Leona Helmsley came to civic notice after her 1972 marriage to on of New York's most prominent real estate moguls Harry Helmsley who divorced his wife of 33 years for her (he was her third husband). At the time he had a fortune of about $5 billion and a portfolio including such jewels as the Empire State and the Flatiron Buildings. Once she became President of Helmsley Hotels, she embarked on a notorious advertising campaign as the 'Queen of Mean' There were multiple new stories in the press each tackier than the one before. When her only son Jan Panzier died of a heart condition, she sent an eviction notice to his wife (they lived in a Helmsley property) and sued the estate eventually getting $146,000. She got into deeper legal problems when they spent $8 million renovating a large estate in Greenwich adding a dance floor which she called a business expense. Rudolph Giuliani was the prosecutor and she was sentenced to 19 years in jail for tax evasion and mail fraud - and ended up serving about 21 months. She hired Alan Dershowitz as her new lawyer because she was sued by many of the contractors who didn't get paid.
She died of a heart attack at 87 left a bequest to her Maltese dog Trouble of $12,000,000 and nothing to two of her four grandchildren who she felt did not visit their father's grave enough. This was all over the tabloids After a lawsuit, the dog ended up with $2 million which mostly went to the caregiver as pet food was only $1200 a year. And the grandchildren got the rest of the money.
