Empty Mansions (64 page)
Authors: Bill Dedman
1
M
ARCH
1968: Lewis Rutherford Morris Hall said in documents that he was not introduced to Huguette at his mother’s funeral in 1968, but that Huguette was pointed out to him. John Hudson “Jack” Hall III, grandson of the deceased, said in documents and a deposition that he saw Huguette or was told that she was leaving the funeral. Jack Hall testimony, November 12, 2012, Depositions.
2
I
N TALKING WITH
H
UGUETTE’S AIDE:
Correspondence among relatives and between relatives and David Levy at the Corcoran Gallery is in the Surrogate’s Court record as an exhibit to several depositions, particularly that of Carla Hall Friedman, who testified on September 18 and October 1 and 8, 2012, and in answers to interrogatories.
3
A
GNES
A
LBERT:
Karine McCall testified about her mother, Agnes, being told by Bock not to contact Huguette directly (Karine McCall testimony, September 14 and 20, 2012, Depositions).
4
SOMETHING “INSIDIOUS
”
:
David Levy to Carla Hall Friedman, email, December 6, 2004.
5
SHE OFFERED TO WRITE TO
H
UGUETTE:
Carla Hall Friedman to David Levy, email, December 5, 2004.
6
“
LITTLE OR NO UNDERSTANDING
”
:
Ibid.
7
“B
ARRING THE EMERGENCE
”
:
“Corcoran Director Quits; Trustees Shelve Gehry Plans,”
The Washington Post
, May 24, 2005.
8
HOST A PROPOSED
C
LARK FAMILY REUNION:
Carla Hall Friedman to HMC, letter, September 4, 2008. A reunion had been discussed among family members. Carla explained to Huguette that the new director of the
Corcoran, Paul Greenhalgh, “suggested that the Corcoran host a Clark Family reunion with a dinner for us in the Salon d’Ore.” The salon proved to be too small for the dinner, which was held in another space at the Corcoran.
9
A
C
LARK-FRIENDLY GRADUATE STUDENT:
Stanley Thomas Pitts, “An Unjust Legacy: A Critical Study of the Political Campaigns of William Andrews Clark, 1888–1901” (master’s thesis, University of North Texas, 2006).
10
SEEKING
$22,000: Carla Hall Friedman to HMC, letter, September 4, 2008, exhibit to interrogatories, Surrogate’s Court. “The remaining cost of event [sic] will be approximately $20,000–22,000 for our expanding group. We would be most grateful, if you would consider generously underwriting as much of this cost as is possible for you.”
11
“D
EAR
T
ANTE
H
UGUETTE
”
:
The signed card is in evidence in Surrogate’s Court, submitted along with answers to interrogatories.
12
H
E MADE A SCENE:
Friedman deposition.
13
“P
ORNO STING NABS TEMPLE PRESIDENT
”
:
The Riverdale Press
(Bronx, NY), September 20, 2007.
14
K
AMSLER HAD BEEN ARRESTED:
A copy of Kamsler’s entire court file at County Court of the State of New York, Nassau County, including the indictment, affidavits from investigators, and a transcript of Kamsler’s guilty plea, is available online at
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Sections/NEWS/clark_kamsler_court_file.pdf
.
15
T
HE FIFTEEN-COUNT INDICTMENT:
I
BID
.
16
K
AMSLER WAS INDICTED:
Ibid.
17
H
E ADMITTED TO POLICE:
Ibid.
18
CHANGED HIS PLEA TO GUILTY:
Ibid.
19
“O
N THAT NOTE
”
:
The blog posting has since been removed, but the estate lawyer in New Jersey confirmed that she posted it and that she knew Kamsler from professional conferences.
20
“11/26/08: T
ELEPHONE CALL
”
:
Wallace Bock telephone logs, Collier, Halpern, Newberg, Nolletti & Bock, in White Plains, New York.
21
“
PREPARE FOR THE RESPONSIBILITIES
”
:
Ian Devine described his professional expertise on LinkedIn.
22
C
ARLA AND
I
AN SPOKE:
Friedman deposition and Ian Devine, testimony, September 10 and 11, 2012, Depositions.
23
“O
UR IMPRESSION
”
:
Ian Devine to relatives, email, December 9, 2008.
24
“
ALERT AND VERY RESPONSIVE
”
:
HMC medical records.
25
“
AGITATED AND NOT ORIENTED
”
:
Ibid.
