Anna Nicole Smith
Money & misery, yes, but murder?
J Howard Marshall II apparently died happy. Almost no one else in his family had that privilege.
When Howie met Anna, something clicked.
She was young, gorgeous and curvy.
He was not young. But he had other appealing features. Actually, one appealing feature. He was, in a word, rich. In two words, stinking rich.
Anna Nicole Smith was 26. J Howard Marshall II was 89. He was also a billionaire. Their marriage lasted a year, ending with his death in 1995.
Smith and Marshall's son, E Pierce Marshall, quarreled over his will in a series of legal disputes that outlived both of them. A decade after Marshall Senior's death, his son died (2006) of natural causes. He was 67. In the same year, Nicole Smith's son from a previous marriage, Daniel, died from a drug overdose. He was 20 years old. Two years later, a drug overdose claimed his mother. She was 39.
Although all of the litigants are dead, their lawyers are still fighting it out in court. The most recent decision ( March 2010) went against Anna Nicole's estate.
Sugargreatgreatdaddy
For Anna Nicole Smith, 1992 was a very good year. Playboy named the stripper and model for its coveted Playmate of the Year award, and one of her performances had been attended by billionaire businessman J Howard Marshall II. He liked what he saw.
That same year was also important for Marshall, his family, and his future wife. In that year, he made his final will.
Smith is not mentioned in his will and, indeed, he may have drafted it before before he met her. But he did not add her subsequently, either in a new will or a codicil.
Nor does he leave anything to J. Howard Marshall III, his older son. He left his estate to his younger son, E Pierce Marshall.
Marshall and Smith tied the knot in June 1994 at a drive-in wedding chapel in Houston, Texas. He had been married twice before, and Smith once.
She was 26. He was 89. Of course he was old enough to be her father. In fact, separated by 64 years, he was old enough to be her great-grandfather. Marshall made it to 90, dying in 1995, a little more than a year after their wedding.
After he died, Smith claimed that her husband had promised her half of his estate.
Marshall's older son Howard also claimed that his father had promised him a chunk of the estate.
Smith and Pierce Marshall started duking it out in court right after the elder Marshall's death.
In one filing, Smith declared bankruptcy and a court awarded her $474 million. In another, a decision regarding court jurisdiction went all the way to the US Supreme Court, which gave victory to Smith in that it allowed her to continue her legal fight.
In 2006 Anna gave birth to a daughter, Dannielynn. The father, at least on the birth certificate, was Howard K Stern, a lawyer.
In the March 2010 decision, three appeals court judges ruled unanimously that the entire estate should go to the Pierce Marshall estate. This decision goes against Howard Marshall as well as the Smith estate.
Murder mysteries
Did Anna Nicole Smith conspire to commit murder? Was she herself a murder victim?
On the first question, the FBI received information that Smith had allegedly urged a friend in 2000 to do away with Pierce Marshall. The FBI launched an investigation and, from what I can gather, determined that Smith may have entered murder fantasies while high on drugs - fantasies which wore off as the drugs did. The FBI questioned Smith herself and confiscated a gun and knife but ultimately uncovered no evidence of a murder plot. No charges were ever filed.
Smith's own death, from a cocktail of nine different medications, is a different matter.
No one has been charged with her murder. However, in later October 2009, a California judge ordered three people to stand trial for conspiring to illegally provide controlled substances, and to provide them to an addict. The three are Smith's friend/lawyer Howard K Stern, doctor Sandeep Kapoor, and psychiatrist Khristine Eroshevich.
Although listed as the father of Anna's daughter Dannielynn, Smith was not a DNA match. Another former boyfriend of Anna Nicole Smith, Larry Birkhead was declared the father.
