Empty Mansions

by Bill Dedman

  The Corcoran’s president and director, David C. Levy, wrote with concern to Huguette’s half-great-grandniece, Carla Hall Friedman. After giving $1 million over the decade of the 1990s, Huguette had stopped, cold turkey. Her donation for 2003: $1,000. Carla, a great-granddaughter of Huguette’s half-sister Katherine, was a member of a Corcoran committee, an informal advocate for the W. A. Clark Collection. She had never met Huguette, though she lived in Manhattan, but they knew of each other. Huguette had been a bridesmaid for Carla’s grandmother and had sent Carla a wedding present of money back in the 1970s, to which Carla replied with a thank-you note, of course. Carla had sent Christmas cards to Huguette, and Carla’s mother, Erika Hall, had spoken with Huguette on the phone, and sent flowers at Christmas.

  Huguette’s relatives were beginning to be concerned about more than her declining support of the Corcoran. Agnes Albert, Huguette’s niece, had told her children before she died in 2002 that attorney Bock had rudely told her that she was not to contact Huguette directly anymore. After years of warm relations with Anna and Huguette, Agnes was shocked by this, her children say. Agnes had warned that Huguette must be “in bad hands.” Bock said he doesn’t recall this conversation, but his instructions from Huguette hadn’t changed: Don’t give out her number, don’t say where she is, and take a message, no matter who is calling.

  Similarly, cousin Paul Newell’s contacts with Huguette ended abruptly. In March 2004, she invited him to make a private visit to Bellosguardo, and then he never heard from her again. Their last conversation had been as friendly as ever, and he said she sounded in good health and good spirits. He continued to call Bock as before, asking for Huguette to return the call. He heard nothing. He grew suspicious, thinking that either she had fallen ill or their communications were being blocked. Attorney Bock’s time logs show that he continued to pass on Newell’s messages.

  Bock denies blocking anyone. Huguette was free to make any phone calls she wanted from her hospital room. He said he merely explained to the relatives that Huguette had gone into a reclusive phase, that she seemed to be returning fewer calls. His guess was that she was embarrassed about her worsening hearing loss, and at age ninety-seven she was no longer comfortable talking on the phone. This also was during the time when Huguette was wrestling with the decision about moving from Beth Israel North to South, but of course the relatives knew none of this. They didn’t even know she was in a hospital.

  The Corcoran’s director, Levy, wrote to Carla, warning that the attorney could be blocking Huguette from making donations. The Corcoran and the relatives were unaware that Huguette’s unbridled generosity to individuals had caused her cash-poor situation. Levy warned darkly that something “insidious” might be going on. Carla offered to help the Corcoran. Though Carla expressed to her family that she was appalled by the Gehry plan, she offered to write to Huguette to talk it up, stressing how it would make room for more of her father’s art to be displayed. Carla speculated to Levy that her elderly aunt probably had “little or no understanding” of Gehry’s post-structuralist design.

  IN CONVERSATION WITH HUGUETTE

  Huguette told me that she had indeed studied Gehry’s design but wasn’t pleased with the way it clashed with the traditional Corcoran building and the Clark Wing. She said, “I think it’s kind of fussy.”

  The Gehry plan was in trouble. “Barring the emergence of an angel bearing $100 million,” The Washington Post reported, “it appears that the Corcoran’s Gehry dream is unlikely to come true.” Huguette would not be that angel. The Corcoran board scuttled the Gehry plan in 2005, and Levy resigned. Losing millions each year, the museum laid off staff, closed two days a week, and began to sell off some of the W. A. Clark Collection, including his prized majolica and Persian rugs, and other treasures from Huguette’s childhood home.

  • • •

  A new idea for cultivating ties to the Clark family came from the Corcoran’s new director, Paul Greenhalgh, who offered to host a proposed Clark family reunion. It was at this reunion the relatives learned about criminal charges against Huguette’s accountant.

  More than seventy-five members of the family gathered at the Corcoran in October 2008, including descendants not only of the senator but also of his siblings. It was less a reunion than an introduction: Most of the far-flung relatives had never met. They arrived from France, England, California, New York. There were Republicans and Democrats and independents, Protestants and Catholics, Jews and Buddhists and atheists. Two had been classmates at the same prep school without knowing they were cousins.

