Queen of Mean - Leona Helmsley off to valhalla

Thunder22 · #1 08-20-2007, 02:19 PM

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08202007...ck_bennett.htm

August 20, 2007 -- Hotel and real estate empress Leona Helmsley died today at her summer home in Greenwich, Conn., her long-time publicist announced this morning.

She was 87 and died of heart failure.

For nearly four decades the Helmsley name was synonymous with luxury-living as she developed a chain of landmark hotels in Manhattan like the Park Lane Hotel, the New York Helmsley Hotel, and the Helmsley Palace Hotel.

She became the public-face and "Queen" of Helmsley Hotels and a philanthropist who donated millions to local and international causes.

But during the 1980s, she also earned the moniker "Queen of Mean" for the harsh demands she placed on her staff and later an income tax evasion conviction that sent her to prison for 18 months.

Perhaps she will most be remembered for saying, "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes."

rebound · #2 08-20-2007, 03:27 PM

Let her eat cake...in the afterlife.

Of course, the first thing I though of when I heard the news (and it wasn't mentioned in the report I heard) was, "the Queen of Mean."

Too bad. She did do good things with her money.

PLAYERPRO · #3 08-20-2007, 04:19 PM

can the goverment "tax" her funeral?

"Get the shovel bob!"

Juanted · #4 08-20-2007, 08:20 PM

uh huh.... did you ask UncleMotor for his permission to post a "off to Valhalla" message?

motordavid · #5 08-20-2007, 09:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaefer

uh huh.... did you ask UncleMotor for his permission to post a "off to Valhalla" message?

No prob...I have huge royalty payments rolling in over the
transom every month, jes' from this site...

Leona...

"After a two-month trial in Federal Court, Leona Helmsley was convicted of evading $1.2 million in federal income taxes. She was convicted of 33 counts but was acquitted of scheming to extort kickbacks from contractors and suppliers.

Saying that she had been motivated by “naked greed,” Judge John M. Walker sentenced a sobbing Mrs. Helmsley to a four-year prison term and fined her $7.1 million for tax fraud She also had to pay some $1.7 million in back federal and state taxes.

When the proceeding was over and Mrs. Helmsley and her husband descended the 17 front steps of the courthouse in lower Manhattan, people in a crowd on the sidewalk taunted them with shouts about jail time."

I'm sure she did some good stuff, but she shoulda been born a French
aristocrat, 30 yrs before the French Revolution.

All that dough and "power" makes people do strange and very selfish
things, and no one gets out alive.
BR,mD