It is expected to continue for at least two weeks. © 2021 Forbes Media LLC. One accusation propels this tale into the realm of Agatha Christie. “Wealth does not bring happiness,” he told a reporter. In Depression-era America, everyone was fascinated by the willowy and beautiful blond heiress. America's Top Givers: The 25 Most Philanthropic Billionaires, EY & Citi On The Importance Of Resilience And Innovation, Impact 50: Investors Seeking Profit — And Pushing For Change. The American Tobacco Company heiress belonged to a well-known American aristocracy with names like Vanderbilt, Rockefeller and du Pont, her every move scrutinized by gossip columnists, and she always had to be on high alert to people who might just be looking for a payday. James Buchanan Duke Birthday, Real Name, Age, Weight, Height, Family, Death Cause, Contact Details, Wife, Affairs, Bio & More He was also famous from other names as Buck. Public interest in Doris Duke ramped up after Tirella's death. Lafferty, who hobnobs in Beverly Hills, claims he wants nothing more than to get on with administering the Duke foundation. Natal Astro Chart: Doris Duke Biography, Wikipedia, Bio, Age, Doris Duke Birthdate (Born * … He remains in this position until Doris Duke's death in 1993, after which he becomes the executor and pivotal figure in … “This is an extraordinary case,” Nugent told reporters. The station wagon was hauled away, the gates were repaired and the media disappeared. “And I’m convinced that enormous wealth brings great handicaps.”. Payette claimed the doctor conspired in the killing with Lafferty, who was left $5 million outright and $500,000 a … Her physician, Dr. Philip K. McAllister, told reporters she was in shock, and officers wouldn’t formally interview Duke until Sunday afternoon. Doris Duke dating history, 2021, 2020, list of Doris Duke relationships. Many believe she killed him. She was the only child of tobacco and hydroelectric power baron James Buchanan Duke and Nanaline Holt Inman, his second wife. The court also gave Doris title to the Fifth Avenue house, which she gave to New York University in 1957, and Rough Point, a huge Vanderbilt "cottage" in Newport. I can make a judgment independent of the police in the matter if necessary.”, But the slow speed of the police investigation clearly concerned the Rhode Island attorney general, J. Joseph Nugent, who soon announced he would ask police for a full report. Doris Duke death quick facts: When did Doris Duke die? Get Forbes' daily top headlines straight to your inbox for news on the world’s most important entrepreneurs and superstars, expert career advice, and success secrets. Tammy Payette, 27, the nurse who accuses Lafferty of murder, recently suffered a serious credibility blow. The Doris Duke Foundation is still operational as a private entity that provides grants. Then age 53, Duke was leaving her estate with the 42-year-old Tirella, whom she had known for 10 years. While the cause of death was not immediately clear, Mr. Lafferty had acknowledged severe problems with alcohol and was known to have taken a variety of … Doris Duke was also responsible for medical research funding, and programs to assist with child welfare. She later established the Doris Duke … One of Tirella’s eight siblings, Alice Romano, filed two negligence suits of $1.25 million each, one against Duke and another against Avis, which provided the rental car Duke had been driving. Doris Duke had a lot of money. Doris Duke was born in New York City, on November 22, 1912. Duke had crashed the rental car into a tree. As a teen-ager, Doris sued her own mother for control of the Duke estate. To be precise, $1.2 billion. According to the last revision, dated six months before her October 28, 1993 death, butler Lafferty is primary executor of Duke’s estate. At issue is whether to unseal a report by attorney Richard Kuh, assigned by the court to investigate nurse Tammy Payette’s murder allegations. Public interest in Doris Duke ramped up after Tirella's death. Duke was cremated 24 hours after her death and her executor, Bernard Lafferty, scattered her ashes into the Pacific Ocean as her last will specified. The cause was progressive pulmonary edema resulting in cardiac arrest, according to a spokesman. ``Buck″ Duke amassed an obscene fortune by introducing Lucky Strikes into pop culture. As he opened the gates, she would then usually drive the car through as he closed them. Duke might not have been surprised. The front page of The Newport Daily News on Oct. 8, 1966, the day after tobacco heiress Doris Duke was involved in a fatal incident at her home at … Doris Day, versatile singer, actress, TV star, animal activist and radiant icon of sunny, funny femininity, died early Monday at age 97. Capricious, vain and more than a little odd, she carried her father’s deathbed admonishment to her own. Remains: Cremated (ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean) Gender: Female. The cause of death was not reported. And in the end, after a life filled with high living and fast friends including Imelda Marcos and Gloria Swanson, Duke died surrounded by the hired help. A nurse who tended Duke’s deathbed at Falcon Lair, the Beverly Hills estate once owned by Rudolph Valentino, now claims the 80-year-old recluse was murdered. There seemed nothing he couldn’t buy. Duke was said to change her will often, replacing her nephew Walker Inman Jr. as executor with her butler, Bernard Lafferty. I serve as an assistant editor on the Leadership team at Forbes. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. Duke was found negligent in a civil trial and was ordered to pay $75,000 to Tirella’s family. Newport police chief Joseph Radice told reporters that she told them that “suddenly the car leaped forward and I was on top of him.”. She began getting media attention after she made her society debut in 1930, and she was later presented at Buckingham Palace. ISBN 978-1-892323-17-0. It was about 5 p.m. on a Friday in October 1966 when the millionaire heiress Doris Duke—hounded by gossip columns for decades—drove her car into infamy. In 1966, socialite Doris Duke's friend died in a freak accident. ``The `butler’ word they like,″ Lafferty recently told the Los Angeles Times. Doris Day Birth Date April 3, 1922 Death Date May 13, 2019 Place of Birth Cincinnati, Ohio Place of Death Carmel Valley, California Full Name Doris von Kappelhoff Who Was Doris Day? She certainly didn’t care for mine.”