Albany, N.Y. — The three-story brick townhouse at 67 Dove St. blends right in with its surroundings in Albany’s historic Center Square neighborhood.
But look a little closer, and you’ll see the small plaque describing the home’s notable and notorious place in Albany history: It is where Prohibition-era gangster Jack “Legs” Diamond was shot to death on Dec. 19, 1931.
Now the unassuming residence with a colorful history is on the market for $450,000.
The current owner is William Kennedy, the 95-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose work is steeped in Albany lore. His 1975 novel “Legs” chronicles the gangster’s rise and fall.
Kennedy purchased the house in 1984. It has never been his primary residence. Realtor Amanda Briody of Coldwell Banker Prime Properties referred to it as a “pied-a-terre,” where Kennedy, who founded the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany, occasionally stayed, wrote and hosted get-togethers for visiting luminaries.
“Meryl Streep partied there,” Briody said. “Jack Nicholson has been there. It’s one of those ‘if these walls could talk’ type things.”
Streep and Nicholson starred in the 1987 film adaptation of “Ironweed,” Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. Kennedy scripted the movie, and significant portions were filmed throughout the city.
Built in the mid-1850s, 67 Dove St. “gives off speakeasy vibes,” Briody said. The house itself isn’t particularly unique, but the interesting history will interest a wide range of buyers, she said.
“It’s got a cool, funky vibe to it,” she said. “It has good energy.”
The two-bedroom, two-bathroom home has a garage — a rarity in downtown Albany — a courtyard, wide plank hardwood flooring and cast-iron radiators.
The facts surrounding Diamond’s death are well-known.
A bootlegger who survived a number of assassination attempts, Diamond, 34, was acquitted of kidnapping charges on Dec. 17, 1931.
After dining out with his family that evening, he visited his mistress, Marion “Kiki” Roberts, around 1 a.m., and the two went to the Rain-Bo Room of the Kenmore Hotel in Albany. At 4:30 a.m., he returned home to the rooming house where he stayed during his trial — 67 Dove St. — and passed out in bed.
Two gunmen entered Diamond’s upstairs bedroom an hour later. One held him down while the other shot him three times in the head.
The murder was never solved, though the identity of the killers has been the subject of much speculation over the years. Kennedy, for his part, has said he believes it was the Albany Police.
According to a New York Times report at the time, “This was the fifth time that Diamond’s enemies had tried to blow him out of the pictures and they made certain that this attempt should be successful.”
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