Trouble Helmsley Dies At Age 12

One of the world's wealthiest animals, Trouble Helmsley, has died at her Florida estate at the age of 12.

Leona Helmsley's pampered pooch "Trouble," who inherited $12 million from the real estate mogul, has died at the age of 12. That's 84 in dog years. Like many Americans, the pampered Maltese retired to Florida in 2007, shortly after Helmsley died. Carl Lekic, the general manager of the Helmsley Sandcastle hotel in Sarasota, cared for her. "Trouble was cremated, and her remains are being privately retained," spokeswoman Eileen Sullivan said. "The funds held in trust for her care have reverted to The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust for charitable purposes."

Trouble had reportedly received more than 20 kidnapping and death threats over the years.

Morning View - Helmsley Building

Built in 1929 as the New York Central Railroad Building, it was purchased in the 80's by the Helmsleys. "Queen Of Mean" Leona later stipulated that all future owners of the building must keep its Helmsley name. In 2006 the Helmsley was purchased for $705M by the royal family of Dubai, who sold it one year later to Goldman Sachs for $1B. Flip this house. The building just completed a $100M green retrofit which included replacing all of its windows with double-paned glass.

Leona'$ Be$t Friend$

Remember all the hullabaloo about Leona Helmsley leaving $12M for the care of her bitey little Maltese, Trouble? Well, that's just puppy chow compared to what Helmsley's estate may providing for the dogs of America.

According to unnamed insiders, from $5-$8 billion dollars, her entire estate, has been left for the "care and welfare of dogs" in a mission statement to her charitable trust. That amount is more than 10 times the total annual budgets of the over 7000 animal welfare groups in the nation. Lawyer types say that Helmley's directive may not be legally binding, but that courts tend to favor the intent of the deceased.

The most unliked billionaire in the history of New York may just end up with in the "good" column yet.

Meanie Dearest

Apparently directly quoting Joan Crawford, mean queen to the end Leona Helmsley leaves nothing in her will to two of her grandchildren "for reasons that are known to them." Two of her other grandchildren will get $5M each, but her dog, a Maltese named Trouble, gets $12 million. Helmsley's brother gets a few mil, but only if he takes care of the dog and she also tossed $100K to her chauffeur. The remainder of her billions will go to a charitable trust set in her and late husband's name.

Helmsley's will also stipulates that upon his death, Trouble will be interred in the mausoleum that she shares with her late husband and that the crypt be "washed or steam-cleaned at least once a year", for which she bequested anther $3M. Years ago she had her husband's remains removed from its original location when she learned that new, bigger, fancier mausoleum was going up next to theirs.

Queen Of Mean Dead At 87

Leona Helmsley, the anti-gay billionaire "queen of mean", died today at 87. Aside from having gone to prison for tax evasion, you may recall Helmsley losing a discrimination lawsuit after firing the gay manager of her Park Lane hotel. The manager, Charles Bell, won over $11M but the judgment was later reduced to $554,000. Bell told the court that when he was fired, Helmsley told him, "You know why this is happening. It has nothing to do with your business acumen." The most famous quote from Helmsley: "Only the little people pay taxes."

RELATED: Bell's 2001 firing occured shortly after Helmsley freaked out upon seeing a large group of gay men in leather in the lobby of the Park Lane. Black Party weekend of that year, I happened to be in the Park Lane to visit a group of friends from Fort Lauderdale who were staying as Bell's guests. I've always wondered if we were the ones that triggered the whole mess.