That's a rich bitch. The dog. The old bitch is Leona Helmsley, "The Queen of Mean," who died earlier this month at her Connecticut home. The old bitch left the little white bitch, her beloved Maltese named Trouble, who lived up to her name by biting a housekeeper, a $12 million dollar trust fund. "I direct that when my dog, Trouble, dies, her remains shall be buried next to my remains in the Helmsley mausoleum," she stated in her will. The mausoleum was also to be "washed or steam-cleaned at least once a year." She provided $3 million for the upkeep of her final resting place in Westchester County, where she is buried with her husband, Harry Helmsley. She also left millions for her brother, Alvin Rosenthal, who was named to care for Trouble in her absence. She gave $5 million to two of four grandchildren from her late son Jay Panzirer so long as they visit their father's grave site once each calendar year. Otherwise they get nothing. Her son, who died of heart failure in 1982 at age 42, was from a previous marriage. She left nothing to two of Jay Panzirer's other children Craig and Meegan Panzirer for "reasons that are known to them." She rarely spoke to her four children grandchildren. She gave $100,000 to Nicholas Celea, her chauffeur. She ordered that cash from sales of the Helmsley's residences and belongings, reported to be worth billions, be sold and that the money be given to the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. She had no children with Harry. When her son died of a heart attack Leona sued her son's estate for money and property that she said he had borrowed, and her son's widow Mimi received an eviction notice. Mimi Panzirer - the mother of Leona's four grandchildren - later said the legal expenses wiped her out and "to this day I don't know why they did it."
Leona and Harry Helmsley married in 1972. He had just divorced his wife of 33 years. They were both indicted on federal income tax evasion charges in 1989. Harry was unfit for trial because of health problems. Leona was convicted and served 18 months in prison. During her trial an employee quoted her as snarling, "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes." She was a lonely old lady who had cash, jewelry and real estate valued at more than $4 billion - - and a will shrouded in secrecy. She owned a stake in the empire State Building, five Manhattan hotels and partnership interests in dozens of other properties. She had four homes across the country and the Park Lane Hotel overlooking Manhattan's Central Park.
They built the Helmsley Palace on Madison Avenue, 230 Park Avenue, the Empire State Building, the Tudor City apartment complex on the East Side of Manhattan, and Helmsley-Spear, their management and leasing business. They also developed, the New York Helmsley Hotel and the Helmsley Palace Hotel, and hotels in Florida and other states. The Helmsleys' residences included a nine-room penthouse with a swimming pool atop their Park Lane Hotel; a 28-room estate in Connecticut; a condo in Palm Beach; and a mountaintop hideaway near Phoenix. She flew the globe in the couple's 100-seat jet with a bedroom suite. On July 4, 1976, Harry Helmsley lit the Empire State Building in red, white and blue -- a tribute not to the Bicentennial, but to his wife's birthday, he said. It cost $100,000 -- "less than a necklace," he said. In 2007, Forbes magazine ranked her as the 369th richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $2.5 billion.
Juicy tidbits about the bitch (the old one, not trouble):
"Get out of my hotel, you're not even American!" she shouted to an Asian florist, according to a 2001 lawsuit by former Park Lane Hotel manager Charles Bell, who claimed he was fired for being gay.
"I hate Donald Trump, Donald Trump is gay!" she said, according to a lawsuit.
"It isn't a hotel, darling, it's six!" she reminded The Post's Andrea Peyser, referring to the hotels she ran besides the Park Lane.
"What am I going to lose now, my virginity?" she asked after jurors awarded a plaintiff more than $11 million.
Harry Helmsley, Leona's meek billionaire husband, would often sit quietly by as his gutter-sniping wife chewed out longtime business associates. When he rose to an aide's defense on one rare occasion, Leona growled at him, "You fucking old moron jerk! If you lift your head from that newspaper again, you're in real trouble!"
Leona used to insist on her coffee cup being half-filled because "a full cup will get cold before I can drink it." One time when a Palace waiter went to pour her a cup, the pot turned out to be empty. "I like my coffee a little darker," she scowled. "Mister, you have one foot out of the door here."
A luncheon with several Helmsley decorators came screeching to an uncomfortable halt when Leona spotted water droplets on the lettuce next to the prepared tuna sandwiches. Outraged, she had the servants line up so she could shake the wet foliage in their faces and howl, "Don't you see what you've done? I should fire all of you!"
After receiving a complaint from a guest about her hotel's engineering department, Leona fired the first engineering employee who answered the phone. When the aghast employee informed her he wasn't even on duty, the Queen responded, "I'm sure you're a very nice person, but I never go back on my decisions. You're fired anyway!"
In a span of six months, a Helmsley house manager recalls training 15 butlers, all of whom quit because of Leona's incessant screaming.
Not wanting to pay for renovations on their Connecticut estate, the Helmsleys tried to palm off the expenditures as expenses on their four business properties. This resulted in 235 charges in state and federal indictments brought by Robert Abrams, the New York State attorney general, and Rudi Giuliani. Among the charges were a million dollars for a pool enclosure, $500,000 worth of jade figurines, $1 million marble dance floor, $45,000 silver clock, $210,000 mahogany card table, and a $130,000 stereo (charged as a security expense to the Helmsley Building - - now the MetLife Building). She was also charged with defrauding stockholders by receiving $83,333 a month in secret consulting fees.
The good side of the bitch? (not old one, not trouble):
She was generous to charities, giving $25 million to New York Presbyterian Hospital, $5 million to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort and $5 million to 9/11 charities.