26
“
STATING TO RESPECT HER PRIVACY
”
:
Ibid.
27
“T
ELEPHONE CALL FROM
M
RS
. C
LARK
”
:
Bock telephone logs.
28
“N
EITHER SHE NOR
I”: Bock to Friedman, email, December 8, 2008, in responses to interrogatories, Surrogate’s Court.
29
“W
E NEED NOT APOLOGIZE
”
:
Devine to Friedman, email, December 8, 2009, in responses to interrogatories.
30
“
IN VERY GOOD MOOD
”
:
HMC medical records.
31
K
AMSLER REACHED A PLEA DEAL:
Nassau County court file.
32
“
IT WAS IMPORTANT
”
:
Ibid.
33
AFTER HE SERVED THREE MONTHS:
Records of the Office of the Professions, New York State Education Department, show that two years after his guilty plea, and after the publicity about the Clark case, Kamsler was found guilty of professional misconduct in an administrative proceeding by the Board of Regents, which oversees professional licenses. The action on February 8, 2011, was based on his conviction for sending information to a person he believed to be a minor in an attempt to invite sexual conduct. The records are available online at
http://www.op.nysed.gov/opd/feb11.htm#kams
.
34
“I
JUST WANT TO APOLOGIZE
”
:
Nassau County court file.
35
“D
EAR
M
RS
. C
LARK
”
:
Kamsler to HMC, letter, February 20, 2009. Kamsler filed a copy of this letter in court along with her last will and testament, in support of his claim that he was entitled to be an executor, even as a felon. A copy is available online at
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Sections/NEWS/clark_kamsler_letter.pdf
.
36
“
HAD BEEN CHANGED
”
:
Bock to Friedman, letter, March 6, 2009, in responses to interrogatories.
37
“H
UGUETTE HAS NOT ASKED
”
:
Paul Albert to Ian Devine, March 19, 2009, letter, Surrogate’s Court. Also discussed in Albert’s testimony, November 13 and 14, 2012, Depositions.
38
“
PERIODS OF DELIRIUM
”
:
HMC medical records.
39
T
HE ELEMENT IN THE NEWS STORIES:
This episode is described in Bill Dedman, “Who Is Watching Heiress Huguette Clark’s Millions?,”
msnbc.com
, September 8, 2010,
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/38733524/ns/business-local_business/
. Donald Wallace’s estate papers are on file at Surrogate’s Court in lower Manhattan and available online at
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Sections/NEWS/wallace_probate.pdf
.
40
PROBATE COURT HAD THE OPTION:
The office of the New York County Public Administrator was alerted to the Wallace estate, as required by law when heirs are unknown or someone is survived only by distant relatives (cousins, in Wallace’s case). The public administrator’s outside counsel on the Wallace estate, Peter S. Schram, examined the documents and found no grounds to question the validity of the will. Wallace estate file.
41
“
AS THE SON HE NEVER HAD
”
:
Ibid.
42
“I
SAID TO HIM
”
:
Ibid.
43
“
AT ALL TIMES
”
:
Ibid.
44
H
UGUETTE HAD NO PLACE TO BE BURIED
: The negotiations over the Clark mausoleum and finding a place for Huguette there are described in letters made available by the relatives in the estate case.
45
REFUSED TO SIGN A LIVING WILL:
HMC medical records and Irving Kamsler, testimony, May 8 and 9 and July 17–19, 2012, Depositions.
46
“I
THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING
”
:
Chris Sattler, testimony, August 23 and September 6, 2012, Depositions.
47
S
HE DIED EARLY ON THE MORNING:
Obituaries include Bill Dedman, “Huguette Clark, the Reclusive Copper Heiress, Dies at 104,”
msnbc.com
, May 24, 2011,
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/39006900/ns/business-local_business/
, and Margalit Fox, “Huguette Clark, Reclusive Heiress, Dies at 104,”
The New York Times
, May 25, 2011.
48
T
HE ENTOMBMENT WAS ARRANGED
: See “Family Excluded from Huguette Clark Burial,”
msnbc.com
, May 26, 2011,
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/43166747/ns/business-local_business/
.
