Where Did Al Capone Live And How Big Was His House?

Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1899, Al Capone moved to Chicago in 1919, where he made his mark as a bigtime bootlegger, per History. But between 1931 and 1934, he found himself going from house to house and state to state, each new one worse than the last. In 1931 he tried to settle in a courthouse after being charged with income tax evasion. As detailed by University of Missouri-Kansas City law school professor Douglas Linder, in 1929 the brutal booze dealer who orchestrated the murders of gangsters and an assistant state's attorney was worth as much as $30 million. Yet he hadn't paid a cent to the IRS. An expected bargain was overruled by Federal Judge James Wilkerson, who told Capone, "It is time for somebody to impress upon the defendant that it is utterly impossible to bargain with a Federal Court."

Capone would try to lie, bribe, and intimidate his way to freedom, but instead of returning to his own house, he went to the big house in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1931. Smithsonian writes that in his penitentiary he wielded a lot of power, receiving plenty of special favors and visitors. In 1934, officials relocated Capone to California's infamous big house, Alcatraz, where his insides were almost visited by a knife when an inmate tried to stab him. His bar-based abodes were certainly a lot less impressive than the residences he had become accustomed to on the outside.

Al Capone had more money than he had sense, which is really saying something since he was a criminal mastermind. He was able to use that dough to buy a palatial place in Miami, a massive mansion in New Jersey, and a comparatively modest brick two-flat in Chicago's Lincoln Park Manor neighborhood. Per the Inquirer, this humble Illinois home measured 2,820 square feet and had an apartment on each floor. Curbed Chicago writes that according to urban legend, the brick two-flat had a secret tunnel to his detached garage, but if it did exist, it no longer does.

Patch describes Capone's New Jersey Mansion, known as the "Valley House," as a "remarkable 36 + acre estate." Measuring 6,500-square-foot, the house itself served as a hideaway and housed four bedrooms, 5 full bathrooms, and two half baths. It had a heated pool, a cabana bar, and a European courtyards, which he probably enjoyed far more than prison bars and courthouses. Via CBS, Capone's Miami mansion sat on a 30,000-square-foot lot and had one of the biggest swimming pools in the city, a 60-foot by 30-foot behemoth. It also boasted a boathouse for important guests. Capone spent the final years of his life in Miami, according to History, and according to anyone with eyes, he went out in style.