Comments on: Lifestyles of the Rich and Flavorless.

Lifestyles of the Rich and Flavorless.

Lord_Pall — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 10:09:06 -0800

A detailed tour of Mike Tyson's abandoned mansion.

Previously. A very unusual bit of insight into a very unusual person.

By: Afroblanco

Afroblanco — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 10:17:32 -0800

The zebraprint rug was used to disorient victims, while he snuck up behind them and bit their ears off.

By: octothorpe

octothorpe — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 10:24:07 -0800

Site seems borked now, none of the pictures load.

By: munchingzombie

munchingzombie — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 10:24:48 -0800

The images didn't load for me, which makes me sad. What other characters from classic NES games have abandoned mansions I wonder?

By: mrgrimm

mrgrimm — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 10:33:38 -0800

Images didn't load for me either on the main page ... but the gallery did. Thanks for the link. Fascinating trivia. check the plants in the pictures. At first I assumed they were fake, but as my mother pointed out, the leaves are falling off and they appear to be dying. How long could this place have been abandoned? Oh, I dunno. A week? In the end, I decided to stay dedicated to those who continue to come here for new material. This guy cracked me up a lot for some reason.

By: Pronoiac

Pronoiac — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 10:44:03 -0800

Coral Cache seems to have the pictures: main page, gallery.

By: T.D. Strange

T.D. Strange — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 10:44:17 -0800

Sorry, Unable to process request at this time -- error 999.

By: msconduct

msconduct — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 10:54:13 -0800

page loaded for me. and although it's a tad excessive, it has a lot more class than mike tyson does.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 10:55:16 -0800

Lifestyles of the Rich and Rapist! Also: Yahoo 999, because we like making up status codes.

By: Hands of Manos

Hands of Manos — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 10:57:00 -0800

Man he could have just lived modestly, banked all that money and he'd not be homeless right now.

By: yort

yort — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:14:45 -0800

Tyson made $48M in 2000 alone. Assuming $30M after-tax, and 4% interest, the interest ON THE INTEREST of $30M would be $48K/yr.

By: Lord_Pall

Lord_Pall — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:23:02 -0800

Pics look to be back up.

By: carsonb

carsonb — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:31:02 -0800

The World According to Mike Tyson prev.

By: gummi

gummi — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:32:23 -0800

Wow. My mom cleaned that place for him years ago, she was always telling me stories about his 'taste'. And how it freaked her out. The previous owners had a salon located at the front gates, which he supposedly turned into a gym. I never saw the inside myself.

By: Zambrano

Zambrano — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:34:33 -0800

"Notice the fridge doors match the cabinets." Wow! He was wealthy!

By: XQUZYPHYR

XQUZYPHYR — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:38:50 -0800

Man he could have just lived modestly, banked all that money and he'd not be homeless right now. Or he could have, you know, gotten more than three years for raping a woman and still be in jail right now. To each their own sympathy.

By: rlk

rlk — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:41:37 -0800

First off, aside from the zebra carpet in the TV room, this place is not in such ridiculous taste. You'd think a giant ego with many millions of dollars would have gone more nuts than this. I really like the indoor pool. But it doesn't add up... these shots are from Dec 2007, and the place has been abandoned since 1999? There's broken glass, and yet the trees are only just now dying, despite being exposed to Ohio winter? The place is almost completely without vandalism, and even has VCRs and stereos lying untouched? And if the furniture has been moved out, why do the electronics remain? It's even clean. After 8 years of abandonment, this place should be completely trashed. (Also, I choose to believe the phone found its way at the bottom of the pool during a tantrum. I'd like to have seen that.)

By: gummi

gummi — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:45:39 -0800

rlk, I grew up in Southington, there's no one and nothing in that area, it's literally farm country. Could explain the lack of vandalism. Also, the entire place is surrounded by fencing and wooded areas.

By: Addiction

Addiction — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:57:59 -0800

that is total crap about the guy being responsible for selling the house to drug money people. kinda makes me sick

By: basicchannel

basicchannel — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:58:03 -0800

So new money.

By: acro

acro — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:58:49 -0800

Lots more cool abandoned pics (not Tyson related) here.

By: Afroblanco

Afroblanco — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 12:15:49 -0800

The World According to Mike Tyson Wow, that's a trip. It's like he was a markovfilter of himself or something.

By: maxwelton

maxwelton — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 12:42:05 -0800

I'm sorry, but that place is in hideous taste. The outside alone would hopefully be enough to your architectural license revoked. Still, interesting adventure.

By: Who_Am_I

Who_Am_I — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:05:40 -0800

Mike Tyson and I apparently had the exact same tape deck.

By: P.o.B.

