Who was Leona Helmsley? Everything You Need to Know

Quick Facts

Also Known As: Leona Roberts Helmsley

Died At Age: 88

Family:

Spouse/Ex-: Harry Helmsley (m. 1972–1997), Leo Panzirer (m. 1938–1952)

father: Morris Rosenthal

mother: Ida Rosenthal

siblings: Alvin Rosenthal, Sylvia Roman

children: Jay Robert Panzirer

Business Women American Women

Died on: August 20, 2007

place of death: Greenwich, Connecticut, United States

Ancestry: Polish American

Notable Alumni: Abraham Lincoln High School

Cause of Death: Congestive Heart Failure

U.S. State: New Yorkers

More Facts

education: Abraham Lincoln High School

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Childhood & Early Life

Leona Helmsley was born as Lena Mindy Rosenthal on July 4, 1920 in Marbletown, New York to a Polish Jewish family. Her parents were Ida and Morris Rosenthal. Her father used to make hats for a living while her mother was a homemaker. Her familymoved around the country several times before finally settling in Manhattan. She studied at Abraham Lincoln High School for a few years and dropped out later.

Helmsley changed her surname several times before finally changing her legal surname to Roberts. She worked for a brief period at a sewing factory, after which she joined a New York real estate firm. She eventually became its vice president.

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Career

Leona Helmsley began her career as a hotelier in 1964, first working for Abe Hirschfeld. Eventually she became a condominium broker. Over the course of her career, she became romantically involved with a married multi-millionaire real estate entrepreneur Harry Helmsley in 1968.

She soon joined one of his brokerage firms as a senior vicepresident. Helmsley divorced his wife and married Leona Helmsley in 1972. Meanwhile, she had started facing legal troubles and was sued for forcing the tenants of one of the apartments she managed to buy condominiums.

She lost, which resulted in her being forced to compensate the tenants as well as give them three-year leases. Her real estate license was suspended as well. Therefore, she started working on helping her husband’s hotel empire grow.

The couple started converting their apartment buildings into condos. Harry Helmsley also focused on the hotel industry and built The Helmsley Palace on Madison Avenue.

They also built a real estate empire in New York City, which included 230 Park Avenue, the Empire State Building, as well as the Tudor City apartment complex. They developed several other properties, such as the New York Helmsley Hotel and the Helmsley Palace Hotel. Leona eventually gained direct control of twenty hotels of the chain. Over the years, the Helmsleys amassed tremendous wealth which eventually crossed $1 billion.

She was notorious for her tyrannical behavior and used to fire her employees for the slightest mistakes. She was known to shout at them and insult them just before their termination.

Convictions & Prison Sentence

The Helmsleys had bought the Dunnellen Hall in Greenwich, Connecticut, worth $11 million, which they had planned to use as a weekend retreat. They decided to remodel it, which cost a total of $8 billion. However, they were reluctant to pay it. As a result, they were sued by the contractors and they eventually had to clear their debt.

The Helmsleys were also accused of avoiding tax liabilities. This led to a federal criminal investigation. Their trial was, however, delayed till the summer of 1989 because of Harry Helmsley’s deteriorating health. After he suffered a stroke, he was ruled unfit to stand trial, and therefore Leona had to face the charges alone.

The trial shed light on Leona Helmsley’s tyrannical and abusive behavior towards her employees, contractors, executives, and even family members. Many of her former employees also testified against her. According to one of her former housekeepers, Helmsley had told her “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.” However, Helmsley denied it.

Helmsley was initially sentenced to 16 years in prison, which was later reduced as many of the convictions against her were dropped. Also, with the help of a new lawyer, she eventually managed to reduce her sentence to just nineteen months. She served her sentence from April 1992 to January 1994.

Leona Helmsley spent most of her later years in isolation. Her husband passed away in 1997. She also became estranged from her family and friends, and was reported to live in an apartment with her dog.

In 2002, she was sued by a former employee, who claimed he was fired for just being gay. She was ordered to pay him $11,200,000 in damages, which was later reduced to $554,000.

She also had to give up control of her hotel empire as most of her hotels had bars, and convicted felons aren’t allowed to hold alcohol licenses in New York.

Personal Life

Leona Helmsley was married four times. Her first marriage was with Leo Panzirer in 1938. Their divorce took place in 1952. She was then married to Joseph Lubin twice, with both marriages resulting in divorce. She eventually married Harry Helmsley in 1972 and remained with him till his death in 1997.

Leona Helmsley died of congestive heart failure on 20 August 2007 at Dunnellen Hall.

Her property, which was worth more than $4 billion, was left to the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. She also left $12 million for her dog named Trouble.

Trivia

Though Leona Helmsley had earned the nickname ‘Queen of Mean’ due to her tyrannical behavior, some also considered her generous because of her contributions to charity. She had donated $5 million to help the families of firefighters after 9/11.

Leona Helmsley Biography