  It was a grand affair. The Clark relatives bonded as they toured the Salon Doré, studied Boutet de Monvel’s six paintings of Joan of Arc from W.A.’s billiard room, and posed for photos with W. A. Clark by standing with his portrait by William Merritt Chase.

  They also heard a presentation from a Clark-friendly graduate student who had written his master’s thesis on the wrongs that history had done to W.A.’s reputation. The scholar assured the Clarks that the senator had never been convicted of a crime and hadn’t been thrown out of the Senate but had resigned—all true, but skirting the less pleasant part of the story. His Senate trial, the Clark relatives were told, had been a parody of justice and jurisprudence. Clark’s reputation had suffered, the scholar assured them, because Roman Catholic religious fervor colored the accounts of historians, who sided with the Irish Catholic Marcus Daly over the Scotch-Irish Presbyterian Clark. And besides, the scholar explained, all elections on the frontier were bizarre. The presentation was focused on burnishing, not examining, their relative’s legacy.

  Huguette was often mentioned. Carla had written to her, through attorney Bock, seeking $22,000 to pay the costs of the reunion, and Huguette had sent $10,000 for the steak banquet. Carla made effusive remarks thanking Huguette. Large photos of her and Andrée were included in a display. Many of the Clarks signed a card for her.

  “Dear Tante Huguette,” wrote Ian Clark Devine, her half-great-grandnephew. “Thank you for helping the whole family gather for the first time. A glorious weekend. Merci.”

  None of this was enough for Huguette’s invited representative at the reunion, her accountant, Irving Kamsler. He made a scene, complaining to Carla that insufficient attention was being paid to Huguette’s status as the senior family member. He made quite an impression.

  After the second day of the reunion, one relative shared with others the headline she found when she typed Kamsler’s name into Google: “Porno sting nabs temple president.”

  Irving H. Kamsler had been arrested on September 6, 2007, in Nassau County, New York. He had resigned his position as president of his Reform Jewish synagogue in the affluent Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx. The fifteen-count indictment alleged that on five different days in 2005 and 2007, when he was between fifty-eight and sixty years old, he had tried to entice a thirteen-year-old girl and two fifteen-year-old girls via AOL instant messaging, describing sex acts and saying he wanted to meet with them for sex. Kamsler was using the AOL screen names Taxirv and IRV1040 (from his first name, Irv, and the accountant’s usual tool, the IRS income tax form).

  The thirteen-year-old was not, as IRV1040 soon learned, a middle-school-aged girl who wanted to date sixtyish accountants. She was an adult, volunteering as an investigator for the Long Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. The fifteen-year-old girls were adult investigators from the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office.

  Kamsler was indicted on six felony counts of attempting to disseminate indecent material to minors and nine misdemeanor counts of attempting to endanger the welfare of a child. He admitted to police that he was IRV1040 and that he had discussed sex acts, but he said he had thought he was in an adult chat room and was just “pretending” to talk with girls. Although at first he pleaded not guilty, Kamsler changed his plea to guilty on September 29, 2008. That was less than a month before he represented Huguette at the Clark reunion, while he was awaiting sentencing.

&n
bsp; • • •

  One of the relatives found something else on the Web. An estate lawyer in New Jersey posted on her blog a note about her friend, Irving Kamsler. At that time, the tax laws were in flux, with the estate tax scheduled to expire at the end of 2009 if Congress didn’t step in. The topic was being discussed by every estate professional in the country: If a person died in 2008 or 2009, his or her estate faced a top tax rate of 45 percent. But if the person could hold out until 2010, the estate might pay nothing. That made 2010, or so the joke went, the perfect year to die. From the Web posting, it appeared that Kamsler had an idea how to put this joke into practice. The estate lawyer wrote:

  On that note, the other day I was talking to Irving Kamsler, a terrific CPA friend of mine, who shared some out-of-the-box thinking on a transaction he had done for a client.… My CPA friend had suggested that, as part of the planning process, the client should amend his health care directive/living will to provide that the client be kept alive by any artificial means necessary … thereby ensuring as much as possible that the appreciation on the assets would not be includible in his estate. As my friend and I continued talking, our thoughts turned to 2010, and the possibility of counseling clients to include similar language in their current health care directives instruction that they be kept alive by any means necessary until January 1, 2010 (or maybe a few days later, just to be safe). This would effectively permit a client to achieve maximum estate tax savings, assuming the client might otherwise pass away before 2010.