P.o.B. — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:05:51 -0800

I'm sorry, but that place is in hideous taste. It took 21 comments before someone finally said this! Or he could have, you know, gotten more than three years for raping a woman and still be in jail right now. Being totally ignorant in these matters, whole long do rapists usually get? I'm only asking because I suspect in reality they usually don't get that much time anyway.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:14:08 -0800

Actually, I read somewhere that reducing the sentencing for rape was in part motivated by feminism, with the idea that when the penalties for rape were so high, people would be unwilling to convict men who they had sympathy for or had doubts about what happened. I mean, who would send a guy to jail for 20 years based on he-said-she-said? So I don't think the sentences are that long. I'm not sure how accurate that is, though, I mean it's just some comment I read on some blog or metafilter or something like that at some point.

By: arnicae

arnicae — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:17:43 -0800

weird pictures. And clearly hideous taste. A hot tub looking out over the tiger cages???

By: lilac girl

lilac girl — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:21:59 -0800

I was disappointed there were no pictures of the tiger cages. Though the sundae bar was pretty sweet.

By: lilac girl

lilac girl — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:23:17 -0800

Pun not intended. I realized it the second after I hit post.

By: omarr

omarr — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:29:31 -0800

I like the pool area (sundae bar!?) and the fireplace. The rest is pure 80s nouveau riche cheese.

By: azaner

azaner — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:41:17 -0800

Looks like Mike Tyson and Navin R. Johnson hired the same mansion decorator.

By: chuckdarwin

chuckdarwin — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:04:32 -0800

http://www.wackyarchives.com/world-news/mike-tysons-abandoned-mansion.html

By: krautland

krautland — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 15:00:03 -0800

tyson isn't homeless, he is living in a rather nice loft in harlem and has tons of racing pidgeons on his roof that he's breeding. it's not as ostentatious as his ohio estate linked above but it would probably put your and my dwellings to shame. as far as his taste is concerned... I chalk most of it up to being from around the balloon-mc hammer-pants period. look to mtv's cribs to find contemporary equivalents en masse (missy elliot, I'm looking at you and your ferrari-shape bed). besides... looked on craigslist recently? there is more ugly furniture out there than you'd think. yes, I am calling this post less out-of-this-world surprising than op probably thought it was but it's still great.

By: 1adam12

1adam12 — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 15:17:36 -0800

Most of it is terrible, but I like the use of (what look like) massive oak beams in the pool room. And the big fireplace is kind of neat.

By: popechunk

popechunk — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 15:27:29 -0800

I hope someday to be the tackiest nouveau riche freak on the planet. I will make Mikey look like the Grey Poupon dude.

By: wilful

wilful — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:12:40 -0800

I was surprised how untasteless the architecture was. yeah the furniture and soft furnishings not so good. But the pool and the external entrane - well I'd live there.

By: gummi

gummi — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:35:30 -0800

The family that originally owned the place went bankrupt during the building process. They moved before the house was completed. The salon out in front of the home (near the front gate) was operational and used for a bit during the building of the main house. Maybe Mama Gummi has some fun stories. All I remember is that when she showed up to clean, she was told to stay out of the bedrooms and to not bother the chef. "Too much gold and zebra print.", I remember her saying.

By: bwg

bwg — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:18:49 -0800

Inside Mike Malkovich.

By: aerotive

aerotive — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:23:46 -0800

Interesting post and site, though given that it was Tyson's I expected a lot more craziness.

By: TheOnlyCoolTim

TheOnlyCoolTim — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:44:41 -0800

I hope someday to be the tackiest nouveau riche freak on the planet. There was a guy around where I grew up with a big estate. Rumor was he won a large lottery jackpot and I guess didn't immediately blow it all as this was all there for years and years. On his estate, he had a huge tyrannosaurus rex statue, a couple monster trucks with an appropriate area for their use, other statues and weird things, and more (maybe a go-kart track?).

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:51:40 -0800

You know why nouveau riche have such bad taste? Because money is still fun for them. Give me bad taste and good times any day of the week. You can keep your houses that look like museums. I want tiger cages.

By: Tenuki

Tenuki — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:57:58 -0800

Don't forget shark tanks!

By: Hat Maui

Hat Maui — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:59:40 -0800

tyson isn't homeless, he is living in a rather nice loft in harlem where did you read that? he's on probation in arizona for three years so it's doubtful he has left the state. in fact, i saw him at the jay-z concert in phoenix back in april. he's also been hanging around in vegas a lot, and i read something that suggests he lives there now but i don't see how that's possible with him being on probation in az.

By: mattoxic

mattoxic — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 18:10:20 -0800

Its the mansion in GTA Vice City.

By: dirigibleman

dirigibleman — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:36:01 -0800

It was a 40 Carat Diamond... Is that big? yes you're reading that correctly... 40 Carat. Oh, OK. Is that big? HUGE! Ah!

