Nonstopdrivel
14 years ago

Finances and welfare of 104-year-old Montana copper heiress at center of NY criminal probe 

By VERENA DOBNIK , Associated Press
Last update: August 25, 2010 - 11:38 PM

NEW YORK - A 104-year-old heiress to a Montana copper mining fortune now living in a New York hospital room is at the center of a criminal investigation into her fortune and welfare, two people familiar with the probe told The Associated Press.

The Manhattan district attorney's office is looking into how Huguette Clark is being cared for and how her finances are being handled, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the probe.

Clark has been living in hospitals since leaving her luxury co-op overlooking Central Park more than 20 years ago, according to building staff who saw her depart in an ambulance.

Attorney Wallace Bock and accountant Irving Kamsler have been in charge of her financial affairs for years, and they're among the few people who have contact with her.

"She's very much alive," Bock told the AP recently.

Neither Bock nor Kamsler returned calls about the investigation, which was first reported by MSNBC.com.

The Manhattan district attorney's office declined to say Wednesday whether a probe was under way. The office successfully prosecuted the case surrounding Brooke Astor, the late philanthropist and heiress whose 85-year-old son was convicted of scheming with her attorney to bilk millions of dollars from her.

Clark is worth about half a billion dollars four times as much as Astor.

There is no public record of a Clark will, and distant relatives have not seen her in years.

Neither Bock nor Kamsler has been charged in the Clark probe, but the questions remain: How are she and her fortune being cared for?

When she left home on the stretcher, Clark was frail but not physically ill, according to building staff.

Since then, nobody has lived in her meticulously maintained 42 rooms at 907 Fifth Ave., or her Connecticut castle, surrounded by 52 acres of land and now on the market for $24 million.

The properties are financed by her inheritance as the daughter of a 19th century Montana copper mining king who built railroads across America, founding Las Vegas along the way.

Clark also owns a mansion in Santa Barbara, Calif., on a 23-acre bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

All that's left of her privileged existence are the lifeless properties and her name in the New York Social Register.

After leaving the Fifth Avenue apartment, Clark took up residence in Doctors' Hospital on the Upper East Side to be "more comfortable," according to MSNBC.com reports documenting her life.

But the hospital building was razed in 2004, and she's now in an ordinary hospital room elsewhere in the city.

Clark's story begins in 1906 Paris, where she was born to then 67-year-old U.S. Sen. William A. Clark, of Montana, and a 28-year-old Michigan woman named Anna Eugenia La Chapelle.

Years of mining the Montana earth for copper made Clark the second-richest man in America, after the Rockefellers. To prove it, he built an ostentatious mansion on New York's Fifth Avenue and gained power as a U.S. senator who served one term.

His daughter attended Miss Spence's School for Girls in Manhattan, now The Spence School, studying modern dance while getting savvy about politics and art.

In the Roaring Twenties, the Clarks' Fifth Avenue home was the scene of wild parties, and Huguette hung out with rich young men who drove fast cars and flew planes.

At 22, she married a poor bank clerk studying law, but they parted ways after only nine months. Huguette Clark cited desertion by her husband. He claimed she failed to consummate the marriage, according to "The Clarks: An American Phenomenon," a book written by former family employee William D. Mangam.

Shortly after her father died in 1925, she and her mother left the mansion and moved to 907 Fifth Ave., the Italian-Renaissance-palazzo-style building where Huguette Clark lived for six decades. It's still one of the city's most posh co-ops, and hers is the biggest apartment property on Fifth Avenue.

When her mother died in 1963, Huguette was transformed from a rather private socialite in her 50s to a social specter an eccentric whom building staff members say they never saw; she had whatever she needed delivered.

Even distant relatives attempting to visit were discouraged from entering; she told several of them to stand on the sidewalk and she would wave to them, staffers remember.

"She never went out," said Laurance Kaiser IV, a Manhattan real estate agent who once met her in the Fifth Avenue building.