  The Clark relatives were unsettled. What sort of financial adviser would suggest such a strategy? What would W. A. Clark think if he knew that his youngest child’s affairs were in the hands of such a man?

  They had just signed a card for their dear 102-year-old Tante Huguette. But now they wondered, what if she were brain dead and hooked to a machine just to “achieve maximum estate tax savings”?

  “WE NEED NOT APOLOGIZE”

  THE CLARK FAMILY BEGAN to mobilize. Some consulted a lawyer about cases of elder abuse. Others looked up property records. They learned that Huguette’s Connecticut home was on the market. As Carla wrote, “I feel like we are all playing CLUE!”

  They went back to Huguette’s attorney repeatedly, having different relatives make attempts to get information, but he maintained her privacy. Bock told them she was healthy and lucid, in “amazing” condition for 102. He said they could send letters or photos to him, or they could send mail to her Fifth Avenue address if they liked.

  Bock’s time logs back up his story that he was doing what Huguette wanted. “11/26/08: Telephone call from HMC re: letter about Carla Hall email. Will not call Carla. Doesn’t want to be involved with family at all. Handle as best I can. Verified with Hadassah and Chris.”

  The family by this time had figured out that Huguette was at Beth Israel, though they had no idea of the cancer that had originally caused her to go to the hospital. Her half-grandnephew André Baeyens had heard through Madame Pierre that she was at Doctors Hospital, which had become part of Beth Israel. One phone call to Beth Israel’s main hospital told them that she was on the third floor there. Not so hidden after all.

  Carla knew she was taking a risk going to the hospital. On December 6, she wrote to the Corcoran’s director, whom she was keeping informed, “I feel it is important to continue my relationship with Bock because the more we can interact, the more the information seeps out. To confront him right now would not serve our investigation. And it could alienate Huguette.”

  • • •

  The next day, Carla went down to Beth Israel anyway, along with her cousin Ian Devine. They had only recently realized they were cousins, after working together as marketing experts for the same corporate clients, even sending their children to the same school. Ian lived a mile away from Huguette but had never met her: A mile in crowded Manhattan can be a great distance. He recalled sending a couple of holiday cards to Huguette in the 1970s but said he got no reply. He is a wealth management consultant, describing his expertise as helping families “prepare for the responsibilities of wealth,” “create connections among the next generations,” and “build sustainable family structures for communication and collaboration.”

  At Beth Israel, the two amateur detectives naturally looked for Huguette first in the “deluxe patient care unit,” which offers luxury suites and gourmet meals for higher-paying patients. Huguette was not in this VIP section, which is named for the chairman of the board, the shipbuilder Morton Hyman, who had been meeting with Huguette to seek her donations. Instead, the nurses sent them down the hall to the drab 3 Karpas.

  Carla and Ian spoke with the weekend nurse, Christie Ysit, who told them that Huguette was asleep. Carla asked to be able to give Huguette a blessing, and the nurse allowed them inside the darkened room. Carla and Ian stood at the foot of Huguette’s bed. The shades were drawn, but in the dim light they could see a small Christmas tree. They saw no machines, no artificial life support, nothing out of the ordinary—aside from their wealthy aunt asleep in this sparse room. Carla recalled, “She was sleeping peacefully in her bed.” They left after about a minute.

  In the hallway, nurse Christie told them that Huguette was alert, of normal mental and conversational ability, and healthy enough to walk without assistance. She said Huguette was in control of her affairs, knew of the family reunion, but didn’t want anyone to know she lived at the hospital. To find out anything more, she said, they’d have to come back the next day, when Hadassah would be there.