By: Dreama

Dreama — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:06:55 -0800

A friend says that it's the maternal instinct in me but... I kinda like the house and want to buy it. Rehab it. Redo the kitchen and baths, tear out the tacky crap, hardwood flooring and the whole nine. Leave the sundae bar because hello, awesome. Turn the adjunct building by the gates, if it's still there, into a guest house. It could be a decent place to live. Of course, it will belong to the feds through the duration of Monea's appeals, which could last for ages, and it will go to rack and ruin and will likely end up beyond repair, especially the pool full of brackish water. Couldn't anybody at least pull the plug on the pool?

By: micayetoca

micayetoca — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:08:50 -0800

I choose to believe the phone found its way at the bottom of the pool during a tantrum. I'd like to have seen that. posted by rlk The phone is at the bottom of the pool because it was easier for him to communicate with people from there. Deep down he wasn't a bad person.

By: jayder

jayder — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:28:41 -0800

You know why nouveau riche have such bad taste? Because money is still fun for them. That's deep.

By: Cyrano

Cyrano — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:34:59 -0800

That's deep. Well, you know, sometimes the obvious has to be stated. Like how people who pretend that if they suddenly became rich they'd give all their money to save homeless puppies and kittens are almost always full of shit.

By: ornate insect

ornate insect — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 21:37:01 -0800

Cyrano--unless you're trying to say that someone needs to say that kittens are full of shit, and that it's obvious that this is so, I think you forgot a comma: to save homeless puppies and kittens, are almost always full of shit.

By: Sticherbeast

Sticherbeast — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 21:49:38 -0800

someone needs to say that kittens are full of shit qft

By: sourwookie

sourwookie — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 21:58:24 -0800

TheOnlyCoolTim: Did you by chance grow up near Reeds Springs, MO?

By: dabitch

dabitch — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:45:04 -0800

That sounds pretty nuts that someone can get arrested for trying to sell their crap off, as the feds lied about being drug sellers. Is that really the case? Then why aren't feds trolling craigslist to buy crap whilst claiming to be druglords, they might even get some of the worst spam-fraudsters off it.

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 01:11:03 -0800

"That sounds pretty nuts that someone can get arrested for trying to sell their crap off, as the feds lied about being drug sellers. Is that really the case?" It's called entrapment, and it's supposed to be illegal, but law enforcement on multiple levels presumably gets away with it all the time. Sometimes evidence will be found unusable in court due to how the police attained it, but that's not always the case. Yet another example of the system NOT working for everybody the way it is supposed to work. As this 'illicitohio' dude says in his prose, there's complications about Monea's case that we're not privy to; mayhaps they had other evidence suggesting he was money laundering but they had to actually catch him in the act. That's speculation, but it'd work something like this: You have a large sum of money you accumulated selling drugs. You want to make a transaction with someone without the source of your funds being an issue, so the person who gets your money doesn't tell anybody where you got it, and you now have other merchandise that's legal and has no ties to your drug money. You find someone like Monea, who will pretend to go deaf when you tell him that you're using drug money. OR.. you just buy shit and not tell the people you're buying it from where you got the money. I would think that would work better. Maybe you have to tell the person you're laundering with cuz the money's going to arrive in small unmarked bills, some of which smell like they've recently been used to snort cocaine. I dunno. I would think if I were selling Tyson's house and a diamond, and the person I'm selling to used the phrase "drug money," I'd suddenly get cold feet, not for any high fallutin' moral reason. I'd back out of the deal cuz the guy buying from me was creeping me the fuck out. If you're gonna use actual drug money, you don't TELL anyone. If you DO, you're either STUPID, or you're a cop of some sort.

By: Extopalopaketle

Extopalopaketle — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 01:20:20 -0800

Jeezus -- the pool room appears to be populated with Poulsen PH6 lights! It's almost worth the trip to fly out there and cut them all down. (That's ok, since the place is abandoned, right? Please?) As an unrelated side note, if any of you have a Poulsen light for sale, I may be interested. Even if it came from an old house. Or abandoned house. Or old mansion. Or -- JUST GO CUT THEM DOWN AND SEND ME ONE.

By: dabitch

dabitch — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 01:50:45 -0800

(That's ok, since the place is abandoned, right? Please?) What if it turns out that owner, currently busy defending himself after being entrapped (?) by the feds, is deemed innocent by the courts. He returns to the place he owned but could not afford armed guards around while he was using money for his defence to find it gutted. That would like, suck.

By: dabitch

dabitch — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 01:51:23 -0800

Also, thanks ZachsMind for explaining entrapment. What a weird thing.

By: billyfleetwood

billyfleetwood — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 02:53:56 -0800

If that's how Mike Tyson was living, I really want to see what Don "I stole 75 cents of every dollar Mike had coming to him" King's house looks like. It's too bad about Mike, he's never going to be remembered for how great he was. Maybe that's deserved, but it's still a shame, because at his peak he was the best to ever step into the ring.

