Duke's friends, family, and acquaintances viewed this as a very disturbing development. In her 70s she adopted a 35-year-old belly dancer and Hare Krishna Chandi Heffner, but then disinherited her. He asked her if she wanted any help and if she wanted him to call police, and he said she screamed at him to leave. She said she had run over Ed., Returning to the station wagon, the police took another look. A handsome gay man in his 40s, Tirella was a designer and had for a decade served as Dukes artistic advisor, refurbishing her houses and appraising antiques. Her prize piece, however, may have been the Cartier Belle Epoque diamond garland necklace that James Buchanan Duke purchased for her mother in 1908. COLUMN ONE : A Tale of Money and Mystery When the couple divorced the next year, Rubirosa walked away with an annual allowance equivalent to $250,000 today as long as he did not remarry, a coffee plantation, a string of polo ponies, several race cars, and a mansion in Paris. She Adopted a 35-Year-Old Woman When Duke was 27 years old, she delivered a premature baby daughter who died just 24 hours after being born. The group called itself the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), and its members released a video confirming Hearst was their hostage. She also became interested in the performing arts. As she aged, the scandals accrued. In the muggy lowlands of Robeson, A State Divided: HB2 And Transgender Rights, Committee on Inclusion Diversity Equity Accountability, WUNC Public Radio, LLC Board of Directors, Donovan X. Ramsey's book is a 'people's history' of the cocaine epidemic, Is there life after Twitter? "Duke, Doris She paid Tirellas siblings $5,620 each for her role in his death at the same time she was making $1 million a week in interest on her fortune, according to Lance. He theorized that Tirella jumped on the hood in order to save himself. But Walker said his father made him swear to never tell anyone what he had seen. And his recollection of events matched a police investigator who concluded that Duke struck Tirella once, sending him onto the hood of the car, then when he fell off, accelerated again and ran him over. A Friday. The police chief later bought two Florida condos. Rockefeller may have been richer, but his fortune was spread thin. Still, Doris inherited $30 million. In 1988, exiled First Lady of the Philippines and shoe enthusiast Imelda Marcos ran afoul of the American justice system when she was arraigned on federal racketeering charges. The local police ruled Tirellas death an unfortunate accident. Duke was found negligent in the death of Eduardo Tirella and escaped the trial without any criminal liability. The foundation expected to approve approximately $14 million in new grants in 2003. American Tobacco Company heiress Doris Duke jaunted glamorously from Hawaii to Manhattan, constantly followed by paparazzi looking to catch a glimpse of the six-foot-tall postwar socialite.. Discuss North Carolina politics. Next she applied at the Office of Strategic Services (the precursor to the CIA), where she was hired as a spy and sent to Italy. She bought an old airplane from a Middle Eastern businessman. "The more I believed there was to be no passion on my honeymoon," Duke said later, "the more I shopped." Market data provided by Factset. She just decides to go for it, and thats when she runs him over and drags him across the street.. She gave $25,000 to restore the Cliff Walk, a pedestrian walking path around her home, and $10,000 to the Newport Hospital. She had wanted to attend college, but her mother would not allow it. How old was Doris Duke's daughter when she died? What I say goes. Duke's net worth has been estimated to have been around $1.2 billion. Duke later said that Patton's trademark knee-high boots were "a marvelous turn-on.". In 1985, she met Chandi Heffner, a 32-year-old Hari Krishna devotee. She grew up in residences described as "American castles." A wealthy businessman and philanthropist, James Duke contributed his name and money to various institutions. https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/duke-doris, "Duke, Doris She walked rapidly through the house, a witness told police. "I read a Facebook page for Newport residents and every three or four months someone brings this up. 4. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Hollywoods bear market growing stronger with Cocaine Bear, Doris Duke twins lose bid to sue over junkie dad who blew their billions, $1B Doris Duke fortune managed by a once-bankrupt lawyer, Duke heirs forced to play Russian roulette. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. Her inheritance (more than $1 billion in today's dollars) made her not only "the richest girl in the world" but also, in the days before MGM began minting movie stars, its most famous, a constant obsession of ravenous press and paparazzi. Duke leaving so much money to her butler raised a lot of eyebrows, and accusations started to fly that Lafferty and Duke's doctor had conspired to hasten the heiress' death. She died without family or friends nearby. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. Walker, in a telephone interview, said he never bought the official account of the death and went to police as a civic duty. Duke allegedly paid Rubirosa's first wife a million dollars to leave him, and their romance quickly took off. In 1947, the tobacco heiress, at the time considered the world's richest woman, bought another big-ticket item: Porfirio Rubirosa, the Dominican Don Juan, seducer of heiresses and screen sirens and owner of a famous anatomical advantage. Billionaire'S Heir Out of Place Duke not only lacked her mother's social self-consciousness, she also courted scandal. The two women started out as friends, but Duke began lavishing increasingly more extravagant gifts on Heffner, including a 290-acre horse ranch in Hawaii. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. In 1947, Duke married Dominican playboy Porfirio Rubirosa, who was legendary in Europe for his sexual prowess. In February of this year, journalist Peter Lance published Homicide at Rough Point, which draws on newly uncovered evidence, from police reports to photos of the crime scene, to argue that Duke killed Tirella with intent.. The pay-off was chump change by Duke standards; the real treasures lay thousands of miles away at Shangri La, her splendid Hawaiian estate. Bernard Lafferty, the Butler For Doris Duke, Dies at 51 News of the hasty marriage shocked everyone. Her close circle of friends would include a strange cast of characters. When Doris Duke, a fabulously wealthy tobacco and power company heiress, ran over and killed a longtime employee and confidant at her Newport, Rhode Island, mansion in 1966, police took her at. It was around 4 p.m. when the 53-year-old and her confidante of 10 years, decorator Eduardo Tirella, drove away from her mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, to attend an appointment with the president of the local preservation society. ." ." Peter Lance, an author and journalist whose meticulously researched book, "Homicide at Rough Point," investigated the killing and recently interviewed Walker, who was 13 years old in 1966. On the day of the incident, 13-year-old Walker was biking to Rough Point to deliver a newspaper when he heard two people arguing. Tirella had worked as a designer for Duke for several years. 2023 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. When she was 21, she established the Independent Aid foundation, which later became the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. At this point, Duke suffered from severe depression. The older man warned his son that Duke was a "rotten person" who "had some people on her payroll who were very unscrupulous.". When Doris Duke, a fabulously wealthy tobacco and power company heiress, ran over and killed a longtime employee and confidant at her Newport, Rhode Island, mansion in 1966, police took her at. When he came on the scene, he said he saw Duke get out of a car and move her body to block his view. Bob Walker, a Marine Corps veteran, says he was there the day Duke killed 42-year-old Eduardo Tirella, driving into him twice with a 2-ton station wagon as he screamed below it. Doris Duke Timeline | Duke University Libraries Durin, Duke University: Distance Learning Programs In-Depth, Duke University: Distance Learning Programs, Duke, Doug(las) (originally, Ovidio Fernandez), Duke, Patty 1946- (Patty Duke Astin, Anna Duke-Pearce, Anna Pearce), Duke, Vernon (originally, Dukelsky, Vladimir), https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/duke-doris. facebook Her father, James Buchanan "Buck" Duke, founded the American Tobacco Company and, with brother Newton Duke, the Southern Power Company, later known as Duke Power, a Duke Energy Company. Duke would never marry again. Market data provided by Factset. Today, Rough Point, like many of the grand old Newport mansions, is open to the public. In this June 17, 1971 photo, heiress Doris Duke and her attorney Aram Arabian, leave Superior Court in Providence, R.I. Fox News Flash top headlines for August 5. Inman Jr. was also close to his aunt, Doris Duke, the twice-divorced. Doris Duke and Barbara Hutton Rivalry By the end of 2002, DDCF had approved 363 grants totaling more than $335 million to nonprofit organizations throughout the United States. 'Homicide at Rough Point': Doris Duke's killing of longtime employee Newport is this strange kind of a place where everyone is connected to everyone else, he says. On the other hand, when Duke's father died in 1925, he left the bulk of his $80 million estate to his only child, 12-year-old Doris. According to stories, Duke and Tirella were lovers, and Tirella had planned on leaving her. She established the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which continues to fund grants for medical research, the environment and the performing arts. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Duke's will specifically instructed that her former adopted daughter should not receive any inheritance: "I am extremely troubled by the realization that Chandi Heffner may use my 1988 adoption of her (when she was 35 years old) to attempt to benefit financially under the terms of trusts created by my father. Doris Duke was the only child of James Buchanan Duke, the founder of the American Tobacco Company. Only Lafferty was at her side. For years, rumors would circulate about the Duke family and, later, especially about Doris. She released the parking brake and the car accidentally leaped forward, pinning Tirella at the iron gates and crushing him to death. The Secret History of Doris Duke's Famous Hawaiian Mansion, Shangri La [1] Her great wealth, luxurious lifestyle, and love life attracted significant press coverage, both during her life and after her death. She stopped abruptly, flinging Tirella off the hood and into the road, probably breaking his hip and leaving the skin and blood residue on the ground. "The narrative that was accepted by the cops was not the narrative that I remembered," he said. At age 12, Duke inherited $50 million from her father, James Buchanan Duke, according to Lance. Encyclopedia of World Biography. The vast amount of money that Duke gave to Newport shortly after Tirellas death was seen by some in Newport as blood money given to overshadow the record of her involvement with Tirellas death, according to Lance. In this June 17, 1971 photo, heiress Doris Duke and her attorney Aram Arabian, leave Superior Court in Providence, R.I. (AP). While Duke was quite a philanthropist, she wasn't just giving money to the filthy rich Marcos. Those who knew Duke believed her death came as a result of overmedication. But instead of interrogating the suspect, Lance found evidence that the police agreed to create an interview transcript that Duke would then simply sign. Bill Duke has enjoyed a long and unique career as both an actor and director in theater, television, and film. After reading Lances book, Walker last month went to police to give investigators his account of events, which he had only previously shared with a small circle of family and friends, and in response, local police are reexamining the case even though Duke died in 1993. The Doris Duke Cold Case Reopens: The Only Known Eyewitness Speaks Sometime in the '80s, a renowned art scholar visited the house and informed his hostess that the contents alone might be worth more than $1 billion. Doctor Caused Doris Duke's Death With Overdoses, Report Says And his recollection of events matched a police investigator who concluded that Duke struck Tirella once, sending him onto the hood of the car, then when he fell off, accelerated again and ran him over. They divorced in 1943. Although the Foundation's directors carefully gave out the monies as stipulated in Duke's will, Lafferty began to spend money lavishly. Duke amended her will to authorize her executors to recover all of the loans to Marcos once things settled down in the Philippines. Duke would mourn the loss the rest of her life. On September 1, 1947, while in Paris, Duke became the third wife of Porfirio Rubirosa, a . Yet of all her possessions, none was more precious than Shangri La. She was described by newspapers as the richest girl in the world.. 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. Duke would spend the rest of her life enjoying a series of high-profile love affairs and dabbling in philanthropy and horticulture. A few minutes later at around 5 p.m., the pair headed out to a meeting. The car ended up careening across the street where it struck a fence and tree. However, public pressure quickly forced him to walk back that decision. In 1968, Duke founded the Newport Restoration Foundation to restore some of Newport's oldest structures and to revitalize tourism. . This is consistent with marking on the gates that suggest someone was forced up on the hood of the car. But new evidence now challenges that account. Mr. Lafferty played a major role in the life and death of Miss Duke, heiress to the American Tobacco Company fortune. In 1991, Duke, who was now 79 years old, ended her relationship with Heffner and reversed the adoption. Meanwhile, rumors and speculation about Duke's behaviors and affairs, which would plague her all of her life, had began circulating in the press and high society. When tobacco heiress Doris Duke died last October, she left a will that shocked even those who had known her best. very self conscious and felt extremely uncomfortable by all of the public attention that the family name drew to her. She even floated Marcos cash to cover her legal fees. Like any self-respecting billionairess, when Duke died in 1993, in addition to chests heaped with rough diamonds, silos full of 18th-century French furniture, and vast sums of money in accounts across the globethe dispensation of which was framed in a 45-page last will and testament that cost the estate well over $10 million in legal bills to disentangle--she left a lot of clothing. It was speculated that this was an appeasement for something that had happened in that town two years before. When I was a cub reporter, the town was buzzing with this rumor.. It doesnt get any more baroque and corrupt than that, Lance says. Duke was cremated within 24 hours and her ashes scattered into the Pacific Ocean. Doris Duke at age fourteen. Ignoring Chandi Heffner, the latter-day flower child whom she adopted in. Back at the station, Mather typed up his report, but a sergeant appeared, yanking it out of the typewriter and crumpling it. However, Lafferty wasn't the world's best executor. She also became involved in restoration projects in Newport, one of America's oldest towns. Tragic Details About These Heirs And Heiresses The police report said Tirella was crushed against the gates. Horst P. Horst Duke's fortune came from her father, a tobacco magnate named James Buchanan Duke who tragically passed when she was just 12 years old. A California court deemed Lafferty unfit to handle such an important charity. Duke died in 1993, aged 80. But her marriage was a sham, and Duke spent the late 1930s