After Leona Helmsley died last month, much was made of her bequest of $12 million to care for her Maltese bitch Trouble. (The Queen of Mean’s will, filed for probate on Aug. 29, is excerpted below and on the following three pages.) The pooch’s future, alas, is in doubt. A former Helmsley employee whom Trouble allegedly bit more than once is threatening a lawsuit; Alvin Rosenthal, the 80-year-old brother to whom Helmsley bequeathed Trouble, reportedly refuses to take her; and the dog’s planned interment next to her former mistress, stipulated in the will (see Page 3), turns out to be illegal in New York state.
After she wrote her will, La Helmsley relocated the mausoleum in which she joins her beloved Harry from Woodlawn Cemetery (in the Bronx!) to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, overlooking the Rockefeller family’s Hudson Valley estate. This new setting is the resting place of Washington Irving’s headless horseman and, more recently, of Brooke Astor. Like “anything bearing the HELMSLEY name,” Leona directs that it “be maintained in ‘mint’ condition and in the manner that it has been accustomed to, maintaining the outstanding Helmsley reputation” (see below). At least once a year, the Doric columns and other surfaces of the 1300-square-foot structure must be “acid washed or steam cleaned” and trustees must inspect it four times a year (Page 2).
Helmsley disinherits two of her grandchildren “for reasons which are known to them” (Page 3) and holds ransom the trust proceeds of two other grandchildren to annual visits to Grandma Leona and their deceased father, Jay Panzirer, who will also now reside in the roomy mausoleum (Page 4). A visitor’s register has been placed in the mausoleum largely, it seems, to keep tabs on the potential ingrates.
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