The Mob and The Mansion: A Murder in Kreischerville

Photo: The Staten Island Advance, Illustration: DeForrest Collection
When this news wire came across the desk Friday afternoon, it was assigned it to me for two reasons: First, I have been obsessed with Kreischer mansion for almost a year and frequently ask to be driven by it. We're there so often it's no small wonder we weren't there on that fateful day last April. Second, my own grandfather was murdered in the Bronx by the mafia in the 1930s.

I have been eyeing this mansion ever since we first set foot upon Staten Island. It had a "for sale" sign on it, and we at Prodigal Borough made a bet. Russell thought it would sell for $3 million, and I thought it couldnt be much more than $1 million. After all, it's in a deserted industrial neighborhood near the Fresh Kills Landfill, on the side farthest from Manhattan. I had visions of ditching our house and buying that one, bizarre, industrial neighborhood notwithstanding. Contradiction or not, it is the most beautiful house on all of Staten Island. Rumor has it that the musician George Harrison almost bought it many years ago.

I called the real estate agent listed, Marcus & Millichap, and the pleasant, professional woman I spoke with said the price tag was $4 million. So much for living in Kreischerville! It seems, according to a May 2005 article in Allbusiness.com that Isaac Yomtovian, the property developer who owns the mansion and surrounding land, wants to sell the mansion and the assisted living housing complex he is building behind it for $20 million. The price they quoted me must have indicated that he was also willing to part with the mansion itself for a paltry $4 million. According to The Staten Island Advance, Yomtovian himself bought the whole parcel for $1.4 million in 2000. I was 6 years too late. In my former research on the dwelling, I also found out that the house is allegedly thought to be haunted (which only made me want it more). After all, as my friend and fellow Staten Islander often says, Staten Island is the spookiest borough.

The Victorian-style, turreted Kreischer Mansion at 4500 Arthur Kill Road was built by Balthazar Kreischer, a wealthy brick baron, for one of his sons -- he built another similar mansion on a hill close by for the other. Kreischer the elder lived nearby in an Italianite mansion called Fairview (no longer standing) which was fittingly located at the highest point on the property. A bitter feud broke out between Kreischer and one son, Charles; shortly after, Charles's house mysteriously caught fire, and he, his wife, and their house were lost in the flames. The couple is said to haunt the mansion that still stands. It is odd that the sons' houses were built from easily burned wood when the family business was brick.
Photo: New York Times
If this isnt already enough spookiness, recently the mob stepped in. According to the charges, revealed Thursday in a federal court in Brooklyn, Bonnano mob soldier Gino Galestro supposedly paid an African-American former marine, Joseph Young, 27, $8000 to murder Robert McKelvey. Young allegedly lured Robert McKelvey to Kreischer Mansion where he was the caretaker. Perhaps the ghosts stepped in though, because McKelvey would not die. Young tried without success to strangle and stab him. According to the charges, Young eventually drowned his victim in a nearby pond and then incinerated the body in the mansion's furnace. FBI agents are still awaiting the results of forensic materials taken from the mansion. "The cravenness of the killing was matched by the thoroughness with which the body and other evidence was disposed of," said FBI Assistant Director Mark Mershon.

Young was arrested and held without bail this week. Young and Galestro, if found guilty, may face the death penalty for their crimes. According to the New York Times, McKelvey owed Galestro money. Galestro was a former newspaper delivery driver for both The New York Post and The Daily News, yet both papers neglect to mention this in their articles.

Meanwhile, the developer who owns the house and surrounding acreage, Yomtovian, had no idea that a murder had taken place, and had the furnace replaced since then. "I was very saddened and heartbroken," said Yomtovian, 57, of Cleveland. "This house has an extremely rich history."


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