Brooke Astor “committed the unforgivable sin of living too long” and had to deal with a son “who could not wait” for her money, a prosecutor charged yesterday in closing arguments of the 4-month-old swindle case.
Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann quoted Astor as saying of her only child, “All he wants is money, money, money. I wish he had made something of himself, instead of waiting for the money.”
Anthony Marshall faces up to 25 years in prison for allegedly strong-arming his frail, failing, century-old mother into signing over more than $60 million in bequests, money long promised to city institutions.
Astor was Marshall’s “own little ATM,” Seidemann told the Manhattan state Supreme Court jurors.
He noted that Astor had changed her will 32 times, with seven codicils, over 50 years. But by the time she died in 2007, she was not competent to amend it in Marshall’s favor, Seidemann said.
“Who am I?” she asked at age 99, as she stood naked and screaming on the stairwell of her beachfront summer home in Maine, according to testimony from a maid.
Prosecutors said that by the time the Alzheimer’s-afflicted Astor reached 100, Marshall stood to inherit $23 million. But that was not enough to satisfy his “insatiable greed,” Seidemann said. Marshall even lifted quarter-million-dollar paintings off her walls, leaving behind only the nails.
Marshall and co-defendant Frank Morrissey are “morally depraved individuals” who “preyed on a physically ill and mentally incapacitated 101-year-old woman,” he said.
Making matters worse, Marshall was pinching pennies on his mother’s care — as if it was his money he was spending — even as he lined the pockets of himself and his wife, Charlene, with ever-more millions, the prosecution said.
Seidemann cited testimony which quoted Astor as saying she couldn’t afford a shoe-buying spree and Marshall would be upset with her spending.
“This is at a time she’s a multi-millionaire and Tony is feeding into her paranoia for his own purpose,” he said.
Astor had $180 million — and could easily have bought a shoe store, he added.
The jury is expected to begin deliberations Monday.