SALON

Thursday, Jun 9, 2011 8:10 PM UTC

Leona Helmsley’s rich dog’s death kept secret

Why did it take six months for the news of the demise of one of the world's richest pooches to reach the press?

By

Topics: Media Criticism, Family, Television,

Leona Helmsley's rich dog's death kept secretReal estate baroness Leona Helmsley appears for court to fight a former hotel manager's charges that she discriminates against homosexuals in New York on January 21, 2003. [Charles Bell, one of her former employees, is suing her alleging she fired him because of his sexual orientation.] (Credit: © Chip East / Reuters)

“The Queen of Mean” is what the media dubbed real estate tycoon Leona Helmsley, and it’s not like she proved anyone wrong when she died in 2007. Instead of leaving her money to her children or estranged family, she left $12 million in a trust fund to her Maltese dog Trouble, and most of the rest of her estate (around $8 billion now) in a charitable trust to help save doggies. (Though a judge later slashed Trouble’s allowance to a measly $2 million.) According to a New York Times article regarding her will:

The first goal was to help indigent people, the second to provide for the care and welfare of dogs. A year later, they said, she deleted the first goal.

So yeah, not a woman very concerned with the plight of man. Puppies, however, how can anyone hate puppies (except Leona’s family)? The reason why this is an issue today is that Trouble — the winner of that great dog lottery — has died. And not recently, either. According to TMZ, Trouble has been dead since December of 2010. All of Trouble’s remaining funds will go toward … more dog charity.

I can only imagine why this was kept a secret so long; if any of Leona’s family had found out that Trouble had died months ago and the money had yet to be signed over to the charity trust, their lawyers would have been drafting injunctions quicker than you can say, “All dogs go to heaven.”

As it is, whoever was in charge of Trouble did a good deal to keep her death a secret — no small feat, considering how many death threats the infamous pooch received after being named Helmsley’s beneficiary. Could foul play have been involved? I see a “Law & Order” episode just waiting to be written here.

Drew Grant is a staff writer for Salon. Follow her on Twitter at @videodrew. More Drew Grant.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • A missing poster hangs on a tree outside the Cleveland home of Amanda Berry Wednesday. Berry and two other women, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus, made a daring escape this week after being held captive for more than a decade.
    Credit: AP/Tony Dejak

  • Elvis Rafael Rodriguez and Emir Yasser Yeje offer their best impression of  Eric B. & Rakim. On Thursday, New York prosecutors identified the pair as members of an international gang that robbed $45 million in a matter of hours by hacking into a database of prepaid debit cards and draining ATM machines around the world.
    Credit: AP

  • New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie walks to a podium during the groundbreaking ceremony for the Technology Enhanced Accelerated Learning Center at Essex County Newark Tech in Newark, N.J., Tuesday. Christie made less flattering headlines this week after undergoing a secret stomach surgery to curb his weight.
    Credit: AP/Julio Cortez

  • Workers stand outside the Tung Hai Sweater Ltd. factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday after a fire broke out in its 11-story building. Eight people were killed in the blaze.
    Credit: AP/Ismail Ferdous

  • Workers rescue a woman trapped for 17 days in the rubble of a garment factory building in Saver, Bangladesh, Friday. The building's collapse was the worst industrial disaster in the country's history, killing more than 1,000 people.
    Credit: AP

  • Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford gives his victory speech Tuesday in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., after winning back his old congressional seat in the state's first district.
    Credit: AP/Rainier Ehrhardt

  • Jodi Arias reacts in Maricopa Country Superior Court Wednesday after being found guilty of first-degree murder in the gruesome killing of her one-time boyfriend, Travis Alexander. Arias has subsequently said she wants the death penalty, claiming she'd "prefer to die sooner than later."
    Credit: AP/The Arizona Republic/Rob Schumacher

  • Ariel Castro stands for his mug shot Thursday at the Cuyahoga County Corrections Center, where he is being held on $8 million bail. The former bus driver is accused of imprisoning three young women and beating them repeatedly over a period of 10 years.
    Credit: AP/Cuyahoga County

  • Charles Ramsey addresses the media Monday after helping rescue three women held captive in Cleveland for more than a decade. Ramsey's hero portraiture has been complicated by revelations of his own domestic violence record.
    Credit: AP/The Plain Dealer/Scott Shaw

  • Michael B. Donley, Secretary of the Air Force, testifies during a Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday. The military branch was rocked this week after its chief sexual assault prevention officer was charged with sexual battery.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 13 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations