The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty

by Taraborrelli, J. Randy

  “Well, I’m sorry, too. Because, yes, I am going into that room,” Zsa Zsa said.

  “Oh no, you are not,” Frances countered. She suggested that the two of them go for a cup of coffee to calm down, because Conrad wouldn’t want them to be arguing at this time. For a moment it looked as if Zsa Zsa was weighing her options. But then she said, “No, Frances. I need to see him.”

  “At that point, a doctor, two nurses, two friends of Mrs. Hilton’s, and I had run down the hall to come to her aide,” recalled Phyllis Bradley. “We gathered protectively around her. Now Miss Gabor was outnumbered. ‘Why, this is outrageous,’ she said, looking around her. ‘Who are you people to prevent me from seeing my Connie?’ she asked. ‘I have known him longer than any of you! I have known him since I was a young girl! And you,’ Miss Gabor said, turning her attention to me. ‘You should at least have some loyalty to me. After all, you used to work for me!’ I said, ‘That is, until you fired me for no good reason.’ Flabbergasted, she exclaimed, ‘Oh my God. You bring that up now?’ ”

  Zsa Zsa must have known she was fighting a losing battle. “Okay,” she abruptly decided. “I leave.” Then, turning to Frances, she added, “I’ll never forgive you for this, you… you… you…” It was as if she were—at long last—finally at a loss for words. She finished with, “… you frump!” Then Zsa Zsa Gabor turned on her heels and clacked down the hallway, still holding her little Christmas tree, head held high, but seething nevertheless.

  Conrad Hilton: Rest in Peace

  Conrad Nicholson Hilton died at 10 p.m. on Wednesday, January 3, 1979, at the age of ninety-one.

  As well as his children—Barron, Eric, Francesca—and his wife, Frances, “Connie” was survived by three of his sisters: Eva Hilton Lewis, Helen Buckley, and Rosemary Carpenter. Among his three sons, he had fourteen grandchildren.

  Conrad Hilton had enjoyed a singular lifetime full of triumphs. Not only was he revered by everyone from Hilton employees with the most menial of jobs to high-level directors of his Hilton Corporation, but he had also been lauded over the years by fellow hoteliers with whom he’d competed for business. He was true to his word and honest in a business world where the norm was to be deceptive and cutthroat. More than just a hotel magnate, he’d also been commended for his religious and political views by American presidents as well as dignitaries from around the world. His patriotic and spiritual influence was felt strongly, especially in the 1950s when the threat of Communism was foremost on the minds of most Americans. Conrad Hilton actually made Americans care—about their country, about their faith, about each other.

  A funeral mass was held for Conrad at his parish, St. Paul’s Church in Westwood, California. A memorial mass was also held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, attended by dignitaries and politicians from around the world.

  Conrad Nicholson Hilton was buried in Calvary Hill Cemetery in Dallas.

  The Way He Wanted It

  When Conrad Hilton died, he left behind a liquid fortune of approximately $200 million, which in today’s dollars would be worth roughly $6 billion. Besides that amount, he held at least $500 million in stocks. Hilton had, throughout his storied life, dedicated himself not only to his work in the hotel business, but also to his many philanthropic endeavors through the Conrad Hilton Foundation. He was a man who had always believed—and everyone in his life knew it—that no one deserved a free ride. His sons, Nicky, Barron, and Eric, had all worked within the company and had all benefited financially from their jobs. They weren’t given anything by their father—they had to earn it. He let them find their own way, succeed or fail on their own merits. So it wasn’t much of a surprise to his heirs that they would receive just a minuscule portion of Conrad’s fortune.

  Conrad’s last will was written and executed six years before his death on October 31, 1973.

  First things first: Zsa Zsa. She had campaigned long and hard for a place in her second husband’s will, hopefully for herself but definitely for her daughter, Francesca. So how did it turn out? For her, not so well. Conrad declared that he was unmarried at the time his will was executed, and further affirmed that he was legally divorced from his last wife, Sari G. Hilton (Zsa Zsa). He also stipulated that he had already entered into a property settlement agreement with her, referring to the terms of their divorce so many years earlier. Therefore, she was to receive nothing more. That die had been cast as early as 1973—many years before Conrad had even thought of marrying Mary Frances Kelly. Therefore, Frances’s presence in his life had done nothing to influence his decisions where Zsa Zsa was concerned. Conrad had once promised Zsa Zsa that she would get “exactly” what was coming to her, and apparently with his death, the time for that promised to be fulfilled was at hand. She got nothing.

  Conrad further acknowledged that he had “only three living children, namely William Barron Hilton, Eric Michael Hilton and Constance Francesca Hilton,” and that he had made provisions for them in his will. Before getting to those provisions, however, it was his desire, according to the will, that he be buried next to his brother August Harold Hilton in Dallas. Further, all of his automobiles, jewelry, and personal effects should be divided between Barron and Eric.

  Finally, it was time to divvy up his fortune to his heirs.

  For Barron—$750,000, not in cash but in shares of stock in the Hilton Hotels Corporation or Trans World Airlines or both.

  For Eric—$300,000, again not in cash but in shares of stock in the Hilton Hotels Corporation or Trans World Airlines or both. (That’s $200,000 less than he had willed to Nicky all the way back in 1955, in his will of that year!)

  Considering the vastness of his estate and their importance to his company, these were obviously not large sums for his sons. There was also a provision of the will that gave Barron Hilton an option to buy his father’s shares of common stock of the Hilton Hotels Corporation at the value appraised by the estate. Barron immediately announced his intention to purchase a large block of shares by using a ten-year promissory note. However, as it would happen, this transaction would turn out to be easier said than done. Barron would be in for a long, protracted legal battle where this effort was concerned.

  Conrad’s widow, Frances, was not named as a beneficiary of the estate. It was stated that she had signed a marital agreement before her marriage to Conrad, and though the amounts were not stated in the will, her family maintains that she was given a lump sum of $1 million, and $50,000 a year for life.

  “To my daughter,” Conrad’s will states, “Constance Francesca Hilton, the sum of one hundred thousand dollars.” Again, considering his fortune, it doesn’t sound like much money, but $100,000 at the time would be the equivalent of almost $3 million today. It’s also worth noting that after so many years of controversy about her paternity, Conrad did seal forever the answer to the question, at least as far as the world was concerned. In death, he referred to Francesca as his “daughter,” just as he had always done in life.

  Two of Conrad’s sisters, Helen Buckley and Rosemary Carpenter, received $50,000 each. His fourteen grandchildren—from Nicky, Barron, and Eric—each received $15,000. (Perhaps it’s a measure of Conrad’s increasingly tight hold on his money that his grandchildren benefited less as Conrad accumulated more. According to his 1955 will, his grandchildren were to receive $25,000 each, $10,000 more than they were given in the 1973 will—and he was certainly worth a lot more in 1973.) Moreover, a total of twelve nieces and nephews received $10,000 each.

  Olive Wakeman, “my valued friend and administrative assistant,” was bequeathed $75,000.

  Conrad’s trusted butler, Hugo Mentz, received $30,000.

  To a nun, Sister Francetta Barberis of Washington, D.C., Hilton bequeathed “my star sapphire ring.”

  To the California Province of the Society of Jesus, Conrad willed $100,000.

  Everything else—everything else—was to go to the Conrad Hilton Foundation to then be earmarked for charity. Basically, all totaled, Conrad Hilton had willed to
his heirs and friends a little more than just $1.5 million of his $200 million estate ($700 million if including stocks)—or as the attorneys for the Conrad Hilton Foundation would succinctly put it in one legal brief, “He chose to devise less than 1% of his entire estate to his relatives and close associates or employees, and give the balance to charity.”

  An eloquent missive from Conrad followed, addressed to the directors of the foundation that bore his name:

  There is a natural law, a Divine law, that obliges you and me to relieve the suffering, the distressed, and the destitute. Charity is a supreme virtue, and the great channel through which the mercy of God is passed on to mankind. It is the virtue that unites men and inspires their noblest efforts. Love one another, for that is the whole law; so our fellow men deserve to be loved and encouraged—never to be abandoned to wander alone in poverty and darkness. The practice of charity will bind all men in one great brotherhood.

