The Steeple Times

Tag: 1994

  • Watching Ghislaine

    Watching Ghislaine

    EXCLUSIVE – Neighbour reveals Ghislaine Maxwell was under surveillance in 1994 over her “mucky madam” activities at her South Kensington mews house by Met Police officers; Why didn’t they stop her?

    As Ghislaine Maxwell’s person-still-unknown “new husband” offers to put up £23 million in bail money and PR peddler Brian Basham spins crazily on her behalf also, we can today reveal that Ghislaine Maxwell was unbelievably under surveillance by British police as early as 1994.

     

    Aside from her residence in Kinnerton Street, Belgravia, Maxwell owned another house in Stanhope Mews East from circa 1989 until 1997. During this period a neighbour – whom wishes to remain anonymous for their personal security – has exclusively revealed to The Steeple Times that their home opposite was used by the police to conduct a surveillance campaign on a woman they believed to be a madam.

     

    The businesswoman concerned told us: “I was visited by officers from the Met Police in 1994 whom asked to use a bedroom in my property and to install a camera at the window to monitor the house diagonally opposite, 69 Stanhope Mews East.”

     

    “I was not told at the time who the person concerned was, but I now realise it was Ghislaine Maxwell who was the owner of that house. I recall seeing very young girls coming and going from that building very often.”

     

    “The officers remained for a week and then I heard no more about what happened next. All I knew was that a brothel was being operated from there and that the police wanted to close it down. They could have caught this evil woman then, but maybe her friendships with powerful people like Prince Andrew helped ensure her criminality was swept under the carpet.”

     

    According to a report, Maxwell “cared for and befriended Minor Victim 3 in London, England, between about 1994 and 1995” and it was at 69 Stanhope Mews East that she shockingly supposedly groomed this unfortunate youngster.

     

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    Watching Ghislaine – Ghislaine Maxwell was watched by Met Police – EXCLUSIVE – Neighbour reveals Ghislaine Maxwell was under surveillance over her “madam” activities in the mid-1990s in London; a South Kensington mews house was used by police to watch her.
    Watching Ghislaine – The cameras were on Ghislaine Maxwell’s house in 1994; they’re now on her constantly whilst she remains in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
    Watching Ghislaine – Ghislaine Maxwell was watched by Met Police – EXCLUSIVE – Neighbour reveals Ghislaine Maxwell was under surveillance over her “madam” activities in the mid-1990s in London; a South Kensington mews house was used by police to watch her.
    Watching Ghislaine – 69 Stanhope Mews East, London, SW7 5QT. Whilst living there, Miss Maxwell was a director of Oxford Football Club Limited from 19th June 1991 to 5th December 1991 and she was subjected to covert police surveillance there in 1994.
    Watching Ghislaine – Ghislaine Maxwell was watched by Met Police – EXCLUSIVE – Neighbour reveals Ghislaine Maxwell was under surveillance over her “madam” activities in the mid-1990s in London; a South Kensington mews house was used by police to watch her.
    Watching Ghislaine – The lights are on, but who is home? Who is living in 44 Kinnerton Street, Belgravia, London, SW1X 8ES – a property still owned by Ghislaine Maxwell – currently? Picture taken on Wednesday 9th December 2020.
  • An Agusta Ape

    An Agusta Ape

    1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino in 2001 – to be auctioned

    On 8th January 2001, “shop assistant turned model turned multi-millionairess many times over turned fugitive” (via a stretch in what American’s so pleasantly term ‘pokey’) Countess Francesca Vacca Agusta “disappeared” from the terrace of her Ligurian seaside home. The series of events that preceded and followed could have featured in an Agatha Christie novel or a Sherlock Holmes story.

     

    Situated dominant above the “requisite stop for billionaires” that is Portofino – a colourfully painted former fishing village now peppered with Salvatore Ferragamo and Louis Vuitton stores – Villa Altachiara became the residence of the “embodiment of La Dolce Vita” Francesca Graffagni after she met the “helicopter entrepreneur” Count Corradino Agusta in the 1960s.

     

    Graffagni saw off the business tycoon’s first wife, Pupetta Maresca, after a torrid affair and following their marriage in 1974, amongst other things, became chatelaine of a 40-room property complete with a helipad. It had been built in 1870 by George Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon – whose death was attributed by amongst others Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to the “curse of King Tut” – as his holiday home and during the 1970s and 1980s guests to “jet-set parties” given at the house by the socialite Countess were ferried back and forth from their dock in Portofino harbour in a custom built 1978 Piaggio Ape coachbuilt ‘limousine.’ This vehicle, described as a “perfect yacht tender” with its opulently patterned interior and passenger-driver intercom, is now for sale.

     

    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    Countess Francesca Agusta (née Francesca Vacca Graffagni, 29th October 1942 – 8th January 2001). It is most surprising that the late Dominick Dunne did not make a television programme about her life and demise.
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    Villa Altachiara (alternatively known as ‘Villa Alta Chiara’ or ‘Villa Carnarvon’) was one of Countess Agusta’s homes from the 1960s until her death in 2001; it was originally built as a holiday home for Lord Carnarvon (26th June 1866 – 5th April 1923) – the financier of Howard Carter’s explorations of Egypt’s Valley of the Kings that led to the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb. The Carnarvon family hosted many guests during their ownership, amongst them Brooke Astor and Evelyn Waugh.

    Count Agusta died in 1989 without divorcing his second wife in spite of separating from her in 1985. At that time, in addition to Villa Altachiara, he had given her four apartments in Milan, an estate in Cuernavaca, Mexico, family jewellery and an undisclosed cash sum. With his demise, she came into yet further fortune.

     

    This by-then “very wealthy woman” hit the headlines again in 1994 when she and her new lover, a “former Portofino playboy politician [named] Maurizio Raggio,” were discovered to have been part of a corruption scandal involving Bettino Craxi, the Prime Minister of Italy from 1983 to 1987. Before police could apprehend them to charge them with amongst other things money laundering, the pair fled to Mexico and lived on her estate until 1997 as fugitives. During this period, the Countess reportedly attempted suicide at least once.

     

    Upon her return to Italy, the Countess plea-bargained and spent just three months in Milan’s Opera prison for her crimes in spite of receiving a two-year jail sentence. After “some further time under house arrest” in the Villa Altachiara, the “retired” gadabout then took up with a Mexican, Tirso ‘Tito’ Chazaro (also known as ‘Tirso Di Ricardo’ and ‘Rafael Tirso Roncado Gonzales’), and lived in the style of Miss Havisham. She was rarely seen in public and having become dependent on drink and drugs, was known for her erratic behaviour and temper.

     

    “Considerably the worse for wear and muttering she would not be coming back” on the night of 8th January 2001, the Countess supposedly told her lover and two others present that she was going for a swim, but either slipped on wet leaves or was pushed off a veranda into the sea. A search followed, but after the only traces found were the Countess’s dressing gown on the seabed close to the Villa Altachiara and her slippers on nearby rocks, press reports suggested she had either committed suicide or, given her past form, staged an “elaborate disappearing act.”

