October 28, 1993 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 station wagon that Doris Duke drove into Eduardo Tirella was towed away. Previously, I interned with the Echoes-Sentinel and The Bernardsville News where I covered local news and events. I earned a bachelor's degree in journalism with a double minor in English and broadcasting and visual media from Seton Hall. Several inch-square, five-foot long sections of iron were torn out. Duke might not have been surprised. 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. The station wagon was hauled away, the gates were repaired and the media disappeared. Cause of death: unspecified. 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. 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. 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. She would marry again, this time to Porfirio Rubirosa, a “Dominican diplomat and international playboy,” as he was frequently described in the tabloids. She was released from the hospital after 30 stitches treating cuts to her lip and chin, but would not be interviewed by police until nearly two days after the event, as questions—and a blinding media glare—only grew more intense. © 2021 Forbes Media LLC. Doris Duke had a lot of money. According to the last revision, dated six months before her October 28, 1993 death, butler Lafferty is primary executor of Duke’s estate. Miss Duke's fortune was estimated this year at $750 million by Forbes magazine. Her physician, Dr. Philip K. McAllister, told reporters she was in shock, and officers wouldn’t formally interview Duke until Sunday afternoon. Doris Duke was also responsible for medical research funding, and programs to assist with child welfare. She is seen above in an undated photo +8 A tow … 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. ``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. She feared her husbands really wanted her checkbook. 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. Duke, then 53, was leaving her Newport, Rhode Island, estate with her close companion of ten years, the interior designer Eduardo Tirella, 42, according to reports at the time. Doris Duke was born in New York City, on November 22, 1912. The voluble doctor didn’t stop there. Public interest in Doris Duke ramped up after Tirella's death. Truckloads of it. 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. 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- … But her only child, a daughter, was born three months premature and died, according to reports at the time. She began getting media attention after she made her society debut in 1930, and she was later presented at Buckingham Palace. Duke was found nearby seemingly in a fog, bleeding from head wounds. 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 … 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. Trust No One: The Glamorous Life and Bizarre Death of Doris Duke. 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. She certainly didn’t care for mine.”. 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. After Tirella died, Barbara Hutton acidly commented, according to Town and Country: “Perhaps Doris didn’t like his taste. October 7, 1966. Executors were named, then banished. Until Doris Duke's death, this would be her principal residence. The car, dragging Tirella’s crumpled body, lurched across two-laned Bellevue Ave. and hit a large tree.”. Doris Duke’s adopted daughter has ended her fight to gain control of the late billionaire’s fortune in exchange for a $65-million settlement from the estate. 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. Headlines show coverage from 1966. I was editor-in-chief of The Setonian, Seton Hall University's student-run and award-winning newspaper. Location of death: New York City. Newport police chief Joseph Radice told reporters that she told them that “suddenly the car leaped forward and I was on top of him.”. Doris Duke Death Doris passed away on October 28, 1993 at the age of 80 in Beverly Hills, CA. Payette’s declaration bolsters a $30 million breach-of-contract and harassment suit brought by two other Duke employees against Lafferty. 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.”. Retrieved July 25, 2010. Many believe she killed him. She later established the Doris Duke … A North Carolina university renamed itself for him _ after receiving $40 million. Doris's cause of death was pulmonary edema. As a teen-ager, Doris sued her own mother for control of the Duke estate. 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? Tirella drove the two down the driveway before getting out to open the mansion’s front gates, as Duke slid over to the driver’s side. In Depression-era America, everyone was fascinated by the willowy and beautiful blond heiress. This time, though, it all went terribly wrong. 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. ``The `butler’ word they like,″ Lafferty recently told the Los Angeles Times. Tirella reportedly died instantly. Tammy Payette, 27, the nurse who accuses Lafferty of murder, recently suffered a serious credibility blow. Cause of death for the elderly woman, bedridden following a series of strokes, was listed as heart failure. ``Buck″ Duke amassed an obscene fortune by introducing Lucky Strikes into pop culture. Doris Duke (November 22, 1912 – October 28, 1993) was an American heiress, horticulturalist, art collector, and philanthropist. Payette claimed the doctor conspired in the killing with Lafferty, who was left $5 million outright and $500,000 a … Payette has said she is not a plaintiff in any lawsuit. “This is an extraordinary case,” Nugent told reporters. I serve as an assistant editor on the Leadership team at Forbes. Rumors notwithstanding, Police Chief Radice would rule Tirella’s death “an unfortunate accident.” He added, “As far as I am concerned, the case is closed.” Nugent, the attorney general, never apparently questioned the investigation, and the case was closed. ↑ "Doris Duke Feted at Newport Dance". 