THE GILDED AGE

Chandelier alert: At home with a real-life Soprano

03.30.10 | 03:52 pm

For a reputed mobster trying to keep a low profile, this house sure looks fresh out of The Real Housewives of New Jersey.

The listing, found by Swamplot, for the over-the-top mansion puts it on the market for a cool $3.45 million. What the realtor doesn't spell out is that the house is the former home of Vincent Cabello, the new name of Vincent Palermo, the former acting boss of the DeCavalcante crime family of New Jersey, widely thought to be the inspiration for The Sopranos. Palermo turned informant for the FBI and ended up in Houston.

Palermo, who was also known as Vinny Ocean, had his identity exposed when the New York Daily News and Local 2 News revealed it following allegations of prostitution and drugs at Palermo's strip clubs, The Penthouse Club and All Stars Cabaret. (It looks like you can't teach an old dog new tricks — Palermo's former strip club in Queens, Wiggle, was shut down by  former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani for similar charges.)

But now everyone can see what some illicit clubs and turning on the mob can buy you: A gated 6-bedroom, 5.5-bathroom, 6,600-square-foot mansion just off Memorial Drive in the Bayou Woods neighborhood. And not just any mansion, but one dripping in granite and onyx, with a chandelier in every room, a screening room complete with Scarface posters and a fountain fit for Rome's Piazza Navona.

Hey, take it from Scarlett Johansson, you gotta get a chandelier!

 

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Courtesy of Houston Association of Realtors
 
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