Larry Powlis

Introduction

Larry Powlis, a 60-year-old homeless man with a prior sex-offense conviction in Texas, was charged with murder on November 2, 2026, in the 2024 death of Egizio Panetti, a well-known Soho art dealer and decorator whom mourning friends remembered as “the real Auntie Mame” . Powlis had gone unidentified publicly for roughly two years until police picked him up on the afternoon of Sunday, November 1, 2026, on a shoplifting complaint at a Midtown TJ Maxx — and discovered he was a named suspect in the homicide .

Background Information

Panetti was 67, legally blind, and had cancer; friends described him as a fabulous, cape-loving “Venetian count” who was “simply one of a kind,” a homage to Rosalind Russell’s flamboyant title character in the 1958 film “Auntie Mame” . Powlis has a sex-offense conviction in Texas, according to law-enforcement sources cited by both the New York Post and the New York Daily News . At some point after the death he left New York, the Daily News reported, before drifting back to Manhattan .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Charges. Powlis is charged with Panetti’s murder and was awaiting arraignment at Manhattan Criminal Court as of November 2, 2026. The allegations come from NYPD detectives and law-enforcement sources speaking to the Post and Daily News; nothing has been adjudicated, and Powlis is presumed innocent. Neither Powlis nor an attorney for him has made any public statement.

Panetti met Powlis on the street in September 2024 while the art dealer was out to dinner with a friend in Greenwich Village, according to authorities; the two went to a nearby ATM and then to Panetti’s apartment on Spring Street near West Broadway, where police sources say Panetti was fatally choked . Surveillance video recorded the pair entering the apartment, where Powlis spent the night, and later recorded Powlis leaving wearing different clothes than he had on when he met the victim — his camouflage pants left behind, the Daily News reported . A neighbor who routinely checked on Panetti because of his cancer found him dead in late September 2024 during a wellness check after he failed to return a phone call .

The case moved slowly. Detectives suspected murder from the start, but the death was not classified a homicide until December 2025, when the city Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Panetti had been asphyxiated; investigators identified Powlis as a suspect early but said they were waiting on that ruling and crucial DNA evidence before they could act . The Post reported detectives finally had enough to formally name Powlis a suspect on September 3, 2026 .

He was undone, police sources said, by a $25 shoplift: around 1:10 p.m. on November 1, 2026, Powlis allegedly tried to lift art supplies from a TJ Maxx near West 57th Street in Midtown. He gave officers a fake name, “Larry Davis,” but fingerprints run through the system exposed him — and the suspect designation detectives spotted in the NYPD computer ledger led to his arrest on the two-year-old homicide . He was charged with murder the next day, police said .

Public Reaction and Consequences

Reaction so far has been mourning for the victim rather than any organized response to the defendant: friends paid tribute to Panetti as “the real Auntie Mame” and remembered him as “simply one of a kind” . The two-year arc of the case — a beloved dealer found dead, a homicide ruling a year later, and an arrest that finally came through a retail-theft stop — drew wide New York press attention within hours of the charges, with the Post and Daily News both crediting “eagle-eyed” officers for connecting the shoplift to the open homicide . Powlis has made no public statement.

Current Status

Powlis was awaiting arraignment at Manhattan Criminal Court on November 2, 2026, the day the murder charge was lodged; no indictment has been reported, and no trial date exists . The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office had not posted a statement on the case as of that evening. The charge rests on the medical examiner’s asphyxiation ruling, the surveillance timeline and DNA evidence described by law-enforcement sources; nothing has been tested in court, and the outcome of the case remains entirely open .

Impact on Their Career/Life

For Powlis, a two-year drift as an unnamed suspect ended as a murder defendant, with his prior Texas sex-offense conviction now part of the record alongside the new charge . For Panetti’s circle, the charges closed a two-year wait for an answer about a friend they remembered as a one-of-a-kind downtown figure; the arrest’s origin — a $25 rack of art supplies — became the story’s bitter coda across New York’s tabloids .

Sources

• New York Post, “NYC hobo nabbed in fatal choking of art dealer dubbed ’the real Auntie Mame’,” November 2, 2026 source
• New York Daily News, “Homeless sex offender arrested for murder of Italian art dealer in victim’s SoHo home,” November 2, 2026 source
• New York Post (@nypost), post on X, November 2, 2026 source