Helmsley, Harry Brakmann

▪ 1998

      American real-estate investor and property developer whose New York holdings, which included the Empire State Building, were valued at their height at about $5 billion but who came to be overshadowed by his second wife, Leona, who was dubbed "the Queen of Mean"; when in 1988 the Helmsleys were charged with tax evasion, Leona was convicted and spent time in prison, but Harry was found mentally unfit to stand trial (b. March 4, 1909—d. Jan. 4, 1997).

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