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. He is Irish-born Bernard Lafferty, 50, who waited on Duke for the last seven years of her life. Remains: Cremated (ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean) Gender: Female. ``Because the butler always `did it.′ ″. As he opened the gates, she would then usually drive the car through as he closed them. 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 … The New York Times. Doris Day, versatile singer, actress, TV star, animal activist and radiant icon of sunny, funny femininity, died early Monday at age 97. If Duke’s money had been a curse to herself while she was alive, it seems to have had the same effect on her distant relatives. She was the only child of tobacco and hydroelectric power baron James Buchanan Duke and Nanaline Holt Inman, his second wife. 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 and Duke would divorce within a year, and he would marry another famous society figure: Woolworth heiress and longtime Duke frenemy Barbara Hutton. Her marriage ended shortly after. Doris Duke died at her Falcon's Lair home on October 28, 1993, at the age of 80. Doris Duke hires Bernard Lafferty as her butler at the Duke Farms estate. An autopsy reportedly showed that Tirella died from a brain hemorrhage, multiple fractures and internal injuries. She kept her 55-foot yacht docked nearby. Duke was found negligent in a civil trial and was ordered to pay $75,000 to Tirella’s family. 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. She has been gone for more than a year now, leaving one of the largest charitable foundations in American history. “Wealth does not bring happiness,” he told a reporter. Doris Duke. Birthplace: New York City. Romano appealed the court’s decision, alleging that the jury’s award was inadequate, but it was dismissed. Fauci offered this advice while speaking with Maurine Knighton, program director for the arts at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, about the … Duke had crashed the rental car into a tree. I am an assistant editor who writes about leadership and the C-suite. Eventually, all evidence at the site that there had been an accident vanished. “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. LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Doris Duke trusted no one. Tobacco heiress Doris Duke was the only child of American tobacco baron, James Duke. And the rumors grew quickly. Kivowitz attorney Leonard Levine claims it was Payette who administered Duke’s final and massive doses of morphine, exceeding Kivowitz’s prescribed dosage. Doris Duke death quick facts: When did Doris Duke die? Neither Lafferty nor his attorney responded to interview requests. Then age 53, Duke was leaving her estate with the 42-year-old Tirella, whom she had known for 10 years. Some of her residences are managed by the Doris Duke Charitable … In a January court declaration, she stated that Duke ``did not die of natural causes″ but from large doses of morphine prescribed by Dr. Charles Kivowitz, a new Duke physician. 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. He remains in this position until Doris Duke's death in 1993, after which he becomes the executor and pivotal figure in … Doris Duke, who died in 1993 aged 80, insisted that Eduardo Tirella's death was an accident. Duke would spend much of her time in Hawaii, where she poured money into a second home she somewhat uncreatively named Shangri-La, near Diamond Head, on Oahu. The Doris Duke Foundation is still operational as a private entity that provides grants. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. “And I’m convinced that enormous wealth brings great handicaps.”. Her Doris Duke Charitable Foundation gives away hundreds of millions of dollars, championing good causes around the world. 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. When she was born, the press called her the 'million dollar baby.' Doris Duke's estate in Newport, Rhode Island. A hearing in Manhattan Surrogate’s Court, where Duke’s estate is stuck in probate, is scheduled for Tuesday. He promptly placed her in a secure, private room, which made it impossible for state investigators to question her. By 1935, at age 22, she married James H. R. Cromwell, a diplomat who was soon named U.S. minister to Canada. 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. 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. 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. There seemed nothing he couldn’t buy. Not her friends, not her two husbands, not even her own mother. A separate probe is underway here, where Duke died, by Los Angeles police. In the two years before she died, Duke rewrote her will at least six times. August 24, 1930. p. N8. An autopsy is impossible because her body was cremated two days after her death. “It was something we’d done a hundred times before,” she reportedly told police. To be precise, $1.2 billion. At issue is whether to unseal a report by attorney Richard Kuh, assigned by the court to investigate nurse Tammy Payette’s murder allegations. Payette claimed the doctor conspired in the killing with Lafferty, who was left $5 million outright and $500,000 a year for life in the will. Doris Duke dating history, 2021, 2020, list of Doris Duke relationships. In 1966, socialite Doris Duke's friend died in a freak accident. “They must guard against fast friendship for fear the friend is only a friend of the dollar,” as the Daily News put it. Previously, I interned with the Echoes-Sentinel and The Bernardsville News where I covered local news and. 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