The Mansion Trap, by Vicky Ward (December 2008)
Everyone from her society pals to her stepdaughters was stunned to learn that Veronica Hearst, the high-flying widow of media scion Randolph Hearst, had $45 million in debts. Her undoing was the purchase of her dream house: a $30 million Florida mansion once owned by the Vanderbilts.
The Woman Who Wanted the Secrets, by Mark Seal (August 2008)
On receiving an estimated $2 billion inheritance after the death of her father, legendary Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli, in 2003, Margherita Agnelli de Pahlen asked for a full accounting of his vast estate. She claims she never got it. Five years later, de Pahlen is a dynastic outcast and has rocked the family empire with a lawsuit against her father’s three longtime consiglieri.
Oil in the Family, by Alan Peppard (June 2008)
In 1935 oil tycoon H. L. Hunt, known as the richest man in America, created what would become a multi-billion-dollar trust for his descendants. Three generations later, a lawsuit by his free-spending great-grandson is shaking the foundations of that mighty family fortune.
Hurly Birley, by Maureen Orth (February 2008)
Supreme arbiter of aristocratic London nightlife, Mark Birley poured all his charm, generosity, and taste into his portfolio of clubs, until he abruptly sold them right before his death. But, as a battle over his $200 million estate reveals, he left his own family tragically damaged.
Heiress vs. Heiress, by Suzanna Andrews (September 2006)
Tipped off to intimate e-mails, Johnson & Johnson heiress and Hilton sidekick Casey Johnson, 26, accused her aunt, famously private socialite Libet Johnson, 56, of stealing her 38-year-old boyfriend. So began an epic clash of generations.
The Man Who Ate Hollywood, by Mark Seal (November 2005)
A giant of a man, Marvin Davis lived a giant life. Rocky Mountain wildcatter turned Hollywood mogul, he treated Twentieth Century Fox as his personal playground, broke all the rules (even his own), and, when he died, left his family warring over what may be a vanished $5.8 billion fortune.
O Brother, Why Art Thou?, by Christopher Hitchens (Web exclusive, May 2005)
Ever since Cain slew Abel, some of the world’s most deeply personal hatreds have been between siblings. Examining famous rivalries (Ann Landers vs. Abigail Van Buren, Olivia de Havilland vs. Joan Fontaine, Sir Charles Powell vs. Jonathan Powell), the author confronts his estrangement from his own brother.
The Last Onassis, by Nicholas Gage (May 2005)
After wresting control of her fortune from her father, Athina Onassis Roussel wants to claim her full legacy as Aristotle Onassis’s granddaughter and sole surviving heir—including, some say, the presidency of Greece’s most famous foundation. Behind her is her fiancé and fellow equestrian jumper, Olympic medalist Alvaro Alfonso de Miranda Neto.
The Inconvenient Sharon Bush, by Vicky Ward (April 2004)
As Neil Bush went from one venture to another, tarnished by his role in the 1990 Silverado S&L scandal, his wife, Sharon, couldn’t understand why she had to worry about the grocery bills. Wasn’t he the son of America’s 41st president and brother of two governors? Then Neil divorced her to marry Maria Andrews, and Sharon struck back.
Shattered Dynasty, by Suzanna Andrews (May 2003)
Jay Pritzker quietly built a $15 billion empire of more than 200 companies and a network of 1,000 family trusts. But one of the patriarch’s final deals, designed to bind his heirs closer, unleashed a torrent of anger, greed, and betrayal, culminating in a $6 billion lawsuit by his niece, Liesel.
In Cold, Blue Blood, by Dominick Dunne (September 1999)
Dean MacGuigan loved Pati Margello, and Pati loved Dean, but Pati was just a drug addict and hooker, while Dean was the drug-addicted, ne’er-do-well son of a glamorous du Pont heiress. Which is how part of a reported $25 million family fortune may have found its way into the hands of three hired killers, accused of beating and strangling Pati one summer night.
The Sound of Money, by Suzanna Andrews (June 1998)
Cameras flashed and crowds swooped in to see the von Trapp children arrive at the opening of a new Broadway revival of The Sound of Music. But back at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont, the clan was engaged in a bitter feud, in which the ghost of a very un-Julie-Andrews-ish Maria von Trapp played no small part.
Remains of the Dia, by Bob Colacello (September 1996)
A second coup d’état at the influential Dia Center for the Arts ousted many of the foundation’s socially prominent board, and divided the wealthy and powerful de Menil clan, who have dominated contemporary art philanthropy for generations.
