For sale: Al Capone's $8.5m Miami Beach mansion that's a real gangster's paradise

Mansion is one of the most famous pieces of residential real estate in Miami

An $8.5 million, 10,000 square foot Miami Beach mansion, that was previously the home of the notorious prohibition-era gangster Al Capone, has been put up for sale.

The waterfront home, which is one of the most famous pieces of residential real estate in Miami, is where brutal Chicago mob boss Capone died in 1947.

Capone was one of the most feared gangsters in American history and famously led the eponymous 1920s and 30s crime syndicate the 'Capones'.

According to Reuters, the sprawling mansion, which is within a Palm Island compound, and is sandwiched in Biscayne Bay between downtown Miami's skyscrapers and South Beach's hotel district, was bought by its current owner, accountant Anthony Panebianco, just six months ago for a reported $7.4 million.

The house was built in 1922 by Clarence Busch, of the Anheuser-Busch brewing family, and Capone purchased it in 1928 for $40,000.

The building had a succession of wealthy owners after Capone's death but fell into disrepair during the 1970s and 1980s. It was restored and put back on the market for nearly $10 million in 2011.

The irony of the property being owned by an accountant will not have been missed by those aware of the Capone lore.

The mob boss was convicted on federal charges of tax evasion in 1931 and sentenced to federal prison.

He spent time at the then-new Alcatraz federal prison before being released on parole in 1939.

Capone is famously thought to have been at the mansion when he ordered the 1929 Saint Valentine's Day Massacre in the Lincoln Park neighborhood on Chicago's North Side, in which seven people were killed.

"While the most spectacular gangland slaying in mob history was going down in Chicago, (Capone) was 1,300 miles away at a party at his Palm Island estate, providing him with a perfect alibi," Ron Chepesiuk, a journalist and author of the book 'Gangsters of Miami,' told Reuters.

The mansion swimming pool (REUTERS)