Chicago Mobster’s Former River Forest Mansion Asks $5 Million

The former River Forest estate of late Chicago Outfit boss Anthony “Big Tuna” Accardo has hit the market for $5 million — a hefty ask for the leafy near-west suburb.

The eight-bedroom, 21,000-square-foot Tudor mansion, built in 1929 by radio magnate William Grunow, was once among the area’s most-famous mob-linked addresses. The asking price for the house, at 915 Franklin Avenue, is about $236 per square foot.

Accardo, who rose from Al Capone’s bodyguard to reputed boss of the outfit, bought the property with his wife, Clarice, in 1951 for a reported $125,000, the Chicago Tribune reported. The couple lived there until 1963, when they sold it for roughly $200,000 ($2.1 million adjusted for inflation) as Accardo moved into semi-retirement.

The listing, handled privately through Compass agent Maria Cullerton, describes the home as having the “stately gravitas” of a gubernatorial mansion.

Features include a custom-tiled indoor pool, two-lane bowling alley, English pub, billiard room and rooftop garden. Mexican onyx is used throughout, even in the bathrooms, each with its own sitting area. A gatehouse sits on the 0.68-acre lot as well. The property carried a nearly $48,000 property tax bill in 2023.

According to Elite Street, the mansion’s current owners, Jose and Maria Jimenez — co-founders of the Carnicerias Jimenez grocery chain — bought the property in 2000 for $1.9 million and have made updates since. Cullerton told the outlet the mansion “feels like a museum,” citing its craftsmanship and layers of 20th-century opulence.

If it trades anywhere near its $5 million ask, it would easily set a residential price record for River Forest. The suburb’s priciest recent sale was a six-bedroom home that fetched $2.85 million in June. The next-highest active listing is a 5,600-square-foot home on Lathrop Avenue priced at $3.3 million.

Mob-era nostalgia drives intrigue in Chicago’s near western suburbs. Earlier this year, the Oak Park bungalow once owned by former Outfit boss Sam Giancana — who was murdered in its basement in 1975 — sold for $900,000 after nearly two years on the market.

— Eric Weilbacher