living unapologetically with Duke Kahanamoku at Shangri La while conducting simultaneous affairs with Errol Flynn in L.A. and an aristocratic MP in London. Duke claimed that Tirella was pinned against the gates and crushed, but his autopsy report stated that he had sustained no injuries to his lower body. The 1966 Dodge station wagon roared across the street in Newport, Rhode Island, smashing through a fence before coming to a stop against a tree, its front almost completely caved in. Duke University bears the family's name. They discovered a disoriented middle-aged woman bleeding from the mouth and yelling for someone named Ed.. According to Lance, sergeant Fred Newton, who was at the crime scene moments after the incident, initially concluded that Duke murdered Tirella through a series of intentional acts. Doris tightfisted ways were legendary. Did Billionaire Tobacco Heiress Doris Duke Get Away With Murder? Duke University in North Carolina is named for her family. The press and the public developed a fascination for the lives of the rich and famous. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, She liked music and became an accomplished jazz pianist and wrote songs. Thats what happened, according to Dukes account of the incident. They were well-worn and bore the stigma of frequent repairs. Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. We'll get to her in a moment.]. Eccentric heiress Doris Duke did not leave any heirs, but she enhanced many people's lives through the reported $1.3 billion she left to foundations Duke was involved in philanthropy, contributing vast amounts of money to AIDS research, medicine, education and child welfare. Hear poetry from NC's poet laureate. Duke and James Cromwell with surfers Sam Kahanamoku (left) and Chick Daniels in Waikiki, circa 1935, Duke with Andy Warhol at Studio 54 in 1977, Duke, in a seal-skin coat, boards a Pan Am flight to Paris, 1947, A 19th-century mosaic tile gateway opens to a manicured paradise, .css-o05pt{display:block;font-family:Didot,Didot-fallback,Georgia,Times,serif;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:0rem;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;text-shadow:0 0 0 #000,0 0 0.01em transparent;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-o05pt:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-o05pt{font-size:1.18581rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0.25rem;margin-top:0.625rem;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-o05pt{line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-o05pt{font-size:1.23488rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0.5rem;margin-top:0rem;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-o05pt{font-size:1.39461rem;line-height:1.2;margin-top:0.9375rem;}}The Unknown Librarian Who Saved Queer History, How Women in Endurance Racing Are Making History, Juneteenth and Black Americas Love of Horses. In three years, Duke and Cromwell would be divorced. However, everything didn't turn out beautifully for the mother and her possibly reincarnated daughter. In addition to her artistic pursuits, she developed a passion for restoration. I think Radice probably thought, I could benefit from this [case]. (Her father was fanatic about germs.) Encyclopedia.com. 1966 Death of Heiress Doris Duke's Employee Under Renewed Scrutiny - WUNC At the time she died, Duke's estate was worth over one billion dollars. " It was true. Duke and Porfirio Rubirosa in Paris before their 1947 wedding. twitter, Duke field hockey counters Princetons aggressive offense en route to victory, 'I'm ready': Duke men's lacrosse star Nakeie Montgomery joins football team, 'Feels like it happened yesterday': Revisiting Aaron Lorenzo Dorseys death at the hands of a DUPD officer, 11 years later, DKU voted for a new mascot. J.B. Duke purchases the Rough Point estate in Newport, R.I. 1922 Dark Side. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Eager to be useful amid the wreckage of World War II, Duke had recently moved to Paris, where she worked as a fashion writer for Harper's Bazaar at a salary of some $50 per week. Pictured above: Duke had recently moved to Paris, where she worked for Harper's Bazaar at a salary of some $50 per week. Get the hell out of here! she screamed at him three times, Walker said. It will go to preventive programs an programs to help people quit e-cigarettes. Two years after delivering that horrible dinner table prediction, Buck was dead. Director, actor According to one of Duke's biographers, she paid Darrieux $1 million to divorce Rubirosa. See our upcoming events and sign up to attend. "Doris Duke," DivasThe Site,http://home2.planetinternet.be/verjans/Society_Divas/doris_duke_a.htm (January 8, 2003). A heavyset. You never know where WUNC's events will take you. Read the previous installments here. In 1964, she opened them to the public. Her homes reflected her interests. "This is one of those stories that is still talked about in Newport," said Lance, a city native who got his first reporting job at The Newport Daily News several months after Tirellas death. He also was given a payment of over $4 million dollars and a lifetime annuity of $500,000. Five days after Tirella was killed, the case was closed for good. After giving the matter prolonged and serious consideration, I am convinced that I should not have adopted Chandi Heffner. He says the Duke case always gnawed at him. James Buchanan Duke, a tobacco and energy mogul, left his daughter around $100 million, which earned her the title "the richest girl in the world" and made her something of a national celebrity. I t was about 5 p.m. on a Friday in October 1966 when the millionaire heiress Doris Dukehounded by gossip columns for decades . The U.S. government was allegedly so concerned about Rubirosa making off with Duke's fabulous wealth that it decided to intervene to force the groom to sign a prenuptial agreement. Retrieved June 29, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/duke-doris. She refused to tip taxi drivers. 