NY's 'Queen of Mean' Leona Helmsley dies
Billionaire hotelier Leona Helmsley, the so-called "Queen of Mean" who was famously quoted as saying 'only little people pay taxes' and who later went to prison for tax evasion, died on Monday at the age of 87.
Her epic fall from New York's high society to serving 18 months behind bars captured world attention in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Books were written about her and her story became a 1990 TV movie starring Suzanne Pleshette.
She denied uttering the famous quote which nonetheless became her hallmark.
Helmsley was a former model and twice-divorced real estate agent when she met Harry Helmsley, a multimillionaire real estate investor who was married at the time. They wed in 1972.
At the couple's zenith, Harry Helmsley was worth $5 billion. His company controlled some of New York's finest hotels and managed the Empire State Building.
In advertisements, Leona was the welcoming spokeswoman of the couple's hotel chain and billed as "the queen" of the Helmsley Palace hotel.
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Source - Reuters
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