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  Ms. Ball and Gary Morton were married from 1969 until her death in 1989.

  Her estate plan may have a miscalculation. In the section about personal effects, her estate planning documents had standard language leaving personal effects to her then husband, Gary Morton.

  Her estate plan also included a trust, still purportedly operating in 2007, to benefit her daughter initially, and later to benefit her grandchildren. While the trust is not public, at the time of her death, her estate was estimated to be about forty million dollars.

  Personal property is distinguished from real property (called real estate).

  Gary Morton died in 1999, and he left all of his personal possessions to his current wife. That included a lot of Lucy items like awards, autographed pictures, love letters, a 1984 Rolls Royce and other gifts.

  In 2010, Gary Morton’s second wife decided to sell the Lucy items. Learning about the auction, Lucy’s daughter sued to stop the sale claiming that she 'should' have those items. The judge didn’t agree but said if she could put up a bond, the sale could be delayed until the court sorted things out. The daughter didn’t have enough cash to buy the bond. Her attorneys then negotiated with the auction house, returning awards to be donated to a museum. The remainder of the items sold at auction for about $230,000.

  What did Lucy intend? The Rolls Royce may have been owned jointly with her then husband. Or, since it was rumored to be a gift to him, it may have been in his name alone. The love letters may have been from Gary, Desi or both, as reports differ.

  Many of the personal items were engraved costly cigarette lighters. A cigarette manufacturer was one of the sponsors of the I Love Lucy show. Both Desi Arnez and Gary Morton died of lung cancer.

  The mystery is what she intended. We’ll never know. Was the provision for the personal property to go to her second husband an oversight? She could have made other provisions for her children to have the items if that's what she wanted.

  The lesson here is that if you have personal items, you can name a person or persons to receive those items after your death.

  Please, Don't Publish My Diary

  Named Betty Joan Perske at birth, she later changed her last name to the Romanian form of her mother’s last name, Bacall.

  At age twenty, (in 1944) Lauren Bacall married Humphrey Bogart, who was then forty-five years old. The marriage ended with his death in 1957. She was married to Jason Robards from 1961-1969 and the marriage ended in divorce.

  Ms. Bacall is survived by three children and several grandchildren.

  The first paragraph of her will is purported to leave $10,000 to one of her sons for the care of her Spaniel, Sophie.

  Her estate, estimated at over 26.6 million dollars is divided among family members, with some bequests to employees.

  One provision of her will asked that her family respect the privacy of certain letters, diaries and other writings. Bacall wrote two autobiographies and died in August of 2014 at age 89.

  What's in the first paragraph of your will? How do you feel about your personal documents?

  Happy Birthday Elvis!

  While we celebrate the King's birthday (1-8-35), by listening to his awesome music, we can also learn lessons from his estate plan.

  In 1977, Elvis Presley died at the age of 42. Five months before his death he signed a will and trust to dispose of his worldly goods. His plan was unusual for a man in his forties.

  When making an estate plan, we usually plan far into the future.

  Elvis did that and he planned for the people around him when he signed his estate plan. He provided for his daughter, father and grandmother. Yes, all three of them outlived him. In an unusual move, he made provisions for any relative in need of emergency help through the lifetime of his father. In other words, he considered the people currently depending upon him at the time he drafted his will.

  Elvis used a trust to hold his daughter’s inheritance until she reached her 25th birthday. Lisa Marie was nine years old at the time of his death.

  Here is a summary of the Elvis estate lessons: provide for the people around you at the time you make your estate plan as well as for the future; consider using a trust so that you can delay inheritance until your beneficiaries are mature enough to handle money, and update your estate plan so that it represents what you want. (Elvis signed his last will only five months before he died).

  One of the witnesses to his will lived on Elvis Presley Boulevard.

  Don’t assume that trusts are better suited for the rich and famous more than everyday individuals. To protect your assets and your decisions, make a list of assets, decide who you want to inherit and who you want to be in charge. Have your will prepared by an attorney. Keep your will up to date.

  Mama Cass Elliot

  Saving Paper

  Occasionally I write something and then hunt for the document, on the computer or on paper. The document, when missing, gains in brilliance as my panic escalates. When will I learn to back up and be organized? As my general disposition is to teach about the law, especially in my writing, I’ll give you an example of saving an important document, written by a third party, wrapping up your financial picture, your will.

  The most important document that likely will be ghost written, by an attorney, is your will. The original document signed by you and the witnesses needs to be located promptly after your demise in order for a court to recognize it and distribute the wealth.

  Mama Cass Elliot, a radiant singer with the Mamma’s and the Papa’s in the 70s, died in 1974 at age 32, leaving behind a minor daughter, mother, sister and brother. Her estate was insolvent, with more debt that assets. Although she executed a will, it was not located when she died.

