When someone pictures a mafia boss, they stereotype them quite often assuming they all have 10 million dollar mansions on Long Island or a place like Star Island in Miami. Picture the house that was in Scarface that belonged to Frank Lopez where Tony meets Elvira for the first time when she comes down the elevator. That house is a real house located on Star Island.

Well back to the subject at hand. What Mob Bosses lived in very modest homes? A house that you would never think twice that a guy leading organized crime would be your neighbor.

A lot of them did. The one that comes to my mind... For all of his flash, Gotti had a normal looking house. I just found the house he had in PA. That was a nice house. But it seems like a lot of bosses had modest homes and nice vacation homes. I think Meyer Lanaky wins with his Hallandale home. Even though it's at least a million dollar home. Santo's home in Tampa was modest as well.

Castellano seems like he had the nicest home in the Gambino crime family.

Dellacroce had a standard looking home in Staten Island which wouldn't turn any heads.
Gambino had a modest but nice detached brick home in Brooklyn
Gigante had an apartment in Greenwich and a condo on Park Ave.
Galante had a modest 3 family home in Brooklyn and condo on 38th street.

Do the mob bosses choose to live in these modest homes for the sole reason of not bringing too much attention to themselves from the government?

Or do they honestly just don't make as much $$$ as people believe?

I'm very familiar with Star Island and much of the high-end neighborhoods of Miami Beach, but the Frank Lopez house is in Key Biscayne, south of Star island and the rest of Miami Beach. This is the tax bracket I was referring to in an earlier post

Not everyone wants to live in a mansion. These a lot of these guys you're talking about came from humble beginnings working on farms or whatever in Sicily and coming to the USA with very little. Times have changed where every house is getting bigger and bigger that's why we see more guys with them now.

For any boss of a major family, it's the former. I can't imagine any boss of the 5 Mafia families of New York in it's heydey bringing in less than a few million a year.

Joe Profaci and Joe Bonanno certainly didn't live in modest houses, and Joe Magliocco too. I heard they had hundreds of acres as well. But I agree with Mafia101. Back then, people in general weren't nearly as materialistic as they are now.

It is either, the ones who can't account for their money will not go buy an expensive place. Then there are many who just do not have the large amounts of money attributed to them. I think barley any made the amounts attributed to them, but most bosses did do well.

Lots of mob bosses had nice houses, especially by the standards of their time. You have to understand that what was considered nice in their day is considered mediocre by today's standards, especially when the TV is constantly shoving celebrity-owned 30-room mansions down our throats all the time. People are far more materialistic these days too, it's a rat race. Everyone wants bigger and better.

The house Anthony Casso had built probably qualifies as one of the nicest and most extravagant homes ever built for a Mob Boss. Unfortunately, he was never able to use it. Back in 1990 it cost 1 million to build it and today with inflation it would probably cost six or 7 million.

They have to prove on paper they have enough legitimate income to afford whatever house they live in. Not going to be very smart if you have "beer salesman" on your W-2 making $40K a year and living in a 1.4 million house. Even with today's out of control prices. I'm more curious as to what happens to all the $$$$ and assets/properties when these guys pass away. Someone like Tony Accardo must have been worth an absolute fortune on paper. He was living in mansions with a bowling alley and indoor pool...look at that photo of the "dining room" they had in the basement of one of those houses where there's like 40 or 50 people sitting at that gigantic round table eating a meal.

I think maybe the question is who lived in gaudy houses? A nice house is subjective. Didn’t gotta live in a very modest place as a boss?

Mannino lives in a condo a penthouse condo really nice
In Bensonhurst.

Angie Bruno lived in a very modest corner row home @ 947 snyder ave. in south phila.