Dominic Menaldi, who entertained thousands each Halloween at his landmark Huntington Beach “castle house,” is being remembered by close friends and family as a giving man who was generous to let the community into his home.
Menaldi died Aug. 11 at home in bed. He was 59. No cause of death has been determined.
Friends say his death is a “large loss to the community.”
Menaldi had worked in security, did bodybuilding and was known to wrestle the occasional bear. He was also known in the community for hosting the yearly Halloween haunt at his home on Bermuda Drive in Huntington Beach. It was considered by many a “must see” and was free to the public.
Chris Young, a friend and neighbor who helped Menaldi put on the Halloween event, called Menaldi, “generous beyond belief.”
“He just loved to do things,” Young said. “Who in their right mind goes through almost a month’s worth of setup and opens their house to strangers? We are talking about three-to-four thousand strangers in a one-night haunted house.”
The rest of the year, his house was as much a draw for its medieval castle theme as his parties.
Young said he met Menaldi shortly after he acquired the home. When Menaldi bought it, it was an average track house that over 11 years he transformed with stone and decorations into his castle.
“He wanted this house to be for everyone to love, to share,” his younger sister, Marguarite Menaldi, said. “He was really a giving, generous, loving, teddy bear.”
Menaldi was born in Youngstown, Ohio to a family of eight brothers and sisters. Menaldi played football and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School. He moved to Huntington Beach in the early 1990s. He ran MPP Security & Bodyguards, which does work in Southern California and Nevada.
His sister, Marguarite, called Menaldi the “world’s-greatest bodyguard.” His past clients included celebrities and even Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, she said.
Though in the security business,…
Read the full article here
