Driving into downtown Clare I passed by a large gate for the Tobacco Ranch behind it was a large stone house that I took a pic of from the gate. The property is now used as an entertainment venue for weddings and events.
The ranch has a famous, and dark, history tied to organized crime. In the 1930s, the property’s main house was built by Isaiah Leebove, an attorney with connections to the notorious Purple Gang out of Detroit. Leebove fled New York to Clare and built the grand ranch-style home, which features stone pillars and multiple fireplaces, to entertain guests including mobsters and oil barons.
Leebove’s life was cut short on May 14, 1938, when he was gunned down at the Doherty Hotel tap room by his business partner and fellow Purple associate, Carl “Jack” Livingston. The murder stemmed from a dispute over 45 acres of land Leebove refused to sell for oil drilling, compounded by Livingston’s fear that Leebove was planning to have him killed.
Following the murder, the ranch sat empty for years, with people trespassing in search of rumored stashed money. In 1980, Leo and Glenna Beard purchased the dilapidated property and spent three years renovating it to make it habitable. Mrs. Beard later confirmed a local legend that an escape tunnel existed on the property, running from the house toward the Tobacco River bank, though it has since collapsed.
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