Leona Helmsley
- 87 years old
- Born Jul 04, 1920
- Died Aug 20, 2007
- United States
About
Mean Queen
Helmsley helped her husband, Harry, run a $5 billion real estate empire that included managing the Empire State Building.
The couple was accused in state and federal indictments of charging millions of dollars in personal expenses and home improvements to their businesses.
She was convicted in federal court in 1989 on 33 of 47 federal tax evasion counts and was sentenced to four years in prison. She also was fined $7.1 million and ordered to perform 750 hours of community service.
The trial included testimony from employees who said she terrorized both menial and executive help at her homes and hotels.
Her image was sealed when a former housekeeper testified that she heard Helmsley say: ``We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.''
She denied having said it, but the words followed her the rest of her life.
In 2007, Forbes magazine ranked her as the 369th richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $2.5 billion.
The Helmsleys' residences included a nine-room penthouse with a swimming pool overlooking Central Park atop their own Park Lane Hotel; a 28-room estate in Connecticut; a condo in Palm Beach; and a mountaintop hideaway near Phoenix. She flew the globe in the couple's 100-seat jet with a bedroom suite.
But her detractors said she nickel-and-dimed merchants on her personal purchases and stiffed contractors who worked on her Connecticut home. It was tips from disgruntled employees led to the tax-evasion charges.
When her husband died in 1997 at age 87, Helmsley said in a statement: ``My fairy tale is over. I lived a magical life with Harry.''
She was 51, with the good looks of a former model, when she married Harry Helmsley in 1972. It was her third marriage.
She was already a successful seller of residential real estate in a hot New York market. He was 63, one of the richest men in America and had just divorced his wife of 33 years.
In 1980 he made her president of Helmsley Hotels, a subsidiary which at the time operated more than two dozen hotels in 10 states.
For the better part of a decade, a glamorous Leona Helmsley smiled out of magazine ads dressed in luxurious gowns and tiara, advertising that the Palace was the only hotel in the world ``where the Queen stands guard.''
On July 4, 1976, Harry Helmsley lit the Empire State Building in red, white and blue - a tribute not to the Bicentennial, but to his wife's birthday, he said. It cost $100,000 - ``less than a necklace,'' he said.
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Go Leona
Felicia (Aug 13, 2008)
FDC
Leona
Maggie (Sep 07, 2007)
What the Housekeeper Said
Marie L'Etoile (Aug 30, 2007)
Leona Helmsley's former housekeeper said yesterday the Queen of Mean's pampered $12 million pooch made life miserable for the hired help.
"We had so much trouble with Trouble," Zamfira Sfara told the Daily News. "I was bitten dozens of times."
The Romanian housekeeper, who worked in Helmsley's posh apartment in the Helmsley Park Lane Hotel, described the lavish life the 8-year-old Maltese shared with Helmsley.
The hotel queen, who died last week at age 87, showered love and money on the furball, who snagged the largest individual trust from her fortune, which is worth at least $4 billion. Helmsley .believed her late husband, Harry, communicated with her through the dog.
"I never saw a human being so in love with an animal," said Sfara, 48. "They were always together everywhere."
Helmsley even shared her double king-size bed with Trouble, Sfara said, and lots of kisses.
"She would lick the dog tongue to tongue," she said. "It was unnatural. It was unhealthy."
So it didn't surprise the maid that her old boss left $12 million to the pet while disowning two grandchildren she had feuded with for years.
"Leona wanted everybody to love her, but she knew nobody loved her," Sfara said. "This dog replaced that love."
Trouble was dressed in pricey outfits and sported a diamond collar. The dog's chef-prepared meals - steamed vegetables and steamed or grilled chicken and fish - arrived in porcelain bowls on a silver tray.
"The chef would have to leave all the [hotel] customers to make Trouble's food," Sfara said. "After it was mixed, I would have to get down on my knees and feed the dog with my two fingers."
Trouble, apparently, didn't appreciate Helmsley's hired help.
"Everybody was bitten: bodyguards, the head of security, even customers got bitten," said Sfara, who sued Helmsley in 2005 after, she said, Trouble bit her.
"You'd never know when she would bite you," she said. "One time when she bit me, she was chewing on my fingers, and Leona said, 'Good for you, Trouble, she deserved it.' "
Sfara, who worked for Helmsley for several months, said she suffered permanent nerve damage from Trouble's bites. She still wears a brace on her right hand.
Helmsley fought Sfara's suit, now on appeal, until the day she died.
Helmsley didn't think two of her own grandchildren, Craig and Meegan Panzirer, deserved any of her money, either. She left them out of a will filed this week in Manhattan Surrogate's Court.
"She spends $12 million on a dog and nothing for her grandkids," said Sfara. "Forget about me, what about her grandchildren? What about her blood?"