A flamboyant Soho art dealer affectionately remembered as the real Auntie Mame was allegedly strangled to death in 2024 by a violent vagrant who was finally captured after a petty shoplifting bust, authorities said.
According to the New York Post, 60-year-old convicted sex offender Larry Powlis was arrested Sunday after he allegedly attempted to steal $25 worth of art supplies from a TJ Maxx near West 57th Street in Midtown around 1:10 p.m. He initially tried to mislead officers by identifying himself as Larry Davis, but that ruse collapsed when his fingerprints were run through the system, leading detectives to charge him Monday with the murder of Soho art dealer and decorator Egizio Panetti, police and law-enforcement sources said.
Authorities said Powlis first encountered Panetti a legally blind, 67-year-old cancer patient known for his eccentric style on a Greenwich Village street while Panetti was out to dinner with a friend in September 2024. The pair then went to a nearby ATM and ultimately returned to Panettis upscale Spring Street residence near West Broadway, where Powlis allegedly strangled him inside the home, according to sources.
Surveillance footage later purportedly showed Powlis leaving the victims apartment building wearing a different outfit than the one he had on when he first met Panetti, raising immediate suspicion among investigators. Panettis body was discovered on Sept. 24, 2024, by a concerned neighbor conducting a wellness check after the art dealer failed to return a phone call, police sources said.
Friends mourned Panetti as the real Auntie Mame, a nod to Rosalind Russells iconic, larger-than-life character in the 1958 film Auntie Mame. They also remembered him as a cape-wearing, Venetian count who was simply one of a kind, a fixture of old New York glamour now too often overshadowed by the citys growing disorder.
Investigators had identified Powlis as a likely suspect early in the probe but waited for the city Medical Examiners official cause-of-death ruling and key DNA evidence before moving forward, sources said. They finally obtained enough proof to formally list him as a suspect on Sept. 3, enabling officers on Sunday to act swiftly once his name and status appeared in the NYPD computer system, according to law-enforcement sources.
Sources noted that Powlis has a prior sex offense conviction in Texas, raising renewed questions about why dangerous offenders are so often left to roam city streets. He was being held pending arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on Monday, as New Yorkers once again confront the consequences of lenient policies that leave vulnerable citizens exposed to repeat predators.
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