AP
NEW YORK Aug. 29
Leona Helmsley's dog will continue to live an opulent life, and then be buried alongside her in a mausoleum. But two of Helmsley's grandchildren got nothing from the late luxury hotelier and real estate billionaire's estate.
Helmsley left her beloved white Maltese, named Trouble, a $12 million trust fund, according to her will, which was made public Tuesday in surrogate court.
She also left millions for her brother, Alvin Rosenthal, who was named to care for Trouble in her absence, as well as two of four grandchildren from her late son Jay Panzirer - so long as they visit their father's grave site once each calendar year.
Otherwise, she wrote, neither will get a penny of the $5 million she left for each.
Helmsley left nothing to two of Jay Panzirer's other children - Craig and Meegan Panzirer - for "reasons that are known to them," she wrote.
But no one made out better than Trouble, who once appeared in ads for the Helmsley Hotels, and lived up to its name by biting a housekeeper.
"I direct that when my dog, Trouble, dies, her remains shall be buried next to my remains in the Helmsley mausoleum," Helmsley wrote in her will.
The mausoleum, she ordered, must be "washed or steam-cleaned at least once a year." She left behind $3 million for the upkeep of her final resting place in Westchester County, where she is buried with her husband, Harry Helmsley, and where the pair have a view of the New York skyline.
She also left her chauffeur, Nicholas Celea, $100,000.
Everything else, including cash from sales of the Helmsley's residences and belongings, reported to be worth billions, she ordered sold and the proceeds given to the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.
Her longtime spokesman, Howard Rubenstein, had no comment.
Helmsley died earlier this month at her Connecticut home. ....
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/helmsley-leaves-dog-12-million-in-will/200708290...
Her most brilliant business move was having an affair with elderly real-estate baron Harry Helmsley, whom she conned into leaving his wife of 33 years by buying herself an engagement ring -- then telling him it was from a rival. Running his hotel empire, she became the "Queen of Mean" to the hundreds of employees she berated and fired on the spot, allegedly for things like a misaligned lampshade. Convinced that taxes were for the "little people," she wound up in prison for tax evasion.
http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=1184&i=185