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Children battle over Secret Service translator’s estate

An elderly woman who once translated Hitler’s financial documents for the Secret Service didn’t live long enough to evict a wayward son from her Sutton Place pad, so now her other kids have taken up the fight.

Katherine Gregori — a key government translator in World War II who also once swam with Esther Williams and worked with Orson Welles — died Nov. 3, 2012, at age 92.

She had been living with her oldest son, Peter, in Maryland since younger son Michael allegedly locked her out of her East 56th Street apartment.

Michael, now 60, moved in with his mom in 2006 when his wife, prima ballerina Eva Evdokimova, was dying of cancer, Manhattan court papers say. He then allegedly booted Gregori from her home, and she sued him in February 2012.

Gregori’s third child, well-known photographer Mary Ellen, 68, has now joined Peter, 65, in accusing Michael of mistreating their mother, taking over her apartment — and forging a 2011 will granting himself the bulk of her estate.

“There is reasonable probability that my mother, Katherine Gregori, was coerced and manipulated into signing the New York Will of Jan. 13, 2011,’’ Mary Ellen said in papers filed in Manhattan Surrogate’s Court earlier this year.

“I believe that my brother Michael exercised undue influence over my mother, and I suspect he abused her,’’ Mary Ellen said in papers filed in Manhattan Surrogate’s Court earlier this year.

Mary Ellen, who uses the first name Mellon for her photography, lives in Greenwich Village and has shot for top fashion houses, including Ralph Lauren, Christian Dior and Givenchy.

Michael is contesting a 2012 will that his mother signed while she was living with Peter that gave Peter 75 percent of her assets — primarily the Sutton Place apartment.

But Peter, a mechanic, says Michael is simply claiming that the 2012 will is a product of coercion so that he can “remain in possession of our mother’s cooperative apartment.

“He continues to live rent free, while draining the estate of its cash,” Peter says in court documents.

A third will has also been filed in Manhattan Surrogate’s Court. In that document, from 2002, Katherine gives 50 percent of her wealth to Michael and splits the rest between Peter and Mary Ellen.

The two warring sons even published competing obituaries in New York and Washington, DC-area newspapers after their mother passed away.

Both revealed the World War II intrigue in her past, as well as her brushes with fame — swimming with Williams in the 1939 World’s Fair and working with Wells at The Mercury Theater.

But Michael’s obituary makes no mention of his mother’s other children, instead signing off with, “Thank you for everything dearest mom. I will always be with you. Your devoted, loving son, with deepest respect, heartfelt thanks and continued dedication.”

Michael declined to comment, as did Mary Ellen. Peter told The Post only that the truth will come out in a trial, set for January, over whether the estate battle should play out in Maryland, where she died, or New York.