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I had visions of you doing your paper route and a truck running over you, and that would be the end of it., In the 1970s, Walker began telling close confidants his account of Dukes murder, which was etched into his brain.. Doris Duke (November 22, 1912 - October 28, 1993) was an American billionaire tobacco heiress, philanthropist, art collector, horticulturalist, and socialite. Police called it an "unfortunate accident." Angel says that the day after the tragedy, his training officer took him back to the scene of the crash to demonstrate that the evidence suggested a different scenario than what would become the official one. Throughout the decades, she collected insatiably, and after she died, the public saw for the first time her extraordinary English and French furniture, Asian and Islamic art, rare wines, and gems. They later ran across each other in Russia when Duke was traveling as a correspondent for Hearst, and they became lovers. Lafferty died in November 1996, reportedly depressed and bitter. 94.1 Lumberton 99.9 Southern Pines. Peter Lance, an author and journalist whose meticulously researched book, Homicide at Rough Point, investigated the killing and recently interviewed Walker, who was 13 years old in 1966. I read a Facebook page for Newport residents and every three or four months someone brings this up., Walker, now 68, says in a video interview with Lance released Thursday by Vanity Fair that he never went to police to tell them what he saw that day on the advice of his father, who feared for his sons life. As students return to campus, heres how administrators see it as a potential unifying symbol. Although Marcos and her husband were allegedly worth billions at the time of their arrests, the authorities froze most of the couples' assets, which made posting Imelda's $5 million bail a bit tricky. Duke was later taken to the hospital, where she spent the night, sheltered from police by her doctor. In 1925, The Second-Richest Person In The World Was A 12-Year-Old Girl But when he read Lances Homicide at Rough Point, he realized Newtons account of events matched what he had heard that evening biking up to Rough Point: there had been two crashes. During World War II, Doris worked in a canteen for sailors in Egypt. Officers' stun guns made contact three times with Darryl Tyree Williams before he died at a hospital after being handcuffed, according to the report. She gave $10,000 to Newport Hospital, where a doctor had kept her sequestered from police. Signup for our weekly newsletter. Duke was not officially questioned until two days after the accident. Doris Duke, the Last Gilded Age Socialite of Newport This theory is corroborated by the autopsy report, the death certificate, the missing negative and other pieces of forensic evidence and surviving officers of the Newport Police Department. Walker, who was on his bike delivering The Newport Daily News, told Lance he first heard "two people obviously arguing and screaming at each other.". Murdered, Walker said. On the last day of Eduardo Tirellas life, he arrived at the Rough Point estate to tell Duke that he planned to leave his job as her art curator to pursue his budding Hollywood career, according to Lance. Duke slid into the driver's seat to drive the car through the gates. Specifically, it awards grants in four programs: arts, environment, medical research, and child abuse prevention. Duke's 1935 marriage had released her at last from under her mother's thumb. In London, she presented her socially withdrawn daughter as a debutante. By the early 1930s, Duke had begun to chafe under the control of her domineering mother. He took his employer to her home in Beverly Hills. She was often called "the richest girl in the world". She answered four brief queries while lying in bed at Rough Point, surrounded by her pet dogs and lawyers. A bad. While her contemporaries Babe Paley and C.Z. Patty Hearst, granddaughter of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, was kidnapped at her college apartment at Berkeley by a terrorist group at the age of 19 in February of 1974. On Oct. 7, 1966, billionaire tobacco heiress Doris Duke was driving away from her mansion in Newport, R.I., when she crushed her longtime employee Eduardo Tirella with a two-ton station wagon. The October 7, 1966, crash has always been dismissed as an unfortunate accident. But now, a new book claims the incident was much darker than that. She had relationships with some well-known men. The murmurs got so loud that the Los Angeles District Attorney's office investigated the allegations before ruling there was "no credible evidence" that any of them were true. 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