  Be ever watchful for the opportunity to shelter little children with the umbrella of your charity; be generous to their schools, their hospitals and their places of worship. For, as they must bear the burdens of our mistakes, so are they in their innocence the repositories of our hopes for the upward progress of humanity. Give aid to their protectors and defenders, the Sisters, who devote their love and life’s work for the good of mankind, for they appeal especially to me as being deserving of help from the Foundation.

  He mentioned specifically the Sisters of Loretto, “as it was this order who first established educational institutions in my home state of New Mexico.” He also mentioned the Sisters of the Sacred Heart as “another order that I have assisted in Chicago, but there are many deserving support in other fields, particularly hospitals.”

  Conrad Hilton’s words were powerful and moving, his intention quite clear: Charity—not family and not friends—was to receive the bulk of his estate. He had drafted thirty-two wills and codicils since 1946, all under the legal advice of the same attorney, James Bates. None of those wills had ever left large sums of money to family members. Rather, all of them had left the vast majority of his wealth to charities. It was always the way he wanted it.

  PART THIRTEEN

  The Fight of Their Lives

  Francesca Contests the Will

  Despite the relatively small amount of stock in the Hilton Corporation bequeathed to them by their father, Barron and Eric Hilton would most certainly remain financially solvent. Both already held considerable stock and other annuities in the company, which were worth many millions. According to Conrad Hilton’s lawyer Myron Harpole, Barron was worth about $26 million at the time of his father’s death—in other words, he didn’t really need that $750,000 in stock. Actually, it would seem that the division of stock bequeathed to the sons by their father was more a formality than anything else. It would have been much more advantageous to Barron, Eric, and their own heirs if Conrad had actually given them control of his huge empire, but he didn’t and there wasn’t much they could do about it. It was as if Conrad had decided that his sons should be the custodians of the dynasty that he had built—but not necessarily the owners.

  Conrad Hilton was a complicated man. Most observers were perplexed by his reasoning when it came to his family and his vast empire. True, he wanted the company to remain in the family and continue to flourish, yet he did not want his sons to have complete control over it. Most people don’t know how Barron and Eric felt about this judgment—neither would ever think to speak out publicly in a critical way about their father. As coexecutor of the estate along with James E. Bates, Barron was well aware of the specifics of the will at least a year before his father’s death, and he made no effort to change Conrad’s mind about any of it, at least according to his later testimony. It’s also likely that he warned Eric in advance, lest his younger brother get his hopes up where the estate was concerned. Neither brother, however, had the kind of close relationship with Francesca where they would confide in her. Therefore, although she was painfully aware of Conrad’s frugal nature, Francesca was still dismayed at the relatively small amount of her inheritance. Along with her surprise came disappointment and then anger. It was as if, even in his death, she was being slighted by the man she had called “Daddy” for her entire life.

  At the time her father died, Francesca Hilton was thirty-one. She was a strong-willed, outspoken woman, like her mother, and in many ways like the man she had always looked to as a father figure. She’d spent most of her life seeking acceptance from Conrad and the other Hiltons, and it could be argued she never really got it. Now she decided that her only course of action was to contest the will, one of the points her mother made clear in a meeting with one of Hilton’s attorneys, her good friend Gregson Bautzer, shortly after the reading of the will.

  “Now do you see?” Zsa Zsa asked Gregson as the two spoke of recent events. She was very upset, holding the thick last will and testament in her hand and repeatedly smacking it on the lawyer’s desk as she spoke. “For years, everyone has been saying, ‘Oh, that Zsa Zsa, she’s so ridiculous,” she continued. “Oh, that Zsa Zsa, she’s so money hungry. Well, I guess I knew him better than anyone, didn’t I, Greg?”

  “You have to calm down,” the attorney told her. As Conrad’s lawyer and Zsa Zsa’s longtime friend, Bautzer once again found himself in a tough position. He reminded her that Francesca needed her full support during this difficult time. “You’ve always been hard as nails, Zsa Zsa,” he said. “Now is not the time to fall apart.”

