Strange Wills and Trusts
Rich people are just like you and me, except they use $100 bills as coffee filters and have a tendency to be much, much weirder. Case in point, check out these strange wills and trusts from the upper crust of society. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll wonder why you didn’t marry money.
Leona Helmsley
Granted, not too many creatures with two legs liked Leona that much when she was alive, but is that really a good reason for the Queen of Mean to to will $12 million to her dog? Full disclosure: Helmsley gave a large portion of the fortune she inherited from her husband to charity and her children, but still…how many chew toys and pig ears can you go through in your life?
William Randolph Hearst
The newspaper magnate’s will was as a long as a phone book and just as exciting to read, except for one strange provision tucked in at the end. As a final challenge to those who claimed he fathered children out of wedlock during his life, Hearst proclaimed that the estate’s executors would pay one dollar to anyone who could prove that they were his love-child. Nobody ever stepped up to try and claim the money. Perhaps if he had sweetened the pot a little.
Eleanor E. Ritchey
Again with the dogs! Ritchey was heir to the Quaker State Motor Oil fortune, and when she died in 1968, she willed her five million dollar fortune to her 150 dogs. Not willing to stand by and let rover steal their inheritance, Ritchey’s children contested the will and lost – plus, by then the estate was worth 9 million dollars. The estate continued to care for the dogs until the last one died in the 1980’s, at which time the money was donated to the Auburn University research department for animal diseases.
Janis Joplin
When the rock singer died of an accidental drug and alcohol overdose in 1970, she left her considerable estate to her parents- except for $2,500 of the money which was earmarked for an all-night party to be thrown in her honor. Lesson learned.
Harry Houdini
Well, nobody will ever accuse the great illusionist of not being a romantic. When Houdini died, he left his wife with a 10-word secret code and told her that he would use it to contact her from the afterlife. His plan, he explained, was to use the code as verification that it was really him speaking (and not some OTHER magician from beyond the grave trying to make a move on his wife). And for the answer to your next great trivia question, those words were:
“Rosabelle…answer…tell…pray…answer…look…tell…answer…answer…tell…”
Henry Durrell
When this Bermuda-based multi-millionaire died, he had three favorite nephews – each of whom was hoping to inherit their uncle’s sprawling luxury estate. Durrell’s will directed the executor to hold a game of dice after the reading of the will. The winner of the game would be left the estate. Richard Durrell won the game, while the other two nephews presumably never gambled again.