. As she once told a journalist in 1945 over a glass of wine at the Hassler Hotel in Italy, “All that money is a problem sometimes.”. Her Doris Duke Charitable Foundation gives away hundreds of millions of dollars, championing good causes around the world. Duke was released from the hospital. The station wagon that Doris Duke drove into Eduardo Tirella was towed away. Retrieved July 25, 2010. Duke was found nearby seemingly in a fog, bleeding from head wounds. Previously, I interned with the Echoes-Sentinel and The Bernardsville News where I covered local news and. When asked about such a possibility, Duke’s doctor, McAllister, pronounced it “unthinkable,” according to the Daily News, saying the two “were devoted.” Besides, there was “no evidence of alcohol in the blood of either Miss Duke or Tirella,” according to McAllister—who just happened to also be the state’s acting medical examiner, according to New York magazine. She married twice, both times briefly. Vivisphere Publishing. I earned a bachelor's degree in journalism with a double minor in English and broadcasting and visual media from Seton Hall. James Buchanan Duke Born: 23-Dec-1856 Birthplace: Durham, NC Died: 10-Oct-1925 Location of death: New York City Cause of death: unspecified Remains: Buried, Duke … Born: 22-Nov - 1912. “Because she had the money and the power, Doris Duke succeeded in effectively erasing his death from the narrative of her controversial life,” Lance writes. Miss Duke's fortune was estimated this year at $750 million by Forbes magazine. When Duke died in 1993 at age 80, she left the majority of her fortune, her properties and art collections to the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, endowing it with approximately $1.81 billion, which is doled out in grants and supports three museums and centers on properties that Duke owned in Honolulu, Newport, and Hillsborough, New Jersey. People only wanted her for her money, Duke believed. And after he died of a drug overdose in 2010, there was great mystery over how his fortune—once believed to be $1 billion—had dwindled to possibly just $60 million. I am an assistant editor who writes about leadership and the C-suite. Eighteen months after Doris Duke's deathbed nurse alleged that the tobacco heiress was murdered with overdoses of drugs, the criminal investigation into Duke's death has finally ended- … “It was something we’d done a hundred times before,” she reportedly told police. That's what Peter Lance is asking in Vanity Fair about Tirella's 1966 death at the hands of his employer, America's richest woman—tobacco heiress Doris Duke. He is Irish-born Bernard Lafferty, 50, who waited on Duke for the last seven years of her life. McAllister told the New York Daily News that subjecting Duke to police questions so soon after the tragedy would have been “inhumane.”, “This is an extraordinary case. The voluble doctor didn’t stop there. All Rights Reserved, This is a BETA experience. The New York Times. Location of death: New York City. Doris Duke’s Butler, Bernard Lafferty, Discovered Dead in Bed LOUINN LOTA November 5, 1996 LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Bernard Lafferty, the pony-tailed butler whose control over tobacco heiress Doris Duke’s billion-dollar estate led to accusations that he killed her, was found dead in his bed. ``The richest girl in the world″ they called her in 1925, when at age 12 she inherited the cigarette empire of her father, James Buchanan Duke, founder of the American Tobacco Co. ``Trust no one,″ he told his only child as he lay dying. And the rumors grew quickly. October 7, 1966. She kept her 55-foot yacht docked nearby. In effect, the man legally charged with determining the official cause of death had gone on Doris Duke’s payroll.” McAllister told a reporter Duke needed 30 stitches. But her only child, a daughter, was born three months premature and died, according to reports at the time. Rubirosa would become notorious for all the famous women he was said to have romanced, including Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, Joan Crawford, Rita Hayworth, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Evita herself, Eva Perón. Doris Duke died at her Falcon's Lair home on October 28, 1993, at the age of 80. By 1935, at age 22, she married James H. R. Cromwell, a diplomat who was soon named U.S. minister to Canada. ``Because the butler always `did it.′ ″. Tobacco heiress Doris Duke was the only child of American tobacco baron, James Duke. In effect, the man legally charged with determining the official cause of death had gone on Doris Duke's payroll." LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Doris Duke trusted no one. You may opt-out by. Lafferty was set to receive a $5 million fee and $500,000 a year for life (Duke’s dogs were left a $100,000 trust fund), but he died in 1996, and she reportedly left Inman only $7 million in a trust. “I can make a judgment independent of the police in the matter if necessary.”. Payette’s declaration bolsters a $30 million breach-of-contract and harassment suit brought by two other Duke employees against Lafferty. Some of her residences are managed by the Doris Duke Charitable … October 28, 1993 I serve as an assistant editor on the Leadership team at Forbes. He promptly placed her in a secure, private room, which made it impossible for state investigators to question her. She feared her husbands really wanted her checkbook. As the New York Times would later report, there was speculation that Duke had been drunk behind the wheel and that it wasn’t an accident after all. Doris's cause of death was pulmonary edema. As the New York Daily News recounted at the time, the car “struck the heavy, 15-foot high, 20-foot wide wrought iron gate with such force that the gate sprang open. Trust No One: The Glamorous Life and Bizarre Death of Doris Duke. Cause of death: unspecified. 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