Storied boat to suffer ignominious fate

Friday, May 19, 2006 | 7:22 a.m.

After trying to sell it, then give it away - and even after considering scuttling it - a Las Vegas woman has decided to have a large wooden yacht that purportedly once belonged to mobster Al Capone dismantled plank by plank so it can be carted to the dump.

Turns out, that is Saundra Reed's cheapest option.

When efforts to sell the 81-year-old, 76-foot "Duchess III" fizzled, she offered it free to charities. But they wanted her to have it hoisted from its slip in Southern California and shipped to Las Vegas, which would have cost about $30,000, she said.

Reed, unaware that it would cost as much as $500,000 to make the Duchess seaworthy when she bought it in October, said she has found a salvage company that will whack it and dump it in a landfill for $10,000 - an ending ol' Scarface would appreciate.

"My only regret is that the ghosts will no longer have a home there," Reed, 59, said.

The two ghosts said to have long haunted the vessel are a Capone henchman who was assigned to guard the famed gangster's loot and a woman who disappeared during a trip on the boat after telling her lover she was going to tell the man's wife about their affair.

Reed faces a May 31 deadline to remove the disabled and decaying craft from Ventura Village Harbor or the harbor master will declare it abandoned and have it towed or destroyed at her expense. She said that cost would probably be far more than $10,000.

Because the 30-ton boat long ago had its engines removed, it is uninsurable, which is why Reed has been unable to find a harbor master to accept it.

Reed told the Sun last month that she was selling the boat for $15,000 - what she said she paid last October. She got several inquiries, but no one came up with the money.

Built in 1925 by renowned nautical architect Ed Monk, the vessel reportedly was sold to Capone by fellow mobster Dutch Schultz in the late 1920s. Legend has it that the boat was named for one of Capone's mistresses. It was docked at Capone's ocean-side Florida home, according to news accounts and folklore.

At one point, Reed considered putting a hole in the bottom of the boat so that it would sleep with the fishes.

"I was told by authorities if I did that, I'd probably go to jail," said Reed, noting the strict environmental laws regarding sinking boats and ships .

She sent correspondence to Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, offering the boat as a gift exhibit for the proposed mob museum at the old downtown post office. She got no response.

"At this point, I'm just trying to mitigate my damage," Reed said. "Still, owning this piece of history has been an adventure. I got to sleep where Capone slept. Not many people can say that."