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The Tragedy of Brooke Astor: Betrayed by Blood
In August 2013, 89-year-old Anthony "Tony" Marshall faced a parole board from his hospital bed, maintaining he had managed his mother Brooke Astor's finances competently since 1979. Despite his claims of growing her assets from $19 million to $82 million while charging less than professional managers, Tony struggled to justify his actions.
When asked if he had regrets, Tony quietly acknowledged he did. His life had been shaped by a difficult childhood with an abusive father (Dryden Kuser) and a mother who, while loving him "in her own way," had always prioritized the men in her life. Even after distinguished service in the Marines at Iwo Jima and a diplomatic career, Tony found himself in his fifties still seeking his mother's approval while she publicly belittled him.
Throughout her philanthropic career, Brooke maintained her Upper East Side appearance even when visiting housing projects, insisting people "expect to see Mrs. Astor, not some dowdy old lady." Meanwhile, Tony's personal life changed dramatically when, at 65, he fell in love with 43-year-old Charlene Gilbert, the wife of Mrs. Astor's church minister in Maine. Their affair scandalized the small town, especially when both divorced their spouses and Charlene left her teenage children to marry Tony in 1992. Brooke never approved of Charlene.
As Brooke entered her nineties, her memory began failing. At 94, she stepped back from her foundation after distributing some $200 million to New York charities. Though Tony had hoped to inherit leadership of the Vincent Astor Foundation, Brooke crushed these hopes in 1996 by announcing she would dissolve the foundation entirely. "My son is not an Astor," she told the New York Times with Tony beside her. "There is no family to leave it to."
Though Tony would inherit substantial assets-Brooke's Park Avenue apartment (valued at $46 million), Holly Hill, Cove End (worth $7 million), a $5 million bequest, and yearly payments of $4.2 million for life-he worried about his wife's future. At just twenty-two years younger than his mother and having already suffered a heart attack, Tony feared dying before Brooke, which would leave Charlene with nothing as his inheritance would revert to charities.
When Brooke was 98, Tony arranged for her to be tested by Dr. Howard Fillit, who diagnosed her with Alzheimer's. Tony then made a critical mistake: he wrote a detailed seven-page letter documenting his mother's mental decline, noting her struggles with writing, spelling, and math. This letter, dated December 26, 2000, would later become crucial evidence against him.
In January 2002, Brooke modified her will, stipulating that Tony must leave Cove End to his son Philip rather than Charlene-a change that infuriated Tony. Despite her failing memory, Brooke maintained her social schedule, using her lifetime of training to mask her confusion with prepared anecdotes and gracious phrases.
Tony convinced his mother she needed cash and persuaded her to sell her beloved Childe Hassam painting, "Flags, Fifth Avenue," which she had promised to the Metropolitan Museum. He sold it for $10 million but didn't tell her when the dealer resold it for $20 million, nor about the $2 million commission he took.
During this vulnerable period, Tony orchestrated a series of questionable changes to his mother's estate plan. In December 2003, Brooke signed a "First and Final Codicil" that redirected nearly half her estate from charities to a new "Anthony Marshall Fund," giving Tony control of $30 million of Vincent Astor's money. Just a month later, another amendment gave Tony the $60 million previously earmarked for her favorite charities.
By 2006, Tony's son Philip had grown increasingly concerned about his grandmother's welfare. After consulting with former staff members and learning about the will changes, Philip met with David Rockefeller and Annette de la Renta, who joined him in filing a petition for guardianship.
The case exploded onto the front page of the New York Daily News as the "Battle of New York Blue Bloods." The allegations were shocking-the once-grand Mrs. Astor reduced to wearing threadbare nightgowns and sitting on urine-stained furniture in her neglected apartment.
By October 2006, Tony and Charlene agreed to a settlement. Tony relinquished guardianship and his salary, returned $11 million in cash, art, and jewelry, and put up his yacht and Cove End as collateral. The judge granted guardianship to Annette de la Renta and JPMorgan Chase.
On August 13, 2007, Brooke Astor died at Holly Hill, with her caregivers and Annette by her side-but not Tony or Charlene, who was banned from the house by court order. The day after Brooke's death, her guardians filed papers contesting her will and its codicils, alleging incompetence and undue influence.
By November 2007, Tony and Francis Morrissey were facing an eighteen-count indictment for swindling Brooke out of $14 million while she suffered from "diminished mental capacity." After a five-month trial with over a hundred witnesses, the jury found Tony guilty on fourteen counts. He remained free on appeal until June 2013, when he was finally sentenced to one to three years in prison. After just eight weeks, a medical parole board granted his release, finding him too debilitated to pose any danger. A year later, Anthony Marshall, the last Astor heir, was dead.
The battle over Brooke Astor's $185 million estate concluded in March 2012. The court upheld her 2002 will but reversed all the questionable codicils from 2003-2004. Tony's $31 million inheritance was cut in half, and he lost control over his mother's charitable bequests. Charlene kept Cove End and received two mink coats that Brooke had specifically left her-size six coats that would never fit Charlene, a final subtle slight from her mother-in-law.
As Cleveland Amory had observed decades earlier in "Who Killed Society?", the Astors had "rather well proved that by six generations an American Family is about ready to start all over again." The towering Astor legacy had been gutted, made petty and small, coughing its slow way to its inevitable end.
