Trouble took a $12 million bite out of Leona Helmsley’s will.
While the Queen of Mean left a kennel full of cash for the plenty-pampered female pooch, she also left potentially billions of dollars to charity, court papers show.
The will leaves a total of $50 million in bequests to Trouble the dog and three family members, and instructs that the remainder of her personal fortune – which Westchester Surrogate’s Court documents estimate to be valued at between $4 billion and $8 billion – to the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.
Helmsley didn’t completely turn over a new leaf in her later years, however – two of the family members to whom she left bequests were left less than Trouble, and she pointedly excluded two of her grandkids, Craig and Meegan Panzirer, “for reasons which are known to them,” the filing says.
None of her 12 great-grandchildren is mentioned at all.
The only nonfamily member to whom Helmsley left cash was her chauffeur, Nicholas Celea of Woodside, Queens. She left him $100,000 if he “survives me and at the time of my death is employed by me or any Helmsley entity.”
The 87-year-old Helmsley – whose love of the finer things in life was legendary – also left $3 million to en sure a first-class afterlife with her late husband, Harry.
“I acknowledge in this will, as I often did during my life, my love, affection and admiration for my late husband, Harry B. Helmsley. I direct that I be interred wearing my gold wedding band (which is never to be removed from my finger) and my remains be interred next to my beloved husband . . . and next to my beloved son, Jay Panzirer, at the Helmsley Mausoleum,” the document says. That tomb is in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Westchester.
“I also direct that anything bearing the Helmsley name must be maintained in ‘mint’ condition and in the manner that it has been accustomed to, maintaining the outstanding Helmsley reputation.”
That includes the mausoleum, which she directs the trustees to have “acid-washed or steam-cleaned at least once a year.”
“I direct my trustees to maintain the final resting places in excellent condition, and to arrange for inspection of the final resting places as often as may be necessary (but not less often than quarterly) to ensure their proper care and maintenance.”
She also orders “that when my dog, Trouble, dies, her remains shall be buried next to my remains in the Helmsley Mausoleum.”
In the meantime, the filthy-rich 8-year-old Maltese, who was featured in ads for Helmsley’s hotels, will stay with Helmsley’s brother, Alvin Rosenthal.
The will doesn’t specify how Trouble’s $12 million should be spent – it just orders the cash be put into a trust that had been established for petite pup’s benefit. It’s also unclear what will happen to the funds when the dog dies.
A knowledgeable source said a trustee will be appointed to make sure the money is spent as Helmsley had wanted, which likely includes cash for security and dog walkers as well as gourmet eats.
Trouble is infamous for having luxurious taste.
The picky pooch, a present to Helmsley from one of her advisers, John Codey, wouldn’t eat normal dog food – Helmsley had her fed chef-prepared gourmet meals. Employees said Helmsley would often disrupt service in the kitchen of her Park Lane Hotel – where she lived – by insisting that the chef drop whatever he was doing to make special meals for the cranky canine.
Trouble also refused to eat from a bowl, and would deign to dine only if she were hand-fed, usually by Helmsley’s employees.
That practice led to a lawsuit against Helmsley by one of her housekeepers, Zamfira Sfara, who charged that the dog repeatedly bit her as she fed her, leading Sfara to develop permanent nerve damage.
Sfara also claimed Trouble would bite her whenever she gave the dog a bath – and that Helmsley would cheer her on.
“Good for you, Trouble,” Sfara quoted Helmsley as saying.
The hotel queen apparently never had a problem with her dog’s taste for human flesh. In 2000, when she bit a diner in an East 54th Street restaurant, Helmsley told her victim, “I guess Trouble doesn’t like you.”
Other Helmsley employees and friends got fed up with Trouble’s bothersome biting, and she reportedly wound up being taken away from the ailing Helmsley recently as Leona became too physically and mentally sick to take care of her.
Helmsley’s will leaves her brother and the dog’s new keeper, Rosenthal, $10 million in a trust and another $5 million outright.
To her grandsons, David and Walter Panzirer, Helmsley left $5 million to each outright and another $5 million in trusts – but with a catch.
The sons of Helmsley’s only son, Jay Panzirer, who died of a heart attack in 1982, have to visit their father’s grave every year, the will says.
The pair “shall not be entitled to any distributions from any trust . . . unless such beneficiary visits the grave of my late son, Jay Panzirer, at least once each calendar year, preferably on the anniversary of my said son’s death,” the will says.
“If David or Walter fails to visit the grave during any calendar year, her or his interest in the separate trust established for her or his benefit shall be terminated at the end of such calendar year and the principal of such trust . . . shall be disposed of as if such beneficiary had then died.”
She also wants her trustees to have proof of their visits, and said they’ll “have placed in the Helmsley Mausoleum a register to be signed by each visitor and shall rely on it” to determine whether the grandkids visited or not, the will says.
“At the end of any calendar year, my trustees shall have the right to presume that the beneficiary did not visit the grave during that calendar year if his or her signature does not appear on the register.”
The will does not say why Helmsley excluded her other two grandchildren. She’d reportedly refused to talk to any of her grandchildren until recently, because she was upset that none of them had named any of their children after her late husband.
A source said she had recently reconciled with all the grandchildren, and that they celebrated her birthday together with her last year.
In addition to money, Walter and David Panzirer are getting plenty of power – they’re named co-executors of Helmsley’s will along with Rosenthal, her long-time adviser, John Codey, and lawyer, Sandor Frankel.
The same five were given control of Helmsley Enterprises – the company that controls her hotels and has a stake in the Empire State Building – and of her now-very formidable charitable trust.
The will orders her executors to sell off her residences – including her sprawling Connecticut estate, Dunellen – and all her belongings, with the proceeds going into her residuary estate, which then go into the charitable trust.
It’s unclear just how much cash is going into that trust, but it could add up to billions because it includes all of Helmsley’s money minus her interest in Helmsley Enterprises and the $50 million in bequests. That would be a massive step up in her already sizable philanthropic giving – she’d given away an estimated $35 million over the past decade.
Helmsley’s longtime spokesman, Howard Rubenstein, said, “I will have no comment concerning Mrs. Helmsley’s will.”
Helmsley – who’s believed to have changed her will several times over the past several years – made clear she didn’t want this one messed with.
“If any beneficiary under this will shall, directly or indirectly, file or cause to be filed objections to this will, or shall in any other manner contest this will,” they’ll be cut off and “shall be deemed to have predeceased me for all purposes of this will,” the filing says.