Odd Wills: leona helmsley dog trouble Got $12 million

Odd Wills: leona helmsley dog trouble $12 million

In 2007, Hotel Heiress Leona Helmsley left her $12 million fortune to her dearest friend, Trouble. The being in question had silky white hair and gorgeous brown eyes. Plus, she always listened to Leona without saying a word. It would be hard to imagine why she did not deserve the vast legacy left by her friend. However, the trouble with Troubles was that she was a dog.

Trouble was a Maltese that spent the last years of her life in a luxury hotel in southern Florida. However, her original fortune had been diminished to just $2 million by the order of a court judge.

Helmsley did not leave a cent to her living relatives or charities. However, that was soon contested and the judge ruled in favor of the living Helmsley clan. However, that did not keep Trouble from living a very comfortable life until she died at the age of 12 in 2011. It was reported that her handler spent upwards of $100,000 each year to keep her in the best of health and comfort.

Trouble lived the equivalent of 84 human years and was tended to around the clock at the Helmsley Sandcastle hotel in Sarasota.

The dog was blind and stricken with health issues before her death. Her caretaker, Carl Lekic spent $100,000 annually on her care — including $8,000 for grooming and $1,200 for dog food, reports ABC News.

Trouble, who had faced 20 to 30 death and kidnapping threats, also retained a full-time security guard, according to news reports.

According to the New York Times, Trouble even had it good in death:

Trouble was cremated and her remains were “privately retained,” said a spokeswoman for the Helmsley Trust. In her will, Mrs. Helmsley asked that Trouble’s remains be buried alongside her own, in the Helmsley mausoleum at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Westchester County. But Jim Logan, a member of the cemetery’s board, said Mrs. Helmsley’s lawyers knew the cemetery would abide by regulations that forbid the interring of nonhuman remains at human cemeteries. That said, mausoleums are considered private property and the Helmsley family had its own key.

This is one of the oddest examples of somebody leaving their entire fortune to an animal in lieu of their family. This earned Helmsely the name “The Queen of Mean” for her actions.

Helmsley, who spent 18 months in prison for cheating on her taxes, died in August 2007.