Contested: $300 million
Feuding parties: Anna Nicole Smith and E. Pierce Marshall
Large Assets
He was 86; she was 23. They met in a Houston strip club. Less than three years later, they were married. Thirteen months later, he died. And that is the short story of J. Howard Marshall II, the oil tycoon, and Anna Nicole Smith, the Playboy Playmate. Smith claimed that Marshall had promised a share of his estate, but he had not put her in his will. Following his death, Smith began a 20-year legal battle with Marshall’s son, a fight that would outlive her. She would ultimately receive nothing. Smith died at age 39 from an overdose of prescription drugs.
4. J. Seward Johnson Sr.
Worth: $400 million
Winners: Barbara Piasecka, third wife
Losers: Depends on how you look at it.
Return to Bleak House