However, the owner, and man who had it made, was Vito Genovese.
And if he wanted you to call it Vesuvius, you called it Vesuvius.
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It seems the notorious crime boss wanted a quiet getaway and chose Middletown, NJ as the spot. Mr. Genovese was born in Naples, Italy and wanted a reminder of his homeland in his retreat. So he had lava rock from the real Vesuvius imported and made into this 'model'.
Today, this is part of Deep Cut Gardens, in the Monmouth County Park system. In the "History of Deep Run Gardens" park brochure, it notes that, "In 1937, Genovese left the country, ending the project prematurely." What it doesn't say is that he was fleeing a murder rap. He went back to Italy, became pals with Mussolini, switched sides when it became apparent Italy was on the losing one, and eventually moved back to the US.
And lived in Atlantic Highlands, NJ. Across the street from where I lived. As he was sent to prison in 1959 and died there in 1969, he and I were never actually in Atlantic Highlands at the same time, although his family still lived in the house (rumor had it there was always an FBI car parked outside).
That is other than one day, that of his funeral, which was held in St. Agnes Roman Catholic church, of which we were apparently both parishioners (I recall seeing my grammar school classmates on TV, as the funeral was quite newsworthy). Here's an image of his hearse passing his house, my house was on the side of the street the picture was taken from (to the left, outside the frame; we lived on the corner).
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