  “It’s just that my daughter doesn’t deserve this embarrassment,” Zsa Zsa said, trying to compose herself. She conceded that while she and Conrad certainly had their fair share of problems, “Francie was never to blame for any of it. You have always been on our side, Greg,” she added. “You know this isn’t right.”

  “You raised a tough, smart kid,” Gregson said. He believed Francesca could get past this present unpleasantness. “After all, it’s only money, Zsa Zsa,” he remarked.

  “Oh, please don’t be so patronizing,” Zsa Zsa said. “It’s not becoming to either one of us. And besides,” she added, “this is the real world we’re living in, not some fairyland.” She observed that money usually equated to power, especially for women. Money also meant independence. “Money matters a great deal,” she declared, “and the only people who don’t think so are people who have it.” When Bautzer noted that Conrad had not completely excluded Francesca from his will, Zsa Zsa made the point that he had bequeathed her only $25,000 more than Olive Wakeman. “And how does that make sense?” she asked, raising her voice. “You tell Conrad’s people that we will fight this thing,” Zsa Zsa said as she gathered her things to leave. “If it’s a family war they want, they will get it. Wills can be broken,” she concluded. “And Francie will do just that,” she added. “I assure you, she will.”

  No matter her determination, taking on Conrad Nicholson Hilton’s estate would not be easy for Francesca. After all, the estate had what seemed like an endless supply of money and high-powered attorneys to litigate such legal wrangling. Francesca had nowhere near the same resources available to her. As it would happen, fighting for what she believed should be her rightful inheritance—at least $50 million, or, in the words of her attorney Robert D. Walker, “to be treated in the fashion a daughter ought to be treated”—would come at a steep price to her privacy. This would be no private affair. Named as defendants in the case would be all of the other beneficiaries: As well as her siblings, Barron and Eric, that would include all of their children (and Nicky’s too); all of Conrad’s grandchildren; his sisters; his nieces and nephews; his other close associates such as Olive Wakeman and Hugo Mentz; and dozens of nuns and priests and other people associated with the many charities now benefiting from Conrad’s estate. In effect, it meant that all of those people would be, by law, privy to the many filings associated with Francesca’s case, including copies of the thirty-one prior wills and codicils of Conrad Hilton, many of which declared the embarrassing fact that he did
not recognize her as his daughter.

  Unbeknownst to Francesca, in all of the wills Conrad Hilton had prepared between 1947 and 1955, he stated clearly that she was to receive no money from his inheritance, not a dime. He vaguely referred to her as “the daughter born to Zsa Zsa Gabor.” But then, in 1955, when Francesca was eight, Conrad apparently warmed up to her and had a change of heart, because in his will of June 3 that year, he decided to be more generous. He acknowledged her as his daughter and left her $50,000 in trust. In years to come, Hilton would repeat that $50,000 bequest to Francesca. Then, in his will of October 1960, he would double that inheritance to $100,000, remove the trust, and make the amount an outright bequest. However, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Francesca Hilton would be unaware of any of these private decisions until the dawn of the legal action they were about to mount.

  Additionally, Francesca would have to be deposed—as would her mother—about her private relationship with Conrad. Copies of those lengthy and revealing depositions would then be readily available not only to each and every defendant in the case and their many attorneys and associates, but also to anyone else interested as a matter of public record. Still, despite this enormous invasion of her privacy, Francesca decided it was worth it. She wanted to fight. No. She needed to fight.

  For the next few years, Constance Francesca Hilton would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars engaged in this legal war. Zsa Zsa, of course, agreed with her daughter’s position. Mother and daughter now found themselves aligned in the fight of their lives, not just for money for Francesca, but also for recognition.

  Besides the cost to Francesca Hilton’s privacy, the fight would come at another huge risk. In many wills written by wealthy people, it is stipulated that when one of the recipients contests the will, that person is immediately written out of the will if he loses the contest, and completely forfeits his or her inheritance. Such a provision existed in Conrad’s will. As always, he wanted his word on the matter to be final. Therefore, if Francesca were to lose her case, she would end up with nothing, not even the $100,000 Conrad Hilton had left to her.