Son Who Looted Brooke Astor Fortune Dies

Anthony Marshall was jailed last year at 89
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 1, 2014 11:12 PM CST
Updated Dec 2, 2014 1:56 AM CST
Son Who Looted Brooke Astor Fortune Dies
Anthony Marshall is shown in this inmate photo provided by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.   (AP Photo/New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision)

Anthony Marshall served with distinction in World War II, was a CIA operative and a US ambassador to several countries, produced a Tony Award-winning Broadway play, and wrote seven books—but he's going to be remembered for swindling his elderly mother out of millions while she was suffering from Alzheimer's. Marshall, who died in New York City on Sunday at the age of 90, was convicted in 2009 of scheming with a family lawyer to loot the $180 million fortune of his late mother, socialite and philanthropist Brooke Astor, the Washington Post reports. The trial, which included testimony from many celebrities, brought up allegations of elder abuse and financial mismanagement before Astor's death in 2007 at 105.

Marshall's legal problems began in 2006, when one of his sons filed a lawsuit accusing him of "intentionally and repeatedly ignoring her health, safety, personal and household needs, while enriching himself with millions of dollars" to fund his aristocratic lifestyle, the New York Times reports. Prosecutors accused him of misdeeds that included changing his mother's will to give money to himself instead of charities, and he was found guilty on 14 out of 16 counts. Marshall was sent to prison last year after an appeal failed, but he was paroled eight weeks into a sentence of one to three years because of health problems. "It is a paradox to me," the judge said at his sentencing, "that such abundance has led to such incredible sadness." (More Anthony Marshall stories.)

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