's K-A-R-I-S. Who already owned the property next. Now, what did they do? I want to know about their taxes. Yeah, I don't know. He's a businessman. We should find out.

[00:57:45] Now, I'm going to quote from a couple of different articles here as I sum up about what happened next. OK. An article in The Guardian said Al Capone's historic waterfront mansion in Florida where the notorious gangster took his last breath in 1947 has itself been whacked. I loved that line. That's. I had to quote it. Oh, they had fun with that line. And preservationists are pointing to the state's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, as the hitman.

[00:58:16] The elegant century-old property on one of Miami's most exclusive islands was quietly raised earlier this month. The takedown followed the enactment of a law from the DeSantis administration last summer stripping municipalities of their power to prevent the demolition of certain properties regardless of historic designation. You're shaking your head. Your mind's like blown right now. I don't want to get political, but that pisses me off. Yeah. Well, I have questions about this later. So just hold that for right now. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:58:44] And I read that the Claremontes, which, you know, they have their money because they own a Doral-based tile contractor company. Doral's like a really fancy neighborhood. And there's the Doral golf course in the Miami area. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And. They sell tile. Is that what they do? Yes. Okay. And so when they first bought that house for that $15.5 million, interestingly enough,

[00:59:08] they had, they placed it into a trust, shocking, for their five children. And they had the power to designate the house historic, ensuring its preservation for generations. But because they did not, you can go on and tell us about what happened next. So the owners of this 1922 Mediterranean style villa and guest house, which by the way, had nine bedrooms and like we said, once boasted the city's largest private swimming pool, moved

[00:59:36] quickly to obtain a demolition permit, ending a years long campaign to save the residents at which Capone is said to have plotted the St. Valentine's Day massacre. Observers say the law poses an unprecedented threat to Miami's historic neighborhoods and skyline with wealthy landowners and developers salivating at the opportunity to wipe away unprotected older buildings of character and architectural significance for soulless modern McMansions. Soulless. Uh-huh.

[01:00:06] The new owner has come along, paid $15 million plus, and decided not to dramatize this thing. Just knock it down and present everyone a fait accompli, said Paul George, the resident historian of the history Miami. That's essentially what happened here. It lost whatever protection it had. The ghost of Al Capone was vivid in greater Miami all this time, and with the demolition, we lose a sense of place, we lose a picture, and an idea of what things were like in a certain

[01:00:33] time, and we lose that idea of who lived there and how they lived. Now you've got a vacant lot, and it's a lot harder to draw a mind picture of what went on there over the previous 100 years than it would be if the building was still standing. The empty waterfront lot can now accommodate, ladies, a new mansion spanning up to 15,000 square feet, according to information provided by listing agent Diana, or excuse me, Dinah

[01:01:02] Golden Tear with Douglas Elliman, who put the lot on the market. This location, she says, is the new estate row on the island. The buyer will be in good company, surrounded by 50 million plus homes. The lot has 100 feet of waterfrontage, according to the agent. Now, Deirdre Marie Capone is the mobster's great niece and the only living family member

[01:01:28] with memories of this majestic mansion, and she said she was very saddened by its demise. She recalled her great uncle living his final years there in seclusion and ill health between his 1939 release from Alcatraz and his death in January of 1947. She said the whole family would come from Chicago and gather around my uncle every Christmas. I know he was probably paying for the whole family's lifestyle, right? And I kind of grew up there.

[01:01:56] I learned to swim there, and I learned to ride a bike there, the 83-year-old said. I have a lot of early memories of playing there and being in the pool with my dad and my uncle. It was an unbelievable piece of property. It was a symbol of what Miami Beach was back in the beginning, and when you were in the house, you'd feel old Florida. I loved that quote. She said, I was happy when I saw the people in Miami Beach rallying and petitioning not to have it torn down, but money comes in and people want more.

[01:02:25] It's sad because it's going on so much around here, getting rid of the past for something bigger and more luxurious. So just to fact check here, the house was raised in August of 2023, but the 0.7-acre lot with the 100 linear feet of water frontage is now currently on the market for $23.9 million. And look, like I said, I wanted to pause on a previous conversation point you had.

[01:02:53] I think this brings up a really interesting question, and one that I think we'll see outplay more and more as older homes start to hit the age where upkeep is cost prohibitive, or like in this case, maybe the value of the land has reached such a significant number that what's on the land maybe is not its highest and best use. You know, I go back and forth on the topic myself. I love a home with character, and I love historic homes and appropriate. Like, I appreciate that there's something special about preserving them,

[01:03:23] but I'm also sort of protective of homeowners' rights. Like, it seems odd to me if you purchase something, you don't have control over what happens to it. So within the course of reason. So I want to know what y'all think, but also because I'm hearing our kids walk upstairs, I need to text my son and tell him they can't start band practice just yet. Okay, so y'all go ahead, and I'm going to do that real quick. I struggle with this one too, because obviously I live in a historic district home where there is a lot of protections about what we can and can't do.