By: electrasteph

electrasteph — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:26:51 -0800

It's almost worth the trip to fly out there and cut them all down. (That's ok, since the place is abandoned, right? Please?) Wow, and I was irritated that the guy was even in someone else's house taking photos. You take the cake, really.

By: TheOnlyCoolTim

TheOnlyCoolTim — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:53:23 -0800

Did you by chance grow up near Reeds Springs, MO? Sorry, nope.

By: electrasteph

electrasteph — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:59:27 -0800

The more I think about the illicit ohio dude sneaking around taking the pictures, the more it bothers me, although I'm having trouble figuring out why, exactly. I've always thought the 'abandoned places' meme was a sort of interesting, if creepy, hobby to undertake, and I while the photographers were rather brazen at trespassing, something about this one seems more wrong. Maybe it's that an old factory or mental asylum doesn't quite have the sense of personal that this place does... or maybe because it doesn't seem all that abandoned; like maybe someone comes and works on it every few months or so. Or it may be it bothers me because if the place were revamped & updated, I could see living there, and it bothers me that someone is presumptuous enough to walk in uninvited, like a burglar.

By: omarr

omarr — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:04:17 -0800

Well, you know, sometimes the obvious has to be stated. Like how people who pretend that if they suddenly became rich they'd give all their money to save homeless puppies and kittens are almost always full of shit. I can be reasonably certain I wouldn't spend it on zebra-striped carpet and a louvered gold ceiling. There would be tigers though. Lots of tigers.

By: EmpressCallipygos

EmpressCallipygos — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:45:13 -0800

I almost want to take it over and re-open it as a battered womens' shelter.

By: dabitch

dabitch — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:07:17 -0800

What an awesome way for it to return back to life. You know the women would probably love some relaxing in that hot tub by the pool. And I bet that garden can be fixed up really nice in the summer.

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:08:39 -0800

BillyFleetwood: "...because at his peak he was the best to ever step into the ring." Okay. I'm no big fan of boxing, but even I know that's not true. ElectraSteph: "Wow, and I was irritated that the guy was even in someone else's house taking photos. You take the cake, really." Really? See this is the debate I'd like to see in more detail: some would see this 'trespassing' as wrong even though no one (officially) lives there anymore, there's no power to the place, and it's just more wasted space in a country where we still have a massive homeless problem. A property like that, if it were used properly, could help a half dozen families live very nicely, and several dozen families could coexist there less nicely but at least they'd have roofs over their heads. You'd have to get a lot of tents... The thing that irritates me is that this propertly is still sitting there unused. THAT takes the cake.. Really. But then I agreed with George Carlin about the golf courses of the world - kick out the rich people and convert them all into cheap housing for the poor. .... Whatever happened to Mike Tyson's tigers? Further inspection of the photographs indicates more circumstantial evidence there was recent activity. Carpeting was stained in multiple places. There were half drunk bottles of soda in multiple locations. Although it's obvious the plantlife was wilting, someone was coming by and watering them semi-regularly. I would imagine using the swimming pool water, although I'd think the chlorine woulda left the plantlife in worse condition. I would imagine less than a week before the photographer's visit, there was a small 'gathering' probably of local young people. I imagine Tyson's old mansion is a place people explore and may even meet at when they have nowhere else to go. The phone in the pool is not something I imagine Tyson doing, but it is something I would imagine done by someone jokingly pretending to be Mike Tyson while entertaining friends. The smashed glass elsewhere might also be the handiwork of someone impersonating what they think Tyson was like. The photographer visited during the winter. I would imagine surveilance of the place the previous fall would have revealed more activity. Would be interesting to see photographs of what it looks like THIS month, and compare them to these.

By: Dark Messiah

Dark Messiah — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:13:27 -0800

Um, didn't the woman who accused Tyson of raping her have a history of making these allegations against men she consensually slept with? I still don't believe her story; a guy that rich could buy hookers by the dozen at that time in his life.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:23:38 -0800

Um, didn't the woman who accused Tyson of raping her... I heard she was wearing a short skirt and too much make-up. No doubt asking for it. He was convicted of rape in a court of law. I imagine if he "could buy hookers" he could buy fair legal representation, too, so I'm inclined to believe he got a fair trial. Rapists should be shunned in the public sphere.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:40:32 -0800

By: electrasteph

electrasteph — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 09:06:46 -0800

"Um, didn't the woman who accused Tyson of raping her have a history of making these allegations against men she consensually slept with?" No, she didn't, actually. She was a level-headed, bright college student and made a very credible witness. Mike make a pretty bad choice of victim in her. Aside from the bad choice of doing it in the first place. Hookers have nothing to do with it. Rapists don't do it for the sex.