  A few years after Mama Cass died, a resurgence in her music caused the insolvent estate to turn into a healthy estate. Under intestacy laws, her estate went to her minor daughter. Without the will, the court and costs of administration likely diminished the amount the child would have available for her care. Due to the lack of a will, a minor court directed guardianship was set up instead of perhaps a family member managing the money with lower overhead costs.

  Intestacy laws set out who will inherit your estate and who will have priority to nominate an administrator. They apply if you do not have a will or if all or a part of your will fails.

  In 2011, the Last Will and Testament of Mama Cass was located by an archivist at the law firm where the will was prepared. Cass Elliot died twenty seven years before her will was located. An archivist in this context was not defined.

  Her brother and sister sued the law firm that wrote and stored the original will, (and conducted the probate and minor guardianship administrations) alleging that had they produced the will when she died, their mother (deceased before 2011) would have received a share of the Mama Cass probate estate and when their mother died, they would have inherited that money.

  Not much has been in the news about the story after the suit was filed, suggesting an out of court settlement in the malpractice matter. The lesson you can take from this is that when you write, you need to back up and identify the file to locate it when it’s needed. When you write a will, you must tell someone where it is so your wishes will be followed if and when you go to that big rock concert in the sky.

  Planes and Race Cars First

  Paul Newman, was a class act. Initially recognized for his acting and good looks, he went on to use his wealth for philanthropic means. I still swoon a little over this combination.

  As his life appeared organized and straightforward, his will was too. It contained an unusual executor provision, took a position on loans and set the age his grandchildren would inherit.

  He also grouped his property, here are a few of the groups: airplane and racecars; awards and household goods; a promissory note from one of his daughters; royalties and residuals from acting; publicity and IP rights; real estate, and finally the residuary clause. A residuary clause covers everything else not provided for earlier. It can also
contain bequests that fail.

  His will named two co-executors and gave the right to select a third co-executor to his two daughters although they could not serve as co-executor. This may ward off the usual antagonism between the estate administrators and the beneficiaries who often second guess and complain about the way the estate is managed.

  His grandchildren were not to inherit their share of the estate until they reached age thirty five.

  His Last Will was signed in April, and he passed away in September of 2008.

  What did his will teach us? If you have particular possessions, you can list them in categories. Although some wills or estate plans forgive loans, his did not. Nominating executors come with options. You may want to delay inheritance for some of your children or grandchildren. It makes the money go farther.

  The other thing that was unusual was that he used a will in combination with trusts. A large number of wealthy people use trusts as the primary estate plan.

  Wills are usually public documents, while trusts are not. Today, trusts can do more than wills and are used by ordinary people who are one movie short of Hollywood.

  Scrimshaw

  John F. Kennedy, Jr. 1960-1999

  At 38, John Kennedy Jr., his wife and sister in law died when their plane plunged into the ocean.

  The son of late President John F. Kennedy, John Jr. signed his first trust in 1983, when he was twenty three years old.

  Kennedy was married in 1996.

  His last will and testament was dated 12-19-97. It included an amendment to the trust dated 1983 and made provisions for his wife and any children they might have in the future.

  The trust amendment, while not public, left ten trustees in charge.

  His sister Caroline’s children inherited the personal property that passed under his will. He asked that whoever received his personal property dispose of certain items in accordance with his wishes. The items were not identified in the will. Anthony Radziwell, his cousin was the first named executor.

  His nephew was the taker for his scrimshaw set, previously owned by President Kennedy. Scrimshaw consist of etchings on whale bones.

  What lessons come from his estate plan? While few men at age twenty-three consider an estate plan, Kennedy enjoyed considerable wealth and was likely counseled to make plans. The second lesson was that after his marriage, he revised his will.

  You don’t need Kennedy wealth to protect your assets with a will or trust. When you have a big life event, such as marriage, divorce, having children or similar big ticket items, revising your will is a real good idea.

  Dead People Without Wills

  Here is a list of people who died without a will:

  Abraham Lincoln (died in 1809 at age 56);

  Howard Hughes (died in 1976 at age 71);

  Stieg Larsson (died in 2004 at 50);

  Barry White (died in 2003 at 59);

  Jimi Hendrix (died in 1970 at 28);

  Sonny Bono (died in 1998 at 63);

  Pablo Picasso (died in 1973 at 92);

  Billy Holiday (died in 1959 at 44) and

  John Denver (died in 1977 at 54).

  Part Two

  Samples of Fiona Gavelle Mysteries

  My adventure into writing mysteries started when I heard Miriam Grace Monfredo talk about her mystery books. In them, she taught about the history of the women’s rights movement. This fascinated me.