1
PERSUADE A JUDGE OR JURY:
If a New York resident dies without a will or the will is overturned, the money goes first to a spouse and children or grandchildren. If there are none of those, the parents inherit, then the siblings. Huguette was survived by none of these. Next are the nieces and nephews descended from the siblings, and Huguette did have those on her father’s side of the family. Huguette’s thirteen half-grandnieces and grandnephews who were alive when she died would each receive 6.25 percent of her estate, and in cases where that level of relative died after Huguette, their children, her eight half-great-grandnieces and great-grandnephews, would each receive 2.34375 percent. Two of those twenty-one relatives, a grandniece and a grandnephew, did not join the lawsuit filed by the nineteen others.
2
“
THAT
H
UGUETTE’S TRUE WISHES
”
:
John R. Morken to Clark family members, letter, September 30, 2011.
3
THEY HAD NEVER MET
H
UGUETTE:
The nineteen Clark relatives described their contacts with Huguette in answers to interrogatories as well as in depositions.
4
THE LAST TIME:
Paul Albert said he last saw her in 1957, Karine Albert McCall in 1954, Jacqueline Baeyens-Clerté in 1952, and Patrick Baeyens and Jerry Gray during the war years of 1941–45.
5
O
F THESE NINETEEN:
André Baeyens described his discussions with Huguette in an interview with Dedman, June 6, 2010, as well as in previous
conversations with Newell and in answers to interrogatories in the estate case.
6
“
THE SENATOR WHO LOVED
F
RANCE
”
:
The book,
Le sénateur qui aimait la France
, was published in 2005 by Scali.
7
S
HE SUPPORTED THIS
C
ALIFORNIA COUSIN:
HMC papers.
8
“I
THINK HAVING SUCH WEALTH
”
:
Several relatives described in interviews and emails with Dedman the traumas and difficulties suffered by the Clark family.
9
SAW
H
UGUETTE’S
F
IFTH
A
VENUE APARTMENTS:
Relatives described the tour in interviews.
10
I
N LATE
D
ECEMBER
2012: The death of Timothy Gray was reported in Bill Dedman, “Potential Heir to $300 Million Clark Copper Fortune Found Dead, Homeless,”
msnbc.com
, December 30, 2012,
http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/30/16238005-potential-heir-to-300-million-clark-copper-fortune-found-dead-homeless
.
11
T
IM WAS NOT EXACTLY HOMELESS:
Apartment owner George Riker and commercial building owner Rick Sather interviews with Dedman, February 22, 2013. Documentary photographer Elijah Solomon unearthed details about Tim Gray’s life in Evanston, Wyoming, and published photos in “The Winter of Timothy Gray,” January 2013,
http://www.elijahsol.com/stories/the-winter-of-timothy-henry-gray/
.
12
“I
DO IN FACT BELIEVE
”
:
Clare Albert interview with Dedman, February 2013.
13
T
HAT ADMINISTRATOR’S ATTORNEYS
: The New York County public administrator is Ethel J. Griffin, who was appointed by Surrogate Kristin Booth Glen as temporary administrator of the Clark estate. The private attorneys hired by the public administrator to handle the legal work are Peter S. Schram, of Schram & Graber, who had been involved in the Wallace case, and the firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy.
14
N
O GIFT TAX RETURNS:
The attorneys for the public administrator laid out the tax deficiencies in court papers. The attorney’s petition is available online at
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Sections/NEWS/huguette_clark_public_administrator_petition.pdf
. See also Bill Dedman, “Tax Fraud Alleged in Estate of Heiress Huguette Clark; accountant resigns,”
msnbc.com
, December 21, 2011,
http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2011/12/21/9615401-tax-fraud-alleged-in-estate-of-heiress-huguette-clark-accountant-resigns
, and Bill Dedman, “Judge Bounces Attorney and Accountant from Estate of Heiress Huguette Clark,”
msnbc.com
, December 23, 2011,
http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2011/12/23/9659274-judge-bounces-attorney-and-accountant-from-estate-of-heiress-huguette-clark
.
15
K
AMSLER WAS RESPONSIBLE:
HMC papers and public administrator’s petition.
16
B
OCK SAID THAT WHEN NOTICES
: Wally Bock, testimony, March 22 and 23 and July 24–26, 2012, Depositions.
17
W
HEN
K
AMSLER WAS CALLED:
Irving Kamsler, May 8 and 9 and July 17–19, 2012, Depositions.
18
T
HE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATOR ALSO AGGRESSIVELY WENT AFTER:
Public administrator’s petition. See also Bill Dedman, “Staff Bled $44 Million in Gifts from Heiress Huguette Clark, Suit Says,”
msnbc.com
, May 23, 2012,
http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/05/23/11824035-staff-bled-44-million-in-gifts-from-heiress-huguette-clark-suit-says
.
19
“T
O SUGGEST THAT THESE GIFTS
”
:
John Dadakis, statement to press, May 22, 2012.
20
A SPECIFIC DIAGNOSIS:
Jerry Gray described his diagnosis in his testimony, November 13, 2012, Depositions.
21
“H
UGUETTE WAS A SCHIZOID
”
:
Ibid.
22
THE DIAGNOSTIC MANUAL:
The diagnostic criteria for schizoid personality disorder are listed in
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
, 4th ed., text revision (Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association, 2000), 694–97, summarized as “A pervasive pattern of detachment from social relationships and a restricted range of expression of emotions in interpersonal settings, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by four (or more) of the following: (1) neither desires nor enjoys close relationships, including being part of a family; (2) almost always chooses solitary activities; (3) has little, if any, interest in having sexual experiences with another person; (4) takes pleasure in few, if any, activities; (5) lacks close friends or confidants other than first-degree relatives; (6) appears indifferent to the praise or criticism of others; (7) shows emotional coldness, detachment, or flattened affectivity.” The manual cautions, on page xxxi, that it classifies disorders (schizoid personality disorder), not people (a schizoid). It cautions, on page xxxii, that “the valid application of the diagnostic criteria included in this manual necessitates an evaluation that directly accesses the information,” as in a direct examination of the patient. And the manual offers a cautionary statement, on page xxxvii: “The proper use of these criteria requires specialized clinical training that provides both a body of knowledge and clinical skills.”
23
“
AN IRRATIONAL PATTERN
”
:
Ibid.
24
“
CANNOT BE DESTROYED
”
:
Estate of Wright, 7 Cal. 2d 348 (1936). The California Supreme Court, in a ruling often cited in New York and other states, reversed the order of the trial court denying admission of a will to probate. The witnesses had expressed the view that the testator was of unsound mind, because the testator was queer; he did not have in mind the legal description of his property; he had had a serious operation; his
living quarters were dirty; he gave a witness a fish soaked in kerosene; he insisted on buying furniture not for sale; he turned the hose on children; he was drunk much of the time; an accidental injury to his head seemed to change him; he ran out of the house only partly dressed; he picked up articles from garbage cans and hid them around the house; he put paper flowers on rosebushes; he left home without explanation; he recovered gifts from donees without explanation; he falsely told of fictitious gifts to donees; he failed to acknowledge his grandson; he held his breath and appeared to be dead; he malingered in the use of a wheelchair; he kept bottles under his bed; he failed to buy medicine; he failed to keep engagements; and he was unkindly. The court said, “The foregoing sets forth the full strength of contestant’s case. Tested by the decisions of this court the judgment is wholly without evidentiary support. There is no evidence that testator suffered from settled insanity, hallucinations or delusions. Testamentary capacity cannot be destroyed by showing a few isolated acts, foibles, idiosyncrasies, moral or mental irregularities or departures from the normal unless they directly bear upon and have influenced the testamentary act.”
25
I
T WAS
O
CTOBER
25, 2005: Dr. Louise Klebanoff described her two visits with Huguette in her testimony, August 31, 2012, Depositions. Her visits are also recorded in HMC medical records.
26
THE
C
ORCORAN ALSO COMPLICATED:
The Corcoran Gallery’s opposition to the will was filed on April 16, 2012.
27
“S
HE DIDN’T HAVE A CHARITABLE BONE
”
:
Several relatives made this comment in interviews with Dedman.
28
THE ELEGANT FORMER DIPLOMAT:
André Baeyens, testimony, October 8 and 9, 2012, Depositions. According to the transcript, the attorneys traveling to Vienna were Angelo M. Grasso, representing Hadassah Peri; John R. Morken, representing the nineteen family members objecting to Huguette Clark’s will; and Stacie P. Nelson, representing Wally Bock, the presenter of the will. The family opposed forcing Baeyens to testify.
29
HEDGE FUND MANAGER
B
OAZ
W
EINSTEIN:
Weinstein, known as one of the quantitative traders, or quants, on Wall Street, had just made far more in a well-publicized trade. When JPMorgan Chase, Huguette’s bank, lost billions in 2012 because of bad bets by a trader known as “the London Whale,” Weinstein was the largest winner on the positive side of those trades.
30
A JURY TRIAL:
Updates on the estate contest can be found at
http://NBCnews.com/clark
.