  The next day, Ian and Carla arrived at the room bearing flowers. They were met in the hallway by an angry and agitated Hadassah Peri, who insisted they leave immediately. They heard Huguette call out to Hadassah, asking something they couldn’t quite make out. Hadassah insisted they leave, and they did.

  Though they hadn’t talked with Huguette, Carla and Ian said they had succeeded in their mission. Ian wrote to the family:

  Our impression is that she is as healthy as can be expected for a 102-year-old. She seems to receive adequate care.… All in all, our impression was that Tante Huguette is well and, according to her caregiver, displays a level of mental and conversational ability that is normal for a woman her age.… The attendants seemed open, honest and reliable, and both care genuinely for Madame Clark.… After speaking with the attendants, we believe that Tante Huguette is mentally competent and capable of making her own decisions.… Huguette seems to have chosen on her own not to continue to have relationships with her relatives. She is comfortable with her attendants, her lawyer and accountant, and does not wish to be contacted by others.

  The nurse’s notes in the medical chart show that the night before the first visit, Huguette was “alert and very responsive.” After she heard about the visit, she was “agitated and not oriented to time” and kept asking if it was bedtime. Dr. Singman called in an order for Ambien, a sedative. Early the next morning, before the second visit, she again was disoriented and delusional (perhaps a side effect of the Ambien) and sat on the floor of her room while being helped to the bathroom, apparently thinking she had reached the bathroom.

  Hadassah wrote in the chart that Huguette called Suzanne Pierre twice after the visits “stating to respect her privacy and not to divulge any information to her family members which she never see these people in her entire life. It’s only now they are trying so hard to get too close to Madame which Madame was so upset about all their inquiries.”

  Hadassah and Huguette both called Bock to complain about the visits. “Telephone call from Mrs. Clark,” Bock’s logs show. “Make sure none of her money goes to any one in her family. Wants to make sure that Hadassah gets the $5 M she promised her.” Inside Huguette’s hospital room, the family visits weren’t seen as expressions of concern but as attempts to get her money.

  Bock sent Carla a stern warning to stay away from Huguette. “Neither she nor I understood your reasons in attempting to meet with her. Whatever the reasons she asks that it not be repeated either by you or any othe
r ‘well meaning’ family members. If this conduct persists she has instructed me to arrange with the hospital administration to have any further intruders removed by security.” Carla met with Bock, who tried to reassure her that Huguette was well cared for. In his office, Carla wrote out an apology to Huguette. Bock passed it on.

  Ian Devine reassured his cousins, “We need not apologize” for the visit. “It was motivated solely by love and concern for her well-being; it was our familial obligation to determine for ourselves her health and happiness.”

  A day later, Hadassah wrote in the chart that Huguette was relaxed, “in very good mood. Asking about my family and what kind of weather we’re having.”

  • • •

  The family was still concerned about Kamsler, who was awaiting sentencing. Bock assured them that Kamsler was never alone with Huguette. Still, the family pressed Bock to force Kamsler to resign as her accountant. Bock said Kamsler worked for Huguette, not for him.

  Kamsler reached a plea deal with the prosecutor, pleading guilty in January 2009 to a single felony: attempting to disseminate indecent material to minors. He got no jail time, five years of probation, a $5,000 fine, one hundred hours of community service, and a listing on the state’s registry of sex offenders.

  The felon was allowed to continue working as a certified public accountant. At first the judge on Long Island said in court that a felony conviction would result in the loss of Kamsler’s license. But Kamsler’s attorney said this was not a financial crime and Kamsler should be allowed to make a living. It was his first contact with the criminal justice system, and he was in treatment with a clinical social worker specializing in sex therapy. His attorney also told the judge that it was important that Kamsler was not accused of meeting with the girls, though the record showed that Kamsler had indeed proposed such meetings. The district attorney didn’t take a position for or against Kamsler’s request, and the judge granted him a “relief from civil disabilities,” which state officials interpreted as sufficient to let him keep his CPA license after he served three months of a two-year license suspension and paid a $2,500 fine.