Leona Helmsley

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Leona Mindy Roberts Helmsley (July 4, 1920 – August 20, 2007) was an American businesswoman known for her flamboyant appearance and her reputation for tyrannical conduct, earning her the title Queen of Means after allegations of non-payment were made against Helmsley's Connecticut home, where she was charged with federal income tax evasion and other crimes.

Despite receiving a sixteen-year sentence, she was only expected to complete nineteen months in jail and two months under house arrest.

A former housekeeper testified during the trial that "We don't pay taxes; only the little people pay taxes," an aphorism that identified her the remainder of her life.

Early life

Leona Helmsley was born Lena Mindy Rosenthal, a Polish-Jewish immigrant, Ida (née Popkin), a homemaker, and Morris Rosenthal, a hatmaker. Her family moved to Brooklyn when she was still a child and six times before settling in Manhattan. She renamed herself several times over a short period, from Lee Roberts, Mindy Roberts, and Leni Roberts, before eventually being directed by Leona Mindy Roberts and having her surname changed to Roberts.

Roberts' first husband, Leo Panzirer, who died in 1952, was her sister who divorced in 1952. Jay (1940–1982), the couple's sole son, had four children with his mother, Mimi, when they married. At the age of 42, Jay died of heart disease at a young age. Leona was married to and divorced from her second husband, clothing industry executive Joseph Lubin, twice. She joined a New York real estate firm, where she eventually became vice president after a brief stint at a sewing factory.

Roberts was a chain smoker who was downing many packs a day. She would later claim that she appeared in billboard ads for Chesterfield cigarettes, but that assertion is unsubstantiated.

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Career as a hotelier

In 1968, when Roberts was working as a condominium broker, she met and began her involvement with then-married real estate entrepreneur Harry Helmsley. She joined BROWN Harris Stevens, one of Harry's brokerage companies, as a senior vice president two years ago. She was already a millionaire in her own right at the time. On April 8, 1972, Harry divorced his wife of 33 years and married Roberts. The marriage may have boosted her career, as several of her tenants had retaliated against her for compelled them to buy condos earlier this year. They won, and she was not only compelled to compensate the tenants but also to provide them with three-year leases. Her real estate license was also suspended, so she concentrated on Harry's burgeoning hotel empire.

Harry, allegedly under her clout, initiated a scheme to turn apartment buildings into condos. He later concentrated on the hotel industry, constructing the Helmsley Palace Hotel on Madison Avenue. The Helmsleys, along with 230 Park Avenue, the Empire State Building, and the Tudor City apartment complex on the East Side, as well as Helmsley-Spear Inc., their management and leasing operations. The couple also owned hotels in Florida and other states, including the Helmsley Palace Hotel, the New York Helmsley Hotel, the Park Lane Hotel, and hotels in Florida and other states. Leona Helmsley had direct control of twenty-three hotels in the chain by 1989.

Helmsley was portrayed in an ad campaign portraying her as a cynical "queen" who wanted nothing but the best for her guests. The slightest mistake was usually dismissal, and Helmsley was already known to yell insults and profanities at wounded employees right before they were dismissed.

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