Justice has been served.
At 89, frail and sick, Anthony Marshall was pushed via wheelchair into the courtroom by his despicable, sobbing wife, Charlene, aka “Miss Piggy.”
The man who robbed and tormented his sainted mother, Brooke Astor, as Piggy cheered him on, arrived in blue sweatpants and floppy gray sweater in place of his usual pinstripe suit, plaid bedroom slippers in place of black, tasseled loafers. He did not wear a wedding ring.
The pathetic spectacle of age, infirmity and sheer ruthlessness did not change a thing.
Marshall is going to prison, finally, to commune with fellow criminals who abuse the elderly and folks weaker than they are.
He got what he deserved.
On the way into court, Piggy, 67, wet Marshall’s right shoulder and the top of his head with copious tears. She stroked and straightened his gray hair, as if soothing a toddler. She professed her adoration.
“We’ll always love each other,’’ she was overheard whispering.
“Always. Always,’’ Marshall replied weakly.
But Marshall kept his lips zipped when hauled in front of no-nonsense Judge A. Kirke Bartley Jr. He didn’t beg. He didn’t explain.
In the end, there was nothing to say.
He was the son who swindled his old, sick mother. He was guilty, and there was no excuse for such a diabolical crime. Now take your punishment like a man, Anthony.
Marshall robbed his mother, Brooke, of some $60 million as she suffered from Alzheimer’s, eventually dying, at age 105, in 2007. She never knew of her son’s treachery.
He convinced the generous philanthropist and social figure that she was going broke, when she really was sitting on a fortune estimated at nearly $200 million.
Marshall will serve a mere 1 1/3 to 3 years. Not much when you consider he took from an old woman the security of her last years.
Judging from his mother’s long life, Marshall has many years left. His wife will have her companion back.
They deserve each other.