[01:03:53] But I also bought into the neighborhood knowing that, so eyes wide open about that, and it's never actually been a problem for us. I mean, it's never been anything that limited our desires, just knowing that anytime that we had any renovation, we have to kind of go through that process. And I also am really saddened sometimes. You know, there's been some homes right here in this neighborhood

[01:04:19] that were destroyed that really made me sad that they were not protected. But I also know how expensive it is to help some of these homes. And I also know that not every old house is worth saving. Like, you know, like I am realistic about that. Sometimes people get really up in arms and I'm like, okay, that actually wasn't that interesting of a property. But so I don't know, I have mixed emotions.

[01:04:48] But I also, why do people move to an area? They move to an area oftentimes because it has soul. It has a sense of place. It has a sense of uniqueness in history. And when we demolish all of that, then it could be anywhere. And, you know, people move to Miami because of its vibe. And I'm sorry. We're just going to keep going, even though we've got a little bit of background music. I don't know if you guys are going to hear it or not. We've got some bass and guitar going in the background.

[01:05:18] These boys are, they're not answering their text messages. Because they're playing their guitars. They should be. I told Miles, don't drum yet. Don't drum yet. Yeah. That's all right. Well, we're wrapping up. So you guys can just consider this a little bit of mood music. Yeah. What do you think? Sorry. I agree with everything you said. And I do feel like the city, and in this case, it sounds like the governor probably took some heat

[01:05:42] for making this decision to knock down even historical buildings. But I do feel like a lot of the responsibility does lie on the homeowner. And I do feel bad sometimes. Like I see people getting all up in arms, especially in the city of Dallas for old homes being torn down. But sometimes it does make sense if the owner did not retain the upkeep on the home. Yeah. So we had a house here in our neighborhood recently that was, it could have been so cool.

[01:06:12] It wasn't like a mansion. It wasn't anything historically significant, but it was sort of a time capsule from the 1950s. Like an architect had built it. It hadn't been touched. It could have been amazing. But they let the roof like decay and didn't fix roof leaks. And so then what ended up happening is like the walls had water damage and there was mold growing.

[01:06:38] And if you get to a point of disrepair where you've not taken well enough care of something, it is so cost prohibitive to go in and fix those things. Absolutely. You know, so I see both sides of it. I think in this situation, man, how cool would it have been to kept Al Capone's house? And it looked really cool. It was a gorgeous house. It's not just Al Capone.

[01:07:03] And it sounded to me like originally the neighbor's plan was to like join the lots. And then I don't know if something changed. That's what I was wondering. Like, did they let it fall into disrepair? And that's why? No, because it had been redone in 2015. So it had like, it was really nice. And then they decided to buy it and they were going to join the lots. And then I don't know what happened because now that lot is currently on the market.

[01:07:28] So, yeah, that's where I'm less sympathetic to them because it had recently been renovated. Exactly. And that's a great, like I get when you get in. I mean, even in redoing our house, like we kept some things because we wanted to preserve the character, like the fireplace. I was about to say the fireplace. The fireplace. But it like, it was so cost prohibitive. We did it because it was more of a vanity. Like we loved it. And it's not even that pretty of a fireplace. You like that? No. Right.

[01:07:57] It's not that special. It's just like it was unique to the house. So we wanted to keep it. And then it cost us so much more money, like because we added half of a second story. And then you had like the structural supports, but they had to go this way not to interrupt the fireplace. And it just got to be a thing. So I see both sides of the coin. All right, quickly, ladies, the question for every episode. Would you live there? Assuming it was Al Capone's, not the vacant lot.

[01:08:26] And would you list it? Assuming it was Al Capone's and not the vacant lot. Yes. On all of it. All right. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Okay. So we're all in agreement. Cool house. Interesting location. Got a view. Worth a lot of money. And no recent crimes that we know of. No murders that we know of. And children. Yeah. You know, any of my like things that trigger me. No. Yeah. And let's be clear.

[01:08:55] I mean, this is crime estate. As Mel's husband said when we were discussing this, it's not murder estate, right? Any sort of crime that happens in the house is something we think is cool and interesting to cover. And absolutely crimes happened in this house or planned in this house. But it's hard to pinpoint something you can visualize happening in this house. It's not like, you know, somebody was killed in the pantry or in the basement or. So, yeah, I would live there in a heartbeat.

[01:09:24] I mean, like I said, it's one of my favorite houses from an aesthetic standpoint that we've ever covered. So I'm sad to see it go. I would absolutely live there. And I would list it 100%. Yeah. All right. Well, we hope you found today's episode interesting. If you like the show and want to support the podcast, please remember to like, subscribe, tell all your friends, give us a five-star review. We really love that. Yeah. Tell your friends. I love that. Yeah.

[01:09:49] And, of course, you can also support the show by shopping some of our favorite products at crimestate.com slash shop. I'm going to get that updated this week. There's still some really good stuff on there right now. But this week, I'm going to put some like cool Valentine's Day springy stuff. Love it. Yeah. Bye. Bye. See y'all next week. Hey, y'all. Thanks for listening and being a part of our Crime Estate family.

[01:10:13] If you're curious about today's featured Crime Estate, you can find additional photos and details from today's episode online at crimeestate.com or on Facebook and Instagram by following at Crime Estate Podcast. Have a Crime Estate we should cover? Let us know. Shoot us an email at crimeestatepodcast at gmail.com. Until next week.