  One day, a judge threatened to arrest me, I started to write the story in my mind. When things settled down, my blood was still boiling at the treachery and I wrote a short story murdering the problem person, at least on paper. In this business I have a lot of material for murder. Out of that experience, Judge vs. Nuts was born.

  Here is a list of my work to date:

  Judge vs Nuts (Debut mystery, second edition 2015);

  Not Safe for the Bank(er) (a novellette) (2013);

  Dorothy Daisy (a novellette) (2014);

  Die Judge Die (a novellette) (2015), and

  Judge vs Michigan (2016 release anticipated).

  Judge vs. Nuts

  Judge vs. Nuts was originally released in 2012 by a small publisher. It is my debut novel. The second release was in March of 2015, making me a completely independent author.

  © 2015 by Una Tiers

  Gavelle Press

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, without written permission from the author.

  Brilliant Cover Gad Savage, Photograph by Una Tiers

  Second Edition, 2015

  This is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and events are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously to protect the innocent and the not so innocent. The information about the magnificence of Chicago, Illinois is real. A few places have been rearranged for privacy and my amusement.

  Prologue

  “Stupid judge,” and the lock clicked with the finality of a coffin closing.

  Chapter One

  “Fiona, you heard that Judge King passed away, didn’t you?” Adam Curie asked.

  “The judge from the reception?” I half answered.

  “Yes.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.” I didn’t want to admit how out of touch I am. I don’t read the newspaper much.

  “You could make some contacts at the funeral.”

  “Can I pass out business cards?”

  He laughed gently, “What time will you pick me up?”

  Chapter Two

  The day of the funeral it was clear, sunny and four degrees. This is average January weather in Chicago, Illinois.

  During these bitter spells, conversation automatically includes the wind chill factor. It is obscene, hovering about twenty or thirty degrees below zero. We all speak as if it was the first harsh winter ever. Eyelashes freeze and things in your nose, well you can guess.

  The funeral consisted of church and burial. Mass was held at the historic St. Somewhere Catholic Church in the west loop.

  The term ‘loop’ means many things in Chicago, Illinois. Geographically it describes a five by six block area springing around State and Washington Streets.

  Technically the term ‘loop’ refers to a set of elevated transit tracks that outline where the city started, not far from the shores of Lake Michigan. The term ‘loop’ also refers to anywhere that you can walk or take a short cab ride to from the general area of where the elevated trains run. Each year the area expands south and west with condominiums born from old factories and warehouse structures, branching out to include the terms west loop and south loop.

  Here we don’t use the term “east” too much because Chicago was built on the shores of Lake Michigan.

  The area is diverse and includes offices, stores, restaurants, the stock exchange, banks, high rise condominiums, the main library, courts and other government buildings. If you have never visited Chicago, you should, everyone enjoys it.

  Since I was with the always popular Judge Curie, I was welcomed warmly at each and every introduction. Some of the introduction smiles had a knowing glance and salacious smirks at the judge that offended me. Nonetheless this was a dramatic improvement from the judge’s night reception just a week earlier. I was introduced to judges, politicians and lawyers and after the third introduction they all looked alike and I couldn’t remember one new name.

  Judge Curie and I have a driving relationship. He is invited everywhere and I drive. We met a month back and are an item. We even go to funerals.

  When the mass ended, we followed tradition and the casket to the waiting hearse. The funeral guys had already fixed little flags onto the hoods of the cars. Then they walked from car to car to remind us to put our headlights and blinkers on. We also had to be reminded to follow the car ahead of us. All told we were waiting in the car for a long time for the procession to start.

  I don’t like funeral processions because they are inherently dangerous, even though driving through red lights is fun. The custom is also barb
aric if you think about it just a little. Participants risk getting cut off from the herd or getting hit by some driver who isn’t paying attention to the divergence of the regular traffic pattern. This ironically could generate more business for the very people who advocate funeral processions, the undertakers.

  Now and then I worry that my evil nature will cause me to turn into a drive through car wash or hamburger place just to see who follows. For this reason, when I am unsupervised, I usually make sure that I am the last car in the procession.

  After the forty-five minute drive, with no near death experiences and no comic interludes we arrived at All the Holy Saints cemetery, where the suburbs begin at the city’s west border.

  I was lucky that Judge Curie was quiet so that I could concentrate on driving. A few times he reached up for the overhead grip and acted as if a train was heading straight for my car. His quiet criticism of my driving was not appreciated.

  At the cemetery, the funeral guy directed the cars to park two across on the narrow (but plowed) roads.

  We waited while the pallbearers struggled to maintain their footing, slipping and sliding a little while they carried the coffin from the hearse to the grave.

  “What would happen if they dropped him?” I whispered.

  The judge flushed and scolded me with one eyebrow, while his eyes betrayed his amusement.