Oh, I know all the red flags, Dante, and normally, they’d point me in the very same direction the majority here is in. Something about my gut instinct, though, and how things have been reported in the media, plus my formed opinions way, way before Daniel died— I puzzle myself, sometimes,lol!
For one thing, I’ve always seen Howard as more or less unimportant. I’ve no doubt he was very important to Anna and she trusted him. I’m also sure they didn’t always get along, like any brother/sister, husband/wife, etc. I just can’t see him as a, say, John Gotti-type figure, a Rasputin, a Kennedy, who has that kind of power and influence and money to coerce and manipulate and control others. Howard Stern just isn’t that all important to anyone now, except his own family. I’ve never considered him to be a strong man.
As to the paternity issue, that was Anna’s thing up until the day she died. After that, it really didn’t take too long in the scheme of things to get that settled. Sure, Howard advised her and helped her. That was his role.
As to him saying nasty things about Virgie, recently-well, I didn’t think they were that nasty, compared to stuff she’s said about him, and being human, I’ll give them both leeway on that. Can you imagine trying to keep emotions in check for months, after going what both have been through? Don’t think I could.
“As to the paternity issue, that was Anna’s thing up until the day she died. After that, it really didn’t take too long in the scheme of things to get that settled. Sure, Howard advised her and helped her. That was his role.”
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I don’t exactly agree with you that the ‘paternity’ was Anna’s thing’, because I believe that Howard FED Anna’s insecurities about Larry before she even left LA, and I believe he continued to feed her insecurities about Larry AND her own insecurities about her drug use (all while he and Dr. Kris were increasing the amount of drugs she was taking)!
I wish I could have your same impartial, optimism about HKS, but I just cannot. I believe that if the majority of the population were put in Howard’s position, your assumptions would be correct, but I believe Howard is in the .1 percentile of the population. I will agree with you that he was definitely Anna’s lackey and she didn’t treat him very well. I believe he took it as long as he could, and then things happened that made him feel he’d had enough! I think one of the reasons he’d had enough is because he was aware of at least 3 pregnancies that occurred since he came into her life (not by him, obviously), and she miscarried all 3 of those babies. I am not sure that all of those miscarriages were accidental, and I don’t mean that Anna caused them either! I think when Anna got pregnant with Larry’s baby that was the absolute last straw for HKS! He had ‘put up with her shit’ and fought his ass off so that she (and HE) would get a ‘substantial part’ of the Marshall fortune for so long and he was not going to have some man come in and ‘take it away from him’! Because, in his mind, he had ‘earned’ it and in some way, he had ‘earned’ the right to tell her what to do as well!
I think you’ve stated that you believe that KE is in some way responsible for Anna’s death. I will say that I agree with you there. I also believe that if HKS and KE never met, things may be different. But, the fact is, they did meet, and somewhere along the way, they did something ‘deadly’.