She apparently trusted almost no one, but was generous. Each doorman got a $500 check from her at Christmas. They'd seen her only a few times over the decades and only by accident, while slipping mail under her door when she happened to open it. She would scurry away.

Huguette Clark left for good one day in the 1980s, on the stretcher.

"She just got tired of living," Kaiser said.

Steven Shirley, an amateur historian in Helena, Mont., said Clark was "very much on top of things very lucid" when he last spoke to her a half dozen years ago, by phone.

Though hard of hearing and unable to understand all of his questions, "she reminisced about her days in France before World War I," Shirley told the AP. "She read The New York Times every day and she was very aware of world events," he added.

In the end, her vast fortune allowed the heiress to lead an ever more solitary life.

She's said to have once told friends that extreme wealth is a "menace to happiness."


UserPostedImage
Fan Shout
Zero2Cool (6h) : 49ers might be down their QB, DL, TE and LT?
packerfanoutwest (20h) : Jaire Alexander says he has a torn PCL
Zero2Cool (20-Nov) : Even with the context it's ... what?
Mucky Tundra (20-Nov) : Matt LaFleur without context: “I don’t wanna pat you on the butt and you poop in my hand.”
beast (20-Nov) : We brought in a former Packers OL coach to help evaluate OL as a scout
beast (20-Nov) : Jets have been pretty good at picking DL
Zero2Cool (20-Nov) : He landed good players thanks to high draft slot. He isn't good.
Zero2Cool (20-Nov) : He can shove his knowledge up his ass. He knows nothing.
beast (20-Nov) : More knowledge, just like bring in the Jets head coach
Zero2Cool (19-Nov) : What? Why? Huh?
beast (19-Nov) : I wonder if the Packers might to try to bring Douglas in through Milt Hendrickson/Ravens connections
Zero2Cool (19-Nov) : The Jets fired Joe Douglas, per sources
packerfanoutwest (19-Nov) : Jets are a mess......
Zero2Cool (19-Nov) : Pretty sure Jets fired their scouting staff and just pluck former Packers.
Zero2Cool (19-Nov) : Jets sign Anders Carlson to their 53.
Zero2Cool (19-Nov) : When you cycle the weeks, the total over remains for season. But you get your W/L for that selected week. Confusing.
packerfanoutwest (19-Nov) : the total and percentage are the same as the previous weeks
packerfanoutwest (19-Nov) : the total and percentage are the same as the previous weeks
packerfanoutwest (19-Nov) : the totals are accurate..nrvrtmind
Zero2Cool (19-Nov) : I don't follow what you are saying. The totals are not the same as last week.
packerfanoutwest (19-Nov) : ok so then wht are the totals the same as last week?
Zero2Cool (19-Nov) : NFL Pick'em is auto updated when NFL Scores tab is clicked
Martha Careful (19-Nov) : The offense was OK. Let's not forget the Bear defense is very very good.
packerfanoutwest (19-Nov) : Who updates the leaderboard on NFLPickem?
beast (19-Nov) : Has the Packers offense been worse since the former Jets coach joined the Packers?
Zero2Cool (19-Nov) : Offense gets his ass in gear, this could be good.
Zero2Cool (19-Nov) : Backup QB helped with three wins. Special Teams contributed to three wins.
bboystyle (18-Nov) : Lions played outside thats why. They scored 16 and 17 in the only 2 outside games this year
Zero2Cool (18-Nov) : The rest of the NFL is catching up to Packers ... kicking is an issue throughout league
packerfanoutwest (18-Nov) : Packers DL Kenny Clark: We knew 'we were going to block' Bears' game-winning field goal attempt
Zero2Cool (18-Nov) : Lions seem to be throttling everyone, but only (only) got 24 lol maybe the rain is why
Zero2Cool (18-Nov) : Packers vs Lions game doesn't seem so bad.
beast (18-Nov) : Dennis Green "They are what we thought they were, and we let them off the hook!"
Martha Careful (17-Nov) : comment of the day Z2Cool "Bears better than we want to admit. Packers worse than we think. It's facts."
Mucky Tundra (17-Nov) : my worst case scenario: Bears fix their oline and get a coach like Johnson from the Lions and his scheme
Zero2Cool (17-Nov) : Bears get OL fixed amd we might have a problem
buckeyepackfan (17-Nov) : Pretty sure they already have scouting reports on guys who aren't even starting for their college team. The future is now for me.
buckeyepackfan (17-Nov) : I tend to let Gute and Co. Worry about the future.
beast (17-Nov) : That's great news and Packers need to keep upgrading their OL, DL and DBs this off-season, so missing one guy doesn't kill them
beast (17-Nov) : That's great news and Packers need to keep upgrading their OL, DL and DBs this off-season, so missing one guy doesn't kill them
buckeyepackfan (17-Nov) : Jaire and Evans Williams are both ACTIVE! Good news.
Martha Careful (17-Nov) : The badgers really need to change the whole offensive scheme. No draws no screens plus the quarterback is marginal
Cheesey (17-Nov) : If the Badgers had a decent QB, they would have won. The guy can't hit a wide open receiver
Martha Careful (17-Nov) : chop block
Martha Careful (17-Nov) : there was a very questionable job Block call that upon viewing replay was very borderline
beast (17-Nov) : How so? (I didn't watch)
Zero2Cool (17-Nov) : Badgers got hosed vs Oregon
packerfanoutwest (16-Nov) : damn,he hasn't played since week 2
Mucky Tundra (15-Nov) : poor guy can't catch a break
wpr (15-Nov) : wow. That three different things for the kid.
Please sign in to use Fan Shout
2024 Packers Schedule
Friday, Sep 6 @ 7:15 PM
Eagles
Sunday, Sep 15 @ 12:00 PM
COLTS
Sunday, Sep 22 @ 12:00 PM
Titans
Sunday, Sep 29 @ 12:00 PM
VIKINGS
Sunday, Oct 6 @ 3:25 PM
Rams
Sunday, Oct 13 @ 12:00 PM
CARDINALS
Sunday, Oct 20 @ 12:00 PM
TEXANS
Sunday, Oct 27 @ 12:00 PM
Jaguars
Sunday, Nov 3 @ 3:25 PM
LIONS
Sunday, Nov 17 @ 12:00 PM
Bears
Sunday, Nov 24 @ 3:25 PM
49ERS
Thursday, Nov 28 @ 7:20 PM
DOLPHINS
Thursday, Dec 5 @ 7:15 PM
Lions
Sunday, Dec 15 @ 7:20 PM
Seahawks
Monday, Dec 23 @ 7:15 PM
SAINTS
Sunday, Dec 29 @ 12:00 PM
Vikings
Saturday, Jan 4 @ 11:00 PM
BEARS
Recent Topics
8h / Green Bay Packers Talk / Martha Careful

22h / Green Bay Packers Talk / Martha Careful

21-Nov / Green Bay Packers Talk / Zero2Cool

21-Nov / Green Bay Packers Talk / Zero2Cool

21-Nov / Green Bay Packers Talk / Zero2Cool

21-Nov / Green Bay Packers Talk / beast

20-Nov / Green Bay Packers Talk / Zero2Cool

20-Nov / Green Bay Packers Talk / Zero2Cool

20-Nov / Green Bay Packers Talk / beast

20-Nov / Green Bay Packers Talk / beast

20-Nov / Green Bay Packers Talk / wpr

19-Nov / Green Bay Packers Talk / dfosterf

19-Nov / Featured Content / Zero2Cool

19-Nov / Green Bay Packers Talk / Martha Careful

19-Nov / Green Bay Packers Talk / wpr

Headlines
Copyright © 2006 - 2024 PackersHome.com™. All Rights Reserved.