The owner of the massive Long Island castle featured in Citizen Kane was shot in the head in the estate's parking lot yesterday.
According to CBS New York, Gary Melius was in the driveway of Oheka Castle when an unidentified suspect approached and shot him. The 69-year-old was rushed to the hospital, and officials say he's "very" luck to be alive.
Authorities believe that the longtime Long Island resident may have been the target of a robbery. There were no witnesses to the shooting, but CBS New York adds that surveillance footage showed a masked gunman fleeing the scene afterwards. As of late yesterday, Melis was in stable condition.
Built during the 1920s, Oheka Castle—known as the second-largest private estate in America—has been used for charity events and weddings, as Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin were married there in 2010. After purchasing it for $1.5 million in 1984, Melius has used it for extravagant Super Bowl parties and card games, and it was a key setting in Orson Welles' 1941 classic, Citizen Kane.
[via CBS New York]