     

    Countess Agusta’s badly decomposed body washed up three weeks later on a beach at Toulon on the French Riviera. Her feet had been gnawed off by fish, her skull was smashed and her face was disfigured. She could only be identified by two rings she was wearing and her exact cause of death could thus not be determined.

     

    As an autopsy found no trace of water in her lungs, she plainly did not die by drowning, but in in 2004 the Countess’s brother, Domenico Vacca Graffagni, was quoted in the Independent as stating: “The [original] inquiry was closed in a hasty fashion because of absence of proof, relying too readily on ‘reasonable doubt’ … It was manslaughter. He [Chazaro] was always beating her. He didn’t mean to kill her. But that evening things didn’t go the way the Carabinieri said, my sister was not drunk and she did not slip on wet leaves on the veranda.”

     

    Adding further to speculation, much earlier, the Countess’s step-son, racing driver and team owner Rocky Agusta (1950 – 2018), told Corriere della Sera in 2001: “Francesca was a beautiful woman, simpatica, very rich… People have written that she inherited 500bn lire, but if it had been only 50 or 25, who commits suicide with 25bn lire set aside? … The people who were around her certainly did not help her…  It’s not up to me to formulate accusations, but Francesca was not alone that night. She was very upset. She should have been put to bed. Instead, they let her go out into a dark, wet, cold night, not even dressed.”

     

    In due course, the last of many wills left by Countess Agusta revealed Tirso Chazaro to be her sole beneficiary, but after this was challenged in court by her former lover, Maurizio Raggio, the pair split the legacy – reported to be worth as much as £165 million ($201 million, €186 million or درهم738 million) according to the Guardian in 2001 – sixty-forty between them.

     

    In 2009, the Villa Altachiara was offered for sale initially for £44 million ($54 million, €50 million or درهم198 million) and then for £30 million ($37 million, €34 million or درهم135 million) in 2014. It supposedly eventually sold for less than half that sum to a Russian billionaire a number of years later in spite of an estate agent remarking: “Some say the spirit of Countess Francesca Vacca Agusta still walks the estate looking for her husband and you can hear her shouting for him on the wind.”

     

    An estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000) for the Countess’s Piaggio Ape. Described as “sweet” and “[anything but] an Italian tuk-tuk” by RideApart, the one-off private taxi will be auctioned as part of the forthcoming RM Sotheby’s ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 online sale. One can only hope it finds a happier home than it encountered at that of its former mistress.

     

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    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaGavF50j98
  • A Borderline Bonfire Bargain

    A Borderline Bonfire Bargain

    Manhattan mansion listed for 77% less than in 2014 as part of a “bankruptcy sale;” it is situated on a street featured in Billy Joel’s ‘Close to the Borderline’ that was once termed: “Bloody, Bloody Beekman Place: Where the Wealthy Wind Up Dead”

    On 10th April 1936, Good Friday, a writer named Nancy Titterton was found dead in her bathtub at the home she shared with her husband at 22 Beekman Place in Manhattan. She had been raped and strangled by an upholsterer’s assistant, John Fiorenza, who had ironically repaired a loveseat for the couple. The case of the ‘Beauty in the Bathtub’ ended with Fiorenza’s conviction and execution at Sing Sing on 22nd January 1937, but for Beekman Place this was not the first nor last murder.

     

    Aside from the killing of Dr Fritz Gebhardt, an industrialist and associate of Hermann Göring, by his lover Vera Stretz in a hotel in the street on 12th November 1935, on 4th January 2015, a Princeton graduate named Tommy Gilbert, Jr. shot his financier father in the head at his apartment at 20 Beekman Place. Prior to committing the murder, after a row about his monthly allowance, the 30-year old had sent his mother out to buy him a can of Coca Cola and a sandwich. As a result of these series of slayings, in January 2015, the Daily Beast ran an article about the street with the headline: “Bloody, Bloody Beekman Place: Where the Wealthy Wind Up Dead.”

     

    A Borderline Bonfire Bargain – 77% off 29 Beekman Place, NYC – Manhattan mansion listed for 77% less than in 2014 in “bankruptcy sale;” £9.22 million ($11.45 million) for 29 Beekman Place, Midtown East, Manhattan, New York, NY 10022, United States of America through Compass in 2020 down from £40.2 million ($49.9 million) in 2014. Built in 1934 for CBS chief executive William S. Paley. Home to Albert and Mary Lasker and Princess Ashraf Pahlavi. Murders of Nancy Titterton, Dr Fritz Gebhardt and Thomas Gilbert, Sr.
    The naked body of 33-year-old Nancy Titterton was discovered in her bathtub at 22 Beekman Place on 10th April 1936; “Pampered Ivy-leaguer” Tommy Gilbert, Jr. was sentenced to 30 years to life in jail in September 2019 for murdering his father, Thomas Gilbert, Sr. in his apartment at 20 Beekman Place in January 2015.
    A Borderline Bonfire Bargain – 77% off 29 Beekman Place, NYC – Manhattan mansion listed for 77% less than in 2014 in “bankruptcy sale;” £9.22 million ($11.45 million) for 29 Beekman Place, Midtown East, Manhattan, New York, NY 10022, United States of America through Compass in 2020 down from £40.2 million ($49.9 million) in 2014. Built in 1934 for CBS chief executive William S. Paley. Home to Albert and Mary Lasker and Princess Ashraf Pahlavi. Murders of Nancy Titterton, Dr Fritz Gebhardt and Thomas Gilbert, Sr.
    Owners of 29 Beekman Place – Mary Lasker, William S. Paley and Princess Ashraf Pahlavi.

    Now, for altogether different reasons, the street – whose more ‘happy’ residents have included variously not just the Second Lady of the United States, Happy Rockefeller, but also Prince Aly Khan and A&P supermarket heir Huntington Hartford – Beekman Place is making headlines once again.

     

    Whilst the asking prices of properties are often reduced, the case of 22 Beekman Place is an extreme one. Built in 1934 for William S. Paley, the man who “turned CBS from a small radio network into the foremost radio and television network in the United States,” and owned subsequently by a philanthropist and then the twin sister of the Shah of Iran, the house was placed for sale for the plainly extremely over-ambitious sum of £40.2 million in February 2014.

     

    In the period since, the nine floor, 12,260 square foot “trophy mansion| has yo-yoed on and off the market and now after being listed as a “BANKRUPTCY SALE!! Excellent Value – Price Reduced to Sell!!” has just reappeared for ‘just’ £9.2 million.

     

    Described by Curbed New York as having “truly lovely architectural details” and an oval-shaped dining room that has been frequented by “heads of states and foreign dignitaries from all over the world,” the red brick and limestone property has 10 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms. Additionally, it includes 1,500 square foot of outdoor space in the form of two private terraces, a chef’s kitchen, a wine cellar, a lift and a banquet hall.

     

    Agents Compass laud 29 Beekman Place as being “designed with grand scale entertaining in mind” and suggest it “appropriate for a private mansion, live/work, a foundation, or an ideal consulate or diplomat residence.” They add: “Do not miss this opportunity to purchase a piece of New York history,” (but unsurprisingly don’t mention any of the infamous murders in the neighbouring buildings).

     

    The Names & Numbers – 29 Beekman Place, Midtown East, Manhattan, New York, NY 10022, United States of America

     

    April 2020 – Relisted for £9.22 million ($11.45 million, €10.58 million or درهم42.05 million) through Compass as a “bankruptcy sale.”

     

    September 2019 – Relisted for £11.7 million ($14.5 million, €13.4 million or درهم53.3 million) through Compass.

     

    October 2017 – Relisted for £22.5 million ($28 million, €25.9 million or درهم102.8 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty.

     

    January 2016 – Relisted for £27.4 million ($34 million, €31.4 million or درهم124.9 million).

     

    May 2015 – Relisted for £30.2 million ($37.5 million, €34.7 million or درهم137.7 million) through Douglas Elliman.

     

    February 2014 – Listed for £40.2 million ($49.9 million, €46.2 million or درهم183.3 million) through Brown Harris Stevens.

     

    Mid 1970s – Sold to Princess Ashraf Pahlavi (1919 – 2016), the twin sister of the Shah of Iran.

     

    1940s – After Mr and Mrs Paley divorced, the house was first rented to and then bought by the philanthropist Mary Woodward Lasker (1900 – 1994). She lived there with her second husband, advertising executive Albert Lasker (1940 – 1952), and remained there after his death until circa 1975.

     

    1934 – Built for the “notorious womaniser” and first CEO of Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), William S. Paley (1901 – 1990) and his first wife Dorothy Hart Hearst (ex-wife of John Randolph Hearst).

     

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    A Borderline Bonfire Bargain – 77% off 29 Beekman Place, NYC – Manhattan mansion listed for 77% less than in 2014 in “bankruptcy sale;” £9.22 million ($11.45 million) for 29 Beekman Place, Midtown East, Manhattan, New York, NY 10022, United States of America through Compass in 2020 down from £40.2 million ($49.9 million) in 2014. Built in 1934 for CBS chief executive William S. Paley. Home to Albert and Mary Lasker and Princess Ashraf Pahlavi. Murders of Nancy Titterton, Dr Fritz Gebhardt and Thomas Gilbert, Sr.
    A Borderline Bonfire Bargain – 77% off 29 Beekman Place, NYC – Manhattan mansion listed for 77% less than in 2014 in “bankruptcy sale;” £9.22 million ($11.45 million) for 29 Beekman Place, Midtown East, Manhattan, New York, NY 10022, United States of America through Compass in 2020 down from £40.2 million ($49.9 million) in 2014. Built in 1934 for CBS chief executive William S. Paley. Home to Albert and Mary Lasker and Princess Ashraf Pahlavi. Murders of Nancy Titterton, Dr Fritz Gebhardt and Thomas Gilbert, Sr.
    A Borderline Bonfire Bargain – 77% off 29 Beekman Place, NYC – Manhattan mansion listed for 77% less than in 2014 in “bankruptcy sale;” £9.22 million ($11.45 million) for 29 Beekman Place, Midtown East, Manhattan, New York, NY 10022, United States of America through Compass in 2020 down from £40.2 million ($49.9 million) in 2014. Built in 1934 for CBS chief executive William S. Paley. Home to Albert and Mary Lasker and Princess Ashraf Pahlavi. Murders of Nancy Titterton, Dr Fritz Gebhardt and Thomas Gilbert, Sr.
    A Borderline Bonfire Bargain – 77% off 29 Beekman Place, NYC – Manhattan mansion listed for 77% less than in 2014 in “bankruptcy sale;” £9.22 million ($11.45 million) for 29 Beekman Place, Midtown East, Manhattan, New York, NY 10022, United States of America through Compass in 2020 down from £40.2 million ($49.9 million) in 2014. Built in 1934 for CBS chief executive William S. Paley. Home to Albert and Mary Lasker and Princess Ashraf Pahlavi. Murders of Nancy Titterton, Dr Fritz Gebhardt and Thomas Gilbert, Sr.
    A Borderline Bonfire Bargain – 77% off 29 Beekman Place, NYC – Manhattan mansion listed for 77% less than in 2014 in “bankruptcy sale;” £9.22 million ($11.45 million) for 29 Beekman Place, Midtown East, Manhattan, New York, NY 10022, United States of America through Compass in 2020 down from £40.2 million ($49.9 million) in 2014. Built in 1934 for CBS chief executive William S. Paley. Home to Albert and Mary Lasker and Princess Ashraf Pahlavi. Murders of Nancy Titterton, Dr Fritz Gebhardt and Thomas Gilbert, Sr.
    A Borderline Bonfire Bargain – 77% off 29 Beekman Place, NYC – Manhattan mansion listed for 77% less than in 2014 in “bankruptcy sale;” £9.22 million ($11.45 million) for 29 Beekman Place, Midtown East, Manhattan, New York, NY 10022, United States of America through Compass in 2020 down from £40.2 million ($49.9 million) in 2014. Built in 1934 for CBS chief executive William S. Paley. Home to Albert and Mary Lasker and Princess Ashraf Pahlavi. Murders of Nancy Titterton, Dr Fritz Gebhardt and Thomas Gilbert, Sr.
    A Borderline Bonfire Bargain – 77% off 29 Beekman Place, NYC – Manhattan mansion listed for 77% less than in 2014 in “bankruptcy sale;” £9.22 million ($11.45 million) for 29 Beekman Place, Midtown East, Manhattan, New York, NY 10022, United States of America through Compass in 2020 down from £40.2 million ($49.9 million) in 2014. Built in 1934 for CBS chief executive William S. Paley. Home to Albert and Mary Lasker and Princess Ashraf Pahlavi. Murders of Nancy Titterton, Dr Fritz Gebhardt and Thomas Gilbert, Sr.
    A Borderline Bonfire Bargain – 77% off 29 Beekman Place, NYC – Manhattan mansion listed for 77% less than in 2014 in “bankruptcy sale;” £9.22 million ($11.45 million) for 29 Beekman Place, Midtown East, Manhattan, New York, NY 10022, United States of America through Compass in 2020 down from £40.2 million ($49.9 million) in 2014. Built in 1934 for CBS chief executive William S. Paley. Home to Albert and Mary Lasker and Princess Ashraf Pahlavi. Murders of Nancy Titterton, Dr Fritz Gebhardt and Thomas Gilbert, Sr.
    A Borderline Bonfire Bargain – 77% off 29 Beekman Place, NYC – Manhattan mansion listed for 77% less than in 2014 in “bankruptcy sale;” £9.22 million ($11.45 million) for 29 Beekman Place, Midtown East, Manhattan, New York, NY 10022, United States of America through Compass in 2020 down from £40.2 million ($49.9 million) in 2014. Built in 1934 for CBS chief executive William S. Paley. Home to Albert and Mary Lasker and Princess Ashraf Pahlavi. Murders of Nancy Titterton, Dr Fritz Gebhardt and Thomas Gilbert, Sr.
    A Borderline Bonfire Bargain – 77% off 29 Beekman Place, NYC – Manhattan mansion listed for 77% less than in 2014 in “bankruptcy sale;” £9.22 million ($11.45 million) for 29 Beekman Place, Midtown East, Manhattan, New York, NY 10022, United States of America through Compass in 2020 down from £40.2 million ($49.9 million) in 2014. Built in 1934 for CBS chief executive William S. Paley. Home to Albert and Mary Lasker and Princess Ashraf Pahlavi. Murders of Nancy Titterton, Dr Fritz Gebhardt and Thomas Gilbert, Sr.
    A Borderline Bonfire Bargain – 77% off 29 Beekman Place, NYC – Manhattan mansion listed for 77% less than in 2014 in “bankruptcy sale;” £9.22 million ($11.45 million) for 29 Beekman Place, Midtown East, Manhattan, New York, NY 10022, United States of America through Compass in 2020 down from £40.2 million ($49.9 million) in 2014. Built in 1934 for CBS chief executive William S. Paley. Home to Albert and Mary Lasker and Princess Ashraf Pahlavi. Murders of Nancy Titterton, Dr Fritz Gebhardt and Thomas Gilbert, Sr.
    A Borderline Bonfire Bargain – 77% off 29 Beekman Place, NYC – Manhattan mansion listed for 77% less than in 2014 in “bankruptcy sale;” £9.22 million ($11.45 million) for 29 Beekman Place, Midtown East, Manhattan, New York, NY 10022, United States of America through Compass in 2020 down from £40.2 million ($49.9 million) in 2014. Built in 1934 for CBS chief executive William S. Paley. Home to Albert and Mary Lasker and Princess Ashraf Pahlavi. Murders of Nancy Titterton, Dr Fritz Gebhardt and Thomas Gilbert, Sr.
    A Borderline Bonfire Bargain – 77% off 29 Beekman Place, NYC – Manhattan mansion listed for 77% less than in 2014 in “bankruptcy sale;” £9.22 million ($11.45 million) for 29 Beekman Place, Midtown East, Manhattan, New York, NY 10022, United States of America through Compass in 2020 down from £40.2 million ($49.9 million) in 2014. Built in 1934 for CBS chief executive William S. Paley. Home to Albert and Mary Lasker and Princess Ashraf Pahlavi. Murders of Nancy Titterton, Dr Fritz Gebhardt and Thomas Gilbert, Sr.
  • The Talented Tinker

    The Talented Tinker

    Actor Dudley Sutton – AKA ‘Lovejoy’s’ Tinker – passes away aged 85 shortly after giving an interview lauding the NHS

     

    The talented actor and regular at the Chelsea Arts Club, Dudley Sutton sadly died yesterday after a short battle with cancer.

     

    Best known for playing Tinker Dill in the brilliant BBC comedy-drama series Lovejoy in 1986 and from 1991 to 1994, Sutton most recently took the lead role in a video for the Tom Chaplin song Midnight Mass and also appeared in everything from the first production of Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloane in 1964 to Emmerdale and Eastenders.

     

    Speaking about Lovejoy and himself in general in 2017, Sutton commented:

     

    “It’s what they’re going to say on my obituary when I die, regardless of all the different and diverse stuff I’ve done throughout my life.”

     

    “It’s good fun because Lovejoy is so popular throughout the world, wherever you go. But people recognise Tinker, they don’t recognise Dudley Sutton.”

     

    The Talented Tinker – Actor Dudley Sutton (1933 – 2018) – Actor Dudley Sutton – AKA ‘Lovejoy’s’ Tinker – passes away aged 85 shortly after giving an interview lauding the NHS.
    Dudley Sutton (6th April 1933 – 15th September 2018)

     

    In July, Sutton gave a video interview from his bed in the Royal Trinity Hospice in Clapham in which he spoke about the NHS. He spoke of how he was a Socialist and lauded doctors and nurses for “caring about people, caring about folk, caring about people who can’t look after themselves” and said: “Don’t let the NHS go. Don’t flog it away with all the rest of the rubbish… That’s all I’m saying.”

     

    In a statement yesterday, Sutton’s family remarked:

     

    “Today we’re devastated by the loss of our beautiful Dudley, who leaves a gaping hole in all our lives.”

     

    “We’re grateful for the love expressed by friends and fans everywhere and for the extraordinary care he received at the Royal Trinity Hospice in Clapham, south London, where he went out fighting for our NHS.”

     

    To those  that encountered “this wonderfully disruptive cherub” at the Chelsea Arts Club and elsewhere, Dudley will be remembered for much more. This “neo-Wildean” actor and gent was charming, witty and fun and he added great colour to the lives of so many. May he rest in peace.

     

    Facebook: @TheSteepleTimes

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    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu6PoFhTrVE

    The Talented Tinker – Actor Dudley Sutton (1933 – 2018) – Actor Dudley Sutton – AKA ‘Lovejoy’s’ Tinker – passes away aged 85 shortly after giving an interview lauding the NHS.

  • Wally of the Week – Noel Edmonds

    Wally of the Week – Noel Edmonds

    Matthew Steeples suggests Noel Edmonds’ latest outburst just confirms himself to be a strange, publicity desperate fool

     

    Spiritualist television personality Noel Edmonds is certainly an off-the-scale oddity. He blamed the banking giant HBOS for getting cancer and then claimed he knew of an electric box that could cure the disease; he tried to “comfort” a cat on Jeremy Vine’s radio show in 2016 and he’ll also forever be associated with his financially disastrous ‘Blobby Land’ theme park in Morecambe, Lancashire.

     

    Determined to keep himself in the public eye, Edmonds recently chose to participate in a BBC Two “endurance rally show” programme named Eight Go Rallying: The Road To Saigon. Likely paid handsomely for driving 2,500 miles through Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam in an MGB GT with his wife, the television presenter have since complained that the experience was “a farce” and that he was even “deceived” into attending a wrap party in a brothel.

     

    In an article for The Sunday Times, Edmonds commented:

     

    “We were trapped in the worst kind of reality TV show, in which the reality is that the producers are deceiving the viewers.”

     

    “After months of silence, I assumed they had come to the only sensible conclusion and had decided to drop the series. But no — out of the blue I received an email announcing the dates for broadcast. To compound the insanity, the BBC is using my name and image to promote the series.”

     

    “No, Auntie, you’re misbehaving and I won’t be implicated.”

     

    Seriously Noel, stop drinking the Kool Aid: We all know you are publicity desperate and we all know you planted this story simply to boost your own pathetic ego.

     

    As the comedy character David Brent once quipped:

     

    “You know, like poor Noel Edmonds. People going, What’s he doing going round hospitals at Christmas giving out presents? He’s doing it for himself, isn’t he? He’s not doing it for himself! He’s doing it for them. He’s not doing it at all any more. He can’t get on telly for love nor money. But when he did it, he did it for them.”

     

    In summary Noel: Please. Please just shut up.

     

    Pictured top: Noel Edmonds hugging his creation ‘Mr Blobby’ at the opening of Crinkley Bottom at Happy Mount Park in Morecambe, Lancashire in 1994.

     

    Instagram: @TheSteepleTimes

    Twitter: @TheSteepleTimes and @M_Steeples

     

  • Opening up Menéndez

    Opening up Menéndez

    Previously publicity shy Menéndez brothers both speak publicly about killing their parents in the wake of the success of NBC’s ‘Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders’

     

    Erik and Lyle Menéndez, the brothers convicted of murdering their allegedly abusive multi-millionaire parents José and Mary ‘Kitty’ Menéndez at their home in Beverly Hills, California in 1989, have generally been pretty quiet in the years since their conviction at their second trial in 1994.

     

    Now, however, in the wake of the immense success of NBC’s eight-part series, Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders, about the case Erik Menéndez has given his first interview since 2005 to A&E. Set to be screened in America on 30th November, The Menendez Murders: Erik Tells All will also include previously unseen photographs and new interviews with family and friends.

     

    In two trailers for the show, Erik, now 46, speaks through the phone from the Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, California and states:

     

    “I’m Erik Menéndez… I’m serving life in prison without the possibility of parole. I’ve heard many different versions of my life told in the media, and those stories are fictional. I think it’s time people hear the truth in my own words without the restrictions of a courtroom.”

     

    “From the moment after, I wanted to go back in time. It was so wrong. I didn’t want my parents dead – I just wanted the abuse to stop. Years and years of pain exploded that night in an unimaginable violence. It is my own personal hell.”

     

    “My only hope in speaking out is that people have a more complete understanding of the events that led up to my actions on the night of 20th August and really a fuller picture of what happened in my life.”

     

    “All I can hope for is that people will come to realise that the truth is not a simple one-line explanation that many people have tried to make it out to be. That really, that my life was unfolding of a complicated life that I lived that had all of these things that came into being and that led up to what is an ongoing and enduring family tragedy.”

     

    “The tragedy didn’t end on that night, as devastating as that night was. It didn’t end there for my family, and it continues on to this day, and that sadness is something that I am trying to make up for them and with my parents for the rest of my life. It will never end.”

     

    Opening up Menéndez – Erik and Lyle Menéndez go public – Previously quiet Menéndez brothers speak publicly about killing their parents in wake of success of NBC’s drama series about them.
    A photograph of José Menéndez with his sons Erik and Lyle on his knee; references have been made to the situation of José Menéndez’s right hand to be evidence of his highly inappropriate relationship with his children

     

    Elsewhere, on the @MenendezBrothers Facebook page this weekend, through an intermediary seemingly in his presence at the Mule Creek State Prison where he is housed in Ione, California, Lyle Menéndez participated in what appeared to be a live Facebook chat.

     

    Aside from sounding quite upbeat and referencing how his second wife (he has married twice since being imprisoned) had visited him earlier in the day, Lyle answered a question about which Spice Girl he liked most with the answer “Posh, of course!” and stated that “no one is good enough to play [me] for it be enjoyable” of “paddle tennis” in the prison. He shared news that he is “currently re-reading Shogun” as it is “a book centered [sic] around great patience and spirit under terrible circumstances” and in response to a question about what music he likes most added: “I like the stories that country music tells so for me it is most uplifting to listen to country music. It puts me in touch with my emotions. But I do like all sorts of music.”

     

    More tellingly, especially given he is likely never to leave prison during his lifetime, Lyle, in referencing a question about the unauthorised @FreetheMenendezBrothers Facebook page stated:

     

    “People have filled me in. We are not affiliated with it in any way. We have told people that writing letters to the governor right now is not helpful to our release and could actually be a detriment. We know that it is frustrating to people but these are serious legal matters that have very specific avenues that require serious legal planning. I know it is frustrating and that we cannot stop people, but what I am saying now are my wishes.”

     

    Plainly this statement shows that Lyle still has hope that he could actually be released and given that the allegations of appalling abuse and sexual assault by their parents seem to be finally attracting worthy examination also, it does indeed seem time that the severity of the duo’s sentences again be looked at.

     

    Follow The Steeple Times on Twitter at @SteepleTimes.

     

     

  • Zach Tinker – What’s on your mantelpiece?

    Zach Tinker – What’s on your mantelpiece?

    A 20-question interview with American actor and star of NBC’s ‘Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders’ Zach Tinker

     

    The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force?

    My gut and my heart.

     

    “Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?

    “Kill ‘em with kindness.”

     

    Kerry Katona was considered unacceptable in 2007. Who or what is unacceptable in 2017?

    To be frank, I had no idea who Kerry Katona is so I looked her up. I also searched “Kerry Katona 2007,” but couldn’t find anything besides some stuff about her being on drugs and held up at knifepoint: I feel like I’m getting off track here.

     

    I would say bigotry is unacceptable in 2017. It’s a distraction. There is so much going on right now that could end really badly and that’s where our focus should be, not on looking for someone else to blame because of their colour or gender or religion.

     

    Tony Blair misses being Prime Minister. What do you miss most in your life?

    Only at certain times, but I miss being a little kid: Ignorance is bliss.

     

    What might you swap all your wealth for?

    More wealth. I’m kidding: Probably the ability to fly.

     

    Donald Trump was once a case of: “If you owe the bank a thousand, they close you down; but if you owe the bank a billion, you own the bank”. What’s your view on the state of the financial system?

    I am probably not the one to ask: I’m 23 and just starting to deal with the state of my own economy. But it seems logical that the world is a better place if more people can participate, when we all feel like we have a stake in the outcome.

     

    What phrase or word do you most loathe?

    “The proof is in the pudding” – I’ve never understood what the hell that means. On a more positive and sort of related note,my favourite word is “goop.”

     

    In the UK, some people consider charity to “begin at home”. What’s your view and what causes do you personally support?

    I think: “Charity begins at need” – That seems more relevant, especially with the horrible string of natural disasters that have occurred around the world recently.

     

    From elementary school through college, charity and volunteering was built in to the education curriculum, so that made it easy and I was very involved in with Camp Harmony. It is a well-run programme to support under privileged children from inner cities, the homeless and troubled families. They host summer camps, winter camps, holiday events, do food drives, back to school drives, support mentorships… I volunteered there for five or six years and it’s one of the most incredible and rewarding experiences I’ve ever had. Sadly, I haven’t been very active in that community for the past few years because of my schedule, but to anyone living in Los Angeles, I couldn’t recommend the programme enough.

     

    The judge in Law Abiding Citizen states: “I can pretty much do whatever I want” before being blown up whilst answering her mobile phone. What’s your view on the appropriate use of such devices?

    If the question is: “What is my view on the appropriate use of cell phones that explode?” I would probably say, never. They are crazy dangerous, plus I heard their network coverage is terrible.

     

    When it comes to regular old mobile phones, I think in general, just don’t be a dick. I know that sounds flip, but most of us know when phone use is not okay: Don’t text and drive; don’t talk on the phone in a movie theatre and don’t FaceTime at a funeral.

     

    If you could fill a carriage on The Orient Express, who would be your fellow passengers?

    Michael Jordan, Lincoln, Marlon Brando, Will Smith, Paul McCartney, Frank Sinatra, Eminem, MLK, Louis CK, Dave Chappelle and my mother’s father. He passed away when my mom was seven and I’d like to meet him and say thank you.

     

    If you were unfortunate enough to end up on death row, what would be your last meal and where would you eat it?

    A bucket of Ben & Jerry’s half-baked half-twisted ice cream, my grandma’s Italian chicken cutlets, a jar of Skippy Peanut Butter, a box of Captain Crunch Berries with 2% milk, a PB&J sandwich on whole wheat, and a slice of Susie Cakes’ red velvet cake for dessert. Oh, and a big bottle of lemon-lime Gatorade to wash it down. I would eat it in prison, presumably, since I’m on death row.

     

    What time is it acceptable to consume the first drink of the day?

    I don’t drink regularly, but that’s mostly about fitness. I’m not judging, but first thing after you wake up is probably not the best idea. Otherwise, sometimes a drink is just what the doctor ordered; I get it.

     

    A Negroni, a martini or a cup of tea?

    Tea, but I’ll need two packs of Stevia in there first.

     

    Whose parties do you enjoy the most and why?

    Small ones: I like when gatherings are intimate, where I can have conversations with people and get to know them.

     

    Who is the most positive person you know?

    Probably my step-dad, Ken Karman.

     

    What’s your most guilty pleasure?

    The TV show My Strange Addiction. That show is insane. All those kinds of shows: Intervention, Cops, etc. They’re trash TV, I know, but God are they entertaining to watch.

     

    If a tattoo were to sum you up, what would it be of?

    Hmmm… A piece of chocolate candy, maybe: Sweet with a slightly hard exterior and a soft and gooey inside.

     

    If you were a car, what marque would you be?

    I’d like to say a Ferrari or Lambo, but I’m probably more like a 2005 Mazda Miata or something.

     

    Cilla Black presented Surprise, Surprise. Tell us the most surprising thing about you.

    I almost bit my own tongue off as a child and had to have it sewn back on while conscious and awake.

     

    What’s currently sitting on your mantelpiece?

    There is no actual mantelpiece in my tiny studio apartment, but I do have out on display an award my grandfather received from the NBC television network, a book about Marlon Brando, the graphic novel, Watchmen and a bottle of acne medication (left that out, unintentionally).

     

    Actor Zach Tinker was born in New York in 1994 into a family of directors, writers and producers. He is the first of his family to work in front of the camera and currently appears in the NBC series ‘Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders’ as Craig Cignarelli, a classmate of Erik Menéndez .

     

    Follow Zach Tinker on Twitter at @ZachTinker and on Instagram at @zach_atticus.

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVcw6H2MA8E

  • Shawn Sullivan (AKA Shawn O’Suilleabhain and ‘The Putney Paedo’)

    Shawn Sullivan (AKA Shawn O’Suilleabhain and ‘The Putney Paedo’)

    Putney based Shawn Sullivan fled America after being accused of abusing two girls aged 11 and 14 in the 1990s. He was subsequently convicted of sexually assaulting two 12 year old girls in Ireland in 1997 but then moved to London on an Irish passport. Sullivan then married a Ministry of Justice policy manager named Sarah Smith and after fighting extradition to the US claiming it would be a “flagrant denial” of his rights, has lived freely in the UK ever since. Of this monster, a neighbour remarked: “It is a pathetic joke and makes a mockery of the British justice system. He should be extradited and made to pay for his crimes. He manipulated and cheated girls out of their innocence… It is a disgrace and I fear for any children he will come across in the future.” Shame on our bankrupt lawmakers for continuing to protect this repugnant paedophile.

     

  • Anything But A Steel

    Anything But A Steel

    Renovated Pacific Heights, San Francisco residence with Danielle Steel as a neighbour for sale for sum 652% higher than it sold for in 1994

     

    A buyer wishing to live just to the north of Danielle Steel’s architecturally striking ‘Spreckels Mansion’ home can now purchase 1994 Jackson Street in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights.

     

    For sale with agent Malin Giddings, the 5,490 square foot, 4-storey detached house offered includes not only 4 reception rooms, 4 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms, but also a bar, wine room, exercise room, elevator and barbecue. It comes with a 2-car garage, two balconies and a garden and is curiously described as having a “re-scripted aesthetic” that “caters to the 21st century family while incorporating the best finishes of yesterday and today”.

     

    Built in 1940 and completely reconfigured by Ken Fulk – an “incredible… sprightly… design guru” with a client list ranging from Napster’s Sean Parker to Bebo’s Michael and Xochi Birch, according to Vanity Fair – £8.40 million ($10.75 million, €9.62 million or درهم39.50 million) is sought for the house.

     

    Indicative of the sharp rise in prices in the neighbourhood since it became popular with the titans of Silicon Valley, 1994 Jackson Street sold for $6.25 million in 2008 (the equivalent of $7.10 million, £5.55 million, €6.35 million or درهم26.09 million today) and $1.43 million in 1994 (the equivalent of $2.36 million, £1.84 million, €2.11 million or درهم8.67 million today). Plainly, now, this is a house that’s anything but a steal.

     

    Anything But A Steel – 1994 Jackson Street, Pacific Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94109, United States of America – For sale for £8.40 million ($10.75 million, €9.62 million or درهم39.50 million) through Malin Giddings of SF Properties and designed by Ken Fulk – Next door to Danielle Steel’s Spreckels Mansion at 2080 Washington Street
    Prior to renovation – 1994 Jackson Street, Pacific Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94109, United States of America as it was presented when sold in 2008

    Anything But A Steel – 1994 Jackson Street, Pacific Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94109, United States of America – For sale for £8.40 million ($10.75 million, €9.62 million or درهم39.50 million) through Malin Giddings of SF Properties and designed by Ken Fulk – Next door to Danielle Steel’s Spreckels Mansion at 2080 Washington Street
    1994 Jackson Street today

    Anything But A Steel – 1994 Jackson Street, Pacific Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94109, United States of America – For sale for £8.40 million ($10.75 million, €9.62 million or درهم39.50 million) through Malin Giddings of SF Properties and designed by Ken Fulk – Next door to Danielle Steel’s Spreckels Mansion at 2080 Washington Street
    The house is set just beneath Danielle Steele’s ‘Spreckels Mansion’ (2080 Washington Street)

    Anything But A Steel – 1994 Jackson Street, Pacific Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94109, United States of America – For sale for £8.40 million ($10.75 million, €9.62 million or درهم39.50 million) through Malin Giddings of SF Properties and designed by Ken Fulk – Next door to Danielle Steel’s Spreckels Mansion at 2080 Washington Street
    Danielle Steel and her palatial home

    Anything But A Steel – 1994 Jackson Street, Pacific Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94109, United States of America – For sale for £8.40 million ($10.75 million, €9.62 million or درهم39.50 million) through Malin Giddings of SF Properties and designed by Ken Fulk – Next door to Danielle Steel’s Spreckels Mansion at 2080 Washington Street
    1994 Jackson Street (viewed from the side)

    Anything But A Steel – 1994 Jackson Street, Pacific Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94109, United States of America – For sale for £8.40 million ($10.75 million, €9.62 million or درهم39.50 million) through Malin Giddings of SF Properties and designed by Ken Fulk – Next door to Danielle Steel’s Spreckels Mansion at 2080 Washington Street
    The house has been made-over by San Francisco “man-about-town” Ken Fulk

    Anything But A Steel – 1994 Jackson Street, Pacific Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94109, United States of America – For sale for £8.40 million ($10.75 million, €9.62 million or درهم39.50 million) through Malin Giddings of SF Properties and designed by Ken Fulk – Next door to Danielle Steel’s Spreckels Mansion at 2080 Washington Street
    He is famed for having designed homes for amongst others Michael and Xochi Birch

    Anything But A Steel – 1994 Jackson Street, Pacific Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94109, United States of America – For sale for £8.40 million ($10.75 million, €9.62 million or درهم39.50 million) through Malin Giddings of SF Properties and designed by Ken Fulk – Next door to Danielle Steel’s Spreckels Mansion at 2080 Washington Street
    The staircase of 1994 Jackson Street

    Anything But A Steel – 1994 Jackson Street, Pacific Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94109, United States of America – For sale for £8.40 million ($10.75 million, €9.62 million or درهم39.50 million) through Malin Giddings of SF Properties and designed by Ken Fulk – Next door to Danielle Steel’s Spreckels Mansion at 2080 Washington Street
    The house’s main reception space

    Anything But A Steel – 1994 Jackson Street, Pacific Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94109, United States of America – For sale for £8.40 million ($10.75 million, €9.62 million or درهم39.50 million) through Malin Giddings of SF Properties and designed by Ken Fulk – Next door to Danielle Steel’s Spreckels Mansion at 2080 Washington Street
    The dining room

    Anything But A Steel – 1994 Jackson Street, Pacific Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94109, United States of America – For sale for £8.40 million ($10.75 million, €9.62 million or درهم39.50 million) through Malin Giddings of SF Properties and designed by Ken Fulk – Next door to Danielle Steel’s Spreckels Mansion at 2080 Washington Street
    The kitchen

    Anything But A Steel – 1994 Jackson Street, Pacific Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94109, United States of America – For sale for £8.40 million ($10.75 million, €9.62 million or درهم39.50 million) through Malin Giddings of SF Properties and designed by Ken Fulk – Next door to Danielle Steel’s Spreckels Mansion at 2080 Washington Street
    A colourfully carpeted entertaining area

    Anything But A Steel – 1994 Jackson Street, Pacific Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94109, United States of America – For sale for £8.40 million ($10.75 million, €9.62 million or درهم39.50 million) through Malin Giddings of SF Properties and designed by Ken Fulk – Next door to Danielle Steel’s Spreckels Mansion at 2080 Washington Street
    A recreation room with a bar

    Anything But A Steel – 1994 Jackson Street, Pacific Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94109, United States of America – For sale for £8.40 million ($10.75 million, €9.62 million or درهم39.50 million) through Malin Giddings of SF Properties and designed by Ken Fulk – Next door to Danielle Steel’s Spreckels Mansion at 2080 Washington Street
    The master suite has a bedroom area, sitting area, dressing room, balcony and bathroom

    Anything But A Steel – 1994 Jackson Street, Pacific Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94109, United States of America – For sale for £8.40 million ($10.75 million, €9.62 million or درهم39.50 million) through Malin Giddings of SF Properties and designed by Ken Fulk – Next door to Danielle Steel’s Spreckels Mansion at 2080 Washington Street
    Another of the four/five bedrooms in the house

    Anything But A Steel – 1994 Jackson Street, Pacific Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94109, United States of America – For sale for £8.40 million ($10.75 million, €9.62 million or درهم39.50 million) through Malin Giddings of SF Properties and designed by Ken Fulk – Next door to Danielle Steel’s Spreckels Mansion at 2080 Washington Street
    The view

    Anything But A Steel – 1994 Jackson Street, Pacific Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94109, United States of America – For sale for £8.40 million ($10.75 million, €9.62 million or درهم39.50 million) through Malin Giddings of SF Properties and designed by Ken Fulk – Next door to Danielle Steel’s Spreckels Mansion at 2080 Washington Street
    A floor plan of the space

  • Staging the Dollars

    Staging the Dollars

    Prominent banker attempts to sell San Francisco mansion for a sum 205% higher than it achieved in 1993; it comes with an outdoor theatre

     

    Built in 1904 of brick on a wood frame and subject to a seismic upgrade in 1994, 3444 Washington Street in Presidio Heights, San Francisco was sold for $15.2 million in 2006 (the equivalent of £11.8 million, $18.4 million, €13.9 million or درهم55.8 million today) and before that for $5.9 million in 1993 (the equivalent of £7.8 million, $10 million, €9.1 million or درهم36.7 million today). It is currently owned by the banker David A. Coulter and his “social entrepreneur” wife Susan Weeks Coulter and has recently been placed for sale for £14 million ($18 million, €16.5 million or درهم66.1 million).

     

    Offered by Linda Mayne of Mayne & Company, the 9,074 square foot “Georgian-style residence” comes with not only 6 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms but also an outdoor amphitheatre complete with terraced seating and an al fresco kitchen with a barbecue. The 4-storey building was last remodeled in 2008 and also includes a media room with wet bar and views of the Golden Gate Bridge, a wine cellar with capacity for 1,600 bottles, a lift, staff quarters and a 2-car garage.

     

    Staging the Dollars – 3444 Washington Street, Presidio Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94118, United States of America – For sale for £14 million ($18 million, €16.5 million or درهم66.1 million) through Linda Mayne of Mayne & Company and owned by banker David A. Coulter and his social entrepreneur wife Susan Weeks Coulter.
    Susan Weeks Coulter and her husband David A. Coulter (left and right)

    Staging the Dollars – 3444 Washington Street, Presidio Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94118, United States of America – For sale for £14 million ($18 million, €16.5 million or درهم66.1 million) through Linda Mayne of Mayne & Company and owned by banker David A. Coulter and his social entrepreneur wife Susan Weeks Coulter.
    3444 Washington Street, Presidio Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94118, United States of America

    Staging the Dollars – 3444 Washington Street, Presidio Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94118, United States of America – For sale for £14 million ($18 million, €16.5 million or درهم66.1 million) through Linda Mayne of Mayne & Company and owned by banker David A. Coulter and his social entrepreneur wife Susan Weeks Coulter.
    The garden features an amphitheatre complete with terraced seating

    Staging the Dollars – 3444 Washington Street, Presidio Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94118, United States of America – For sale for £14 million ($18 million, €16.5 million or درهم66.1 million) through Linda Mayne of Mayne & Company and owned by banker David A. Coulter and his social entrepreneur wife Susan Weeks Coulter.
    The view from the house

     

    Property taxes on the house were a not insubstantial sum of £154,959 in 2015 ($199,685, €182,686 or درهم733,690). Mr and Mrs Coulter attempted to sell 3444 Washington Street in 2008 but subsequently withdrew it from the market after reducing their then asking price from $17.5 million to $12 million (the equivalent of £13.6 million to £10.6 million, $19.9 million to $13.6 million, €16 million to €12.4 million or درهم64.3 million to درهم50 million today). They also own reportedly bought a penthouse at 55 East 72nd Street in New York in 2012.

     

    Pennsylvania born, Carnegie Mellon University educated Mr Coulter, currently a special limited partner at Warburg Pincus, was previously vice chairman of JP Morgan Chase & Co. from 2001 to 2005. He was chairman and CEO of Bank of America Corporation for two years from 1996, but was unceremoniously fired when that organisation was “eaten alive” by Hugh McColl’s NationsBank in October 1998.

     

    Staging the Dollars – 3444 Washington Street, Presidio Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94118, United States of America – For sale for £14 million ($18 million, €16.5 million or درهم66.1 million) through Linda Mayne of Mayne & Company and owned by banker David A. Coulter and his social entrepreneur wife Susan Weeks Coulter.Staging the Dollars – 3444 Washington Street, Presidio Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94118, United States of America – For sale for £14 million ($18 million, €16.5 million or درهم66.1 million) through Linda Mayne of Mayne & Company and owned by banker David A. Coulter and his social entrepreneur wife Susan Weeks Coulter.Staging the Dollars – 3444 Washington Street, Presidio Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94118, United States of America – For sale for £14 million ($18 million, €16.5 million or درهم66.1 million) through Linda Mayne of Mayne & Company and owned by banker David A. Coulter and his social entrepreneur wife Susan Weeks Coulter. Staging the Dollars – 3444 Washington Street, Presidio Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94118, United States of America – For sale for £14 million ($18 million, €16.5 million or درهم66.1 million) through Linda Mayne of Mayne & Company and owned by banker David A. Coulter and his social entrepreneur wife Susan Weeks Coulter.Staging the Dollars – 3444 Washington Street, Presidio Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94118, United States of America – For sale for £14 million ($18 million, €16.5 million or درهم66.1 million) through Linda Mayne of Mayne & Company and owned by banker David A. Coulter and his social entrepreneur wife Susan Weeks Coulter.Staging the Dollars – 3444 Washington Street, Presidio Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94118, United States of America – For sale for £14 million ($18 million, €16.5 million or درهم66.1 million) through Linda Mayne of Mayne & Company and owned by banker David A. Coulter and his social entrepreneur wife Susan Weeks Coulter.Staging the Dollars – 3444 Washington Street, Presidio Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94118, United States of America – For sale for £14 million ($18 million, €16.5 million or درهم66.1 million) through Linda Mayne of Mayne & Company and owned by banker David A. Coulter and his social entrepreneur wife Susan Weeks Coulter.Staging the Dollars – 3444 Washington Street, Presidio Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94118, United States of America – For sale for £14 million ($18 million, €16.5 million or درهم66.1 million) through Linda Mayne of Mayne & Company and owned by banker David A. Coulter and his social entrepreneur wife Susan Weeks Coulter. Staging the Dollars – 3444 Washington Street, Presidio Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94118, United States of America – For sale for £14 million ($18 million, €16.5 million or درهم66.1 million) through Linda Mayne of Mayne & Company and owned by banker David A. Coulter and his social entrepreneur wife Susan Weeks Coulter.Staging the Dollars – 3444 Washington Street, Presidio Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94118, United States of America – For sale for £14 million ($18 million, €16.5 million or درهم66.1 million) through Linda Mayne of Mayne & Company and owned by banker David A. Coulter and his social entrepreneur wife Susan Weeks Coulter.Staging the Dollars – 3444 Washington Street, Presidio Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94118, United States of America – For sale for £14 million ($18 million, €16.5 million or درهم66.1 million) through Linda Mayne of Mayne & Company and owned by banker David A. Coulter and his social entrepreneur wife Susan Weeks Coulter.Staging the Dollars – 3444 Washington Street, Presidio Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94118, United States of America – For sale for £14 million ($18 million, €16.5 million or درهم66.1 million) through Linda Mayne of Mayne & Company and owned by banker David A. Coulter and his social entrepreneur wife Susan Weeks Coulter.Staging the Dollars – 3444 Washington Street, Presidio Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94118, United States of America – For sale for £14 million ($18 million, €16.5 million or درهم66.1 million) through Linda Mayne of Mayne & Company and owned by banker David A. Coulter and his social entrepreneur wife Susan Weeks Coulter.Staging the Dollars – 3444 Washington Street, Presidio Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94118, United States of America – For sale for £14 million ($18 million, €16.5 million or درهم66.1 million) through Linda Mayne of Mayne & Company and owned by banker David A. Coulter and his social entrepreneur wife Susan Weeks Coulter.Staging the Dollars – 3444 Washington Street, Presidio Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94118, United States of America – For sale for £14 million ($18 million, €16.5 million or درهم66.1 million) through Linda Mayne of Mayne & Company and owned by banker David A. Coulter and his social entrepreneur wife Susan Weeks Coulter. Staging the Dollars – 3444 Washington Street, Presidio Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94118, United States of America – For sale for £14 million ($18 million, €16.5 million or درهم66.1 million) through Linda Mayne of Mayne & Company and owned by banker David A. Coulter and his social entrepreneur wife Susan